University Branding in Azerbaijan : Empirical Study of Students’ Choices for Education

Under the intense global and national competition, Azerbaijani universities began branding initiatives to position and differentiate themselves to be the first choice of students. In recent years, both state and private universities in Azerbaijani have been implementing branding and re-branding strategies to attract more students and distinguish themselves in a crowded higher education market. University branding is a recent concept to Azerbaijan, so lacks academic and empirical studies in regard to the impact on Azerbaijani students’ university selection choices. The aim of this article is to present exploratory research using survey data collected from four private and public universities in Azerbaijan. It compares criteria used by university students when selecting a particular university from among those that they made application and their views of the university they attended. The study reveals that there are a variety of criteria that Azerbaijani students consider when applying for university. However, there is both economically and statistically significance of the existence of active students clubs/unions in a university as important criteria that influence students first choice for university selection. The study also showed that mostly friends/family, and to a lesser extent, university visits play important role in obtaining information about a university among Azerbaijani students. The research findings should be useful for higher education institutions to review and enhance branding strategies that promote their international positioning and help the sustainable development of Azerbaijan universities. As it is the first research conducted in this field in a dynamic country like Azerbaijan, it should also interest foreign higher education institutions that wish to recruit Azerbaijani students