Marketing Communication Management of Higher Education Institutions

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how marketing communication (MC) activities are managed at public universities and their economics faculties in the Czech Republic. The main emphasis is placed on the process of planning and control. The further aim is to identify the main issues in this field. It will also seek to specify new marketing communication tools for use in higher education (HE) in the future. This paper is based on qualitative research, whereby management and communications staff working for marketing departments at higher educational institutions were questioned by way of an individual structured interview. The results are summarised and elaborated on in written and tabular form. The qualitative research revealed that many Czech universities do not have a systematic management procedure for marketing communication planning and control. Furthermore, there are several areas in the marketing communication management of higher educational institutions which should be substantially improved upon. These primarily include higher involvement of professionals such as marketing experts from the private sector; implementation of market orientation tools; more widespread use of integrated marketing communications etc.