1

Modern ways to build good reputation and high recruitment.

Case study : Polish Universities

Introduction
The dominant belief that universities are entities that should finance their activities, as well as
other entities present on the market, means that all marketing and image techniques that can
provide this state have become everyday management in the university. Sometimes,
universities are subsidized by the state to some extent, and the amount of this subsidy is
associated with complicated calculations1, but generally does not exceed - as in the case of
higher education in Poland, 50 percent of the total annual costs of doing business, and the
final amount depends on many elements, including cost intensity, number of students, scale of
scientific research, etc.
The emergence of electronic media, and shortly thereafter social media, has given very wide
opportunities to create new forms of promotion for universities around the world. And
although the elite universities on individual continents oscillate within the same dozens of
universities, the significant advancement of many of them in the global rankings is worth
noting. To a large extent, this is due to a very efficient use of electronic tools, but also
traditional forms are gaining in importance as a result of increasing professionalization of
actions, extensive research into target groups and specialized public relations techniques. For
example, more and more attention has been paid to consistency all university materials
addressed to the international market when it was discovered that a few small graphic
“peculiarities” were enough to prevent the essence of the promotional message from reaching
a potential student from another cultural area (Zimnak 2018:129).
Many researchers around the world have devoted their attention to higher education
marketing for years (for example, Hayes in the early 1990s and modern Lowrie research); it is
also the object of interest for specialists in the marketing and public relations line of business
as well as for bloggers gaining mainly practical experience, but also theoretical knowledge
(Mattis).

In highly integrated global economy, in which many companies operate across national
borders, the strategy is by nature an international matter. Some theorists ignore the
international arena as irrelevant, uninteresting or too complex, but most theorists, especially

1
Regulation of the Minister of Science and Higher Education of February 2012 on the rules for the distribution
of subsidies from the state budget for public and private universities: http://www.bip.nauka.gov.pl/
 2

those interested in the content of the strategy, recognize the importance of the international
context and write extensively about international competition and global strategy (De Wit). It
is mentioned here for a reason. Few texts from this part of the university world can be found
in international science publications. Therefore, it may be worthwhile to confront
observations regarding such a competitive area of economy from time to time. And although
Poland records only 16 positions in the first thousand universities in the world, this parameter
is growing every year (QS World University Ranking). Is this situation also influenced by
modern marketing tools and what is this influence? We will try to answer this question.
Several dozen of the best promotional and information campaigns created at Polish
universities over the years after 2010 have been chosen as a research area; the typology of
these campaigns has been proposed, their place and role among stakeholders as well as the
scope and impact have been analyzed. This resource seems worth confronting with similar
activities elsewhere in the world.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, universities in Poland have been increasingly
investing in staff professionally involved in promotion, image creation, creating relationships
with the outside world as well as managing internal communication. These processes are to
ensure such a position for a university in the academic world at the international or national
level that allows for improvement of the image and reputation in the face of identified threats.
The demographic decline is just one of many (Antonowicz, Gorlewski 2011).

Figure 1. The forecast of the number of people aged 19-24 in 2011-2020

Source: Central Statistical Office Republic of Poland

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This phenomenon is not indifferent to recruitment processes around the world. While some
question the value of branding in the higher education sector, in the Canadian community, for
example, it has been suggested that the demographic trend in smaller social groups causes
higher education institutions to increase their branding activity (Pringle, Fritz 2019:22).

The intense increase in the number of private universities at the turn of the century meant that
they began to compete with one another. Shortly thereafter, they also competed with public
universities, which in turn was influenced by the second factor - a smaller group of people
wanting to study. After 2010, the first symptoms of a reduction in the number of private
universities were observed due to their bankruptcy or consolidation into larger organisms, for
example, the creation of network universities with many extension divisions. Despite the
shrinking number of students, some types of universities are still increasing their enrollment.
This category includes, first of all, universities in the largest urban centers, medical colleges
and universities subordinate to the Minister of National Defense. The third factor limiting
recruitment was Poland's accession to the European Union - it widely opened the door to
foreign studies for Polish young people, although it had already been half-open thanks to
various international exchange programs (wprost.pl). The abolition of compulsory military
service probably also had an impact on the declining number of people interested in studying
immediately after graduating from high school - studies ceased to be a place of escape from
this controversial social commitment.
As a ubiquitous and democratic source of information from the last decade- social media, has
been widely accepted by marketers as a viable marketing tool. This also applies to universities
where social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, prove to be an
effective tool to engage potential and current students, graduates and other supporters and
donors (Lund). For several years, therefore, several hundred promotional teams in Poland 2
have prepared information and promotional campaigns, managed the university media,
created the images of universities, created a message for the internal and external world, and
avoided communication crises, including media crises. All these cases are an opportunity to
demonstrate creative talent (Lucian et al. 2008, 90). PR begins with good media relations. If
the university has something good and interesting to say about itself (new products and
achievements), university specialists start to make sure that each professionally written press
release is available and widely distributed. Of course, it is not the role of the marketer from
2
Between 2006 and 2010, there were about 460 public and private universities in Poland. As a result of several
processes, the most important factor of which seems to be the demographic decline, by 2018 this number
decreased - according to data from POLON system to 350 (95 of them are public universities).
 4

the higher education industry to create graphics, brochures and websites (it is advisable to
limit the ambitions in this matter and whenever possible - leaving it to professionals) (van
Rooijen 2008, 31).

