Marketing strategies that can increase enrolment rate in Institutions of Higher Learning: A Case of Private Universities in Kenya

Abstract

University Education in Kenya has experienced tremendous growth in the last decade due to rising number of students seeking post secondary school education. A mismatch between capacity in public university and the number of students, who directly qualify, result in a number of students to seek admission in private universities while some still find admission in public universities as privately sponsored students. It is important for private universities to have up-to-date knowledge and information regarding marketing strategies to adopt in order to attract and enroll a good number of students. This study is aimed at identifying marketing strategies that could be applied by private universities so as to attract and enroll students utilizing a 5-year period data from 2006-2010. Descriptive research design was adopted in the study. Probability-simple random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 98 continuing undergraduate students and 28 employees from two private universities in Kenya and a questionnaire was used as the research instrument. The collected data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings indicate that advertising using an institution web site, advertising using the various media stations, use of social networks such as Facebook, encouraging word-of-mouth, career fair involvement, open day on campus and alumni support are marketing strategies that can offer opportunity to attract and increase enrolment of students.