Corporate Reputation Management of Swedish Universities in Marketing Perspective - An Example of Lund University

Sweden was one of the most popular countries where many non-European students chose as the destination to study. However, since the introduction of tuition fees in the autumn of 2011, there has been a major reduction of enrolment in the total number of non-European students. Approximately all Swedish universities had a 33% decrease in the number of foreign students in 2011. However, Lund University had the smallest decrease of foreign students; only 18% compared with the other Swedish universities. Therefore, This thesis aims to explore the marketing promotion tactics model used by Lund University in order to generate potential non-European applicants and minimize the negative impact of the tuition fee policy. By categorizing and analyzing the marketing promotion strategies that help Lund University to maintain and improve its corporate reputation after the introduction of tuition fees, there are suggestions of different marketing promotion strategies for three major types of Swedish universities, comprehensive universities, specialized universities and university colleges, in order to minimize the negative impact of charging tuition fee policy.Furthermore, these marketing promotion strategies can also be adapted by universities in other countries to better manage their corporate reputation in order to attract more perspective applicants.