Tens of thousands of such actions - to examine, measure and analyze - appeared in this
period. They constitute an impressive research resource for every management theoretician or
one of the management sub-disciplines - public relations (Thieme). Descriptive
methodologies seem to be a more accurate research tool for the tasks discussed here. It is also
worth trying to approach the topic in a more empirical way. An opportunity for such an
approach is given thanks to analyzing applications for competitions for the best image
promotion projects, namely science, university, faculty, field of study or researcher. This
allows projects to be assessed in terms of impact range, selected technique or thematic area.
And the methodology used, placed between empirical research and case analysis, turns out to
be the only possible one with such an extensive topic (Babbie).
The main thesis, which the author will try to prove in this text, reads as follows: growing
competition among universities has forced management teams to take university marketing as
well as professional promotion and information about the university more seriously (Zimnak
2015). Let us also point out the supporting theses as they should accompany the above thesis:
 promotion teams at universities are hiring better prepared specialists, which allows
them to create projects with a higher degree of professionalism;
 the phenomenon of digitization that changes all the aspects of our life has significantly
increased the level of university promotional projects and strengthened the impact of
these projects;
 the widespread use of social media has both increased the level of professionalization
of created information and promotion campaigns as well as the field of competition
among universities, which has resulted in the increased international recruitment for
universities that use these tools most efficiently.

Figure 2. Ukrainian students in Poland

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Source: : Central Statistical Office, Ministry of High Education

Bulotaite (2003) claims that despite criticism of the value of marketing and branding activities
at universities, university names still have the power to evoke associations, emotions and
images, suggesting that one of the roles of the university and the marketing department is to
build, manage, develop and use these impressions for achieving your own competitive
advantage, emphasizing the importance of choosing and passing on strong brand promises to
external stakeholders.

Materials and methods

At the turn of the century, only few universities in Poland (including University of Warsaw
and University of Gdańsk) had the function of a spokesperson; marketing/promotion/
information offices were nowhere to be found. Today, 3,000-5,000 people work in this
business at Polish universities. In this relatively short time, promotional teams had to learn the
basic tools and techniques useful in their actions. This knowledge originated from several
sources:
(1) Information and promotion departments, spokespersons and their offices have become, at
the universities in Western Europe, centers of memory for these educational institutions about
themselves. They store data about where, what, who, when and in what form said or wrote
about the university. Archiving is their important, but side task. They are primarily a direct
and everyday link between the university and the outside world (media, business,
administration, and society). Thanks to their competences they know how to manage internal
 6

university media and how to neutralize possible media and communication crises. They stand
directly by the university authorities, obtaining full information about the current condition of
the university to be able to support and protect the university in a manner adequate to the
situation. The qualifications of these departments are respected and needed. And it was them
that created the European Universities Public Relations & Information Officers Association
(Euprio.com) in 1986 - an association in which people from many European countries
exchange experience in the field of university marketing. EUPRIO invited colleagues from
Poland to join the group at the beginning of the new century and since then employees of
Polish universities have participated in trainings and conferences every year. It is difficult to
overestimate the impact of EUPRIO on the community of Polish promotion specialists. It can
be said that a certain elitism and fewness of the Polish representation in the European
organization (for purely economic reasons these trips are strongly limited) caused the
increased interest in solutions from abroad. Fortunately, it turned out that Polish specialists
are talented students and today there are no significant differences in the pragmatics of
university teams in Poland and abroad. The proof of this is the fact that a project from Poland,
submitted by PRom Association in 2009 at the conference in Aveiro (Portugal), took the
second place in the annual competition for the best promotional project from the university.
(2) When the first promotional teams were set up at universities between 2001and 2005, the
line of business employing the discussed tools on the most demanding markets - in broadly
understood economy, had already been professionally operating for several years on the
Polish market. The social potential released after deep system changes in 1989, created the
conditions for the emergence of many new business entities. Especially those of them based
on foreign capital efficiently operated public relations tools. These lessons were painful for
Polish business. Often, a Polish product lost to a worse foreign one due to poor
communication with the surrounding world, poor advertising campaigns, and just any
information folders. The differences were blurred quickly due to the active appearance of
public relations agencies offering business assistance, thanks to the migration of specialists
from these agencies to full-time jobs at companies, etc. The multitude of competitions
organized by business media or chambers of commerce caused that some of the campaigns
were widely known and discussed, creating a natural role model. University specialists just
had to select good ideas and adapt them to the university reality.
(3) The digital revolution turned out - from the perspective of the author of this article in
2019/20 - probably the most serious inspiration. At the turn of the century, many universities
already had websites, although many of them gave the user a headache. Communication via
 7

