How do Australian universities market STEM courses in YouTube videos?

Universities are no longer limited to traditional media platforms for recruitment advertising; increasingly, institutions are using online videos and social media to promote themselves locally and internationally. We analysed a sample of 81 YouTube videos that promote Science, Technology, Engineerin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marketing for higher education 2019-07, Vol.29 (2), p.191-208
Main Authors: Mwenda, Amanda Bridget, Sullivan, Miriam, Grand, Ann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising
Alumni
Colleges & universities
Content Analysis
Disproportionate Representation
Educational Experience
Ethnic Groups
Foreign Countries
Gender Differences
higher education
Labor Market
Marketing
Social Media
Social networks
STEM
STEM Education
Student Recruitment
Universities
Video marketing
Video Technology
Web Sites
YouTube
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Summary:Universities are no longer limited to traditional media platforms for recruitment advertising; increasingly, institutions are using online videos and social media to promote themselves locally and internationally. We analysed a sample of 81 YouTube videos that promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses in 40 Australian universities. We used quantitative content analysis to examine gender and ethnic representations, and qualitative content analysis to inductively find marketing themes. Videos used on the websites of both established and younger Australian universities had almost equal numbers of women and men. Students (including alumni) were the most common speakers in videos. However, representation of non-Caucasians remained low. Of the 17 reoccurring themes identified, Course Experience and Labour Market were most common. The lack of clear unique selling propositions was a key weakness across all videos. Overall, video content from Australian STEM faculties rarely went beyond vague platitudes and generally lacked specific STEM content.
ISSN:0884-1241
1540-7144
DOI:10.1080/08841241.2019.1633004