The Impact of a Positive Visualisation Course in Brand Identity on Freshmen Students’ Perceptions of University Brand Image

With the rapid commercialisation of higher education (HE) and universities’ growing competition over recruiting students, branding is becoming increasingly important for HE institutes. Despite the continuous emphasis on its significance, understanding university branding has received little scholarly attention. Therefore, in order to address this gap, this study examined the impact of a positive visualisation course in brand identity on students’ perceptions of university brand image. Employing grounded theory along with an experimental design, qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 42 freshmen students of the European University Cyprus. The research findings indicated that the positive visualisation course in brand identity can enhance students’ perceptions of their university’s brand image. This study contributes to the existing literature by presenting an inductively generated theoretical model that can guide future research on the associations between a positive visualisation course in brand identity and (prospective) students’ perceptions of a university’s brand image.