Student's perceived university image is an antecedent of university reputation

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of student’s perceived university image on the reputation of university. Higher education institutions are using different marketing methods to attract students. Social media is one of that marketing tools through which student have perceived an image about university. This perceived image makes an expectation about university in the minds of students. If these expectations are fulfilled by university then students shows their loyalty towards university and give positive feedbacks and recommendations about university. This positive recommendation will have a positive impact on university reputation. Image has been used usually in place of reputation but both of them are two different ideas, in spite of the fact that these two are interrelated constructs. The knowledge among students is still very limited on the topic of similarities and differences between image and reputation. A total number of 250 questionnaires were distributed to international students, selected using proportional random sampling technique, at five research public Malaysian universities. Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the collected data, assess the model and test hypotheses. The findings show that the student’s perceived university image influence university reputation through mediating role of student satisfaction. The university image- reputation model of higher education institutes created by this study could justify and predict the consequences of university image and satisfaction of higher education institutes on university students’ word-of-mouth behavior and university reputation, and it could function as the criteria for promoting effective marketing strategies of higher education institutes.