City Branding in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions:A Conceptual Review

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have been gaining political power and proximity in cities all around the world since the industrial revolution initiated in the 19th century. Due to high demand in a very competitive globalized knowledge economic sector, HEI sector has transformed into a commodity and is interdependent with the global market. The vast economic outburst has also resulted HEI to be associated with a myriad of business sector including tourism industry through an array of knowledge-based enterprises such as academic conferences, arts and sport festivals and other multitudes of academic mobility events. HEI has also spurted a local economic catalyst contributing to job creations both directly and indirectly. HEI have been represented by education-marketers as a place for the amalgamation of intellectual development and sensorial experiences through various visual consumptions. This trend also signifies the convergence and depolarisation of work and leisure whereby prospective students intends to study at a place that would also provide some recreational values. Hence, this study aims to contribute to a conceptual understanding of the field HEI and City Branding by evaluating previous works on Edu-tourism and branding. Secondary data are gathered from various sources and it is concluded that despite Malaysia being one of the most known and visited countries in South East Asia with a vast number of international students enrolled in the country, there are still many domains and areas that have yet to be tapped to its fullest potential to create a more robust and cohesive city branding efforts in line with HEI growth.