email was also struggling. Its more widespread use began between 2003 and 2005. Marketing
departments were - for natural reasons - the forefront of new communication channels at those
universities where there was excessive respect for traditional forms of communication. The
first promotional and information campaigns were created using websites, the first newsletters
addressed to the internal or external environment were created 3. However, it was only the
emergence of social media after 2010 that gave campaigns organized at universities a
completely new pace. The range, multimedia of the message and the change of the
communication model - the possibility of instant contact between the sender of the message
and its recipient - created the possibility of a different qualitative impact on the surroundings
that had never been seen before. As we will see, many universities have managed to use these
opportunities, sometimes in a model way.

Inspirations
Comparing more offers in order to choose the best one has its history in most civilizations and
does not require special empirical research. The present day has shaped their form mainly in
the fields associated with the concepts of “public tenders”, “design competitions”, “auctions”.
They have the nature of a public promise - the organizer undertakes to hand over a specific
prize for an act or work if they meet certain conditions4.
However, the competitions for which entries are to be analyzed in this text, have a slightly
different character. The appearance of this formula is the result of intensive development of
public relations techniques in Poland, starting from the middle of the 1990s. The game is
about image, and the Polish Business Club as one of the organizers of this type of
competition, awarding special medals to winners, explains the essence of the competition: “In
business, the company's results, market position and reputation, successes in exports,
possession of quality marks and certificates, etc. are assessed, while in other areas - creative
achievements, social recognition and prestige, prizes and awards received, and promotion of
European values.”5 This form of competition is therefore fundamentally different from offer-
type competitions. The evaluation does not include the offer, at the end of which there is an
option of implementation and - as a consequence - remuneration. There is no offer or project
3
eBIP – a newsletter of Wrocław University of Technology issued in electronic form and addressed to all the
university employees - premiered in June 2003. Issue No. 1050 appeared in June 2018. See
http://ebip.pwr.edu.pl/index. php? edition = 1049 (access date: 17th May, 2018).
4

cf. Civil Code, Articles 919–921.

5
http://pkb.org.pl/medale-aps/ (access date: 10th May, 2018).
 8

here, there is no remuneration in this sense. As a project, we submit existing achievements in

the form of business results, role on the market, in a specific environment, the results of
social, charitable educational and artistic actions. We subject them to public assessment. If the
organizer of such a competition skillfully compares achievements sometimes difficult to
compare, if they create reasonable regulations and the results can be publicized in social
groups interested in the subject of the competition – there should be no shortages of those
willing to participate.
In this text we are not to refer to image competitions in various other economic or social
disciplines. We are interested in competitions for projects in the area of marketing and public
relations implemented by universities in Poland. And although there are many such
competitions in the discussed area in the country and in Europe 6, there are only two such
events within the academic community in Poland. Both appeared on the stage of the
universities’ efforts to improve the image and to promote at a similar time - just after 2010. In
Genius Universitatis competition, organized by Prospects Educational Foundation
(Perspektywy), the submitted projects that “use the magic of the place in a creative way to
promote their university”7 are awarded. The competition focuses on employing marketing
tools for recruitment purposes in several categories such as:
 press advertising,
 recruitment supporting event,
 social media campaign or
 online video.
However, it is the second competition that is used as research material in this article –
proMYKi8 – organized by PRom Association of PR and Promotion of Polish Universities 9. It
aroused our interest for several reasons, but the most important is the fact that the submitted
projects of colleagues - members of the Association - are evaluated by other colleagues - the
winners of the editions from previous years - and by people from the board of the Association,
6
In Poland, there are Golden Clips (Złote Spinacze), Protons and many competitions related to advertising, in
which often a very strong relationship with public relations can be seen. Among European competitions such as
the IPRA’s Golden World Awards for Excellence or the PR Daily’s Nonprofit PR Awards can be mentioned.

7
http://www.perspektywy.pl/genius/ (access date: 24th Apr, 2018).
8

On the one hand, the idea was to refer to the name of the Association, on the other - an indication of the element
of "PR" and the word "MYK" meaning someone made a wise purposeful move. See
https://www.miejski.pl/slowo-Myk (access date: 10th May, 2018). The word has interesting connotations related
to the popularization of higher education.

9
All discussed and categorized campaigns in this text can be found in the official competition results, available
at the link http://www.prom.edu.pl/pl/laureaci-minionych-edycji (access date: 21th May, 2019).
 9

i.e. colleagues from various universities performing their term functions. In the first five
years, the jury of proMYKi was additionally supported by the Polish public relations senior
Piotr Czarnowski and the organizer of Protons (Protony) competition (a known competition
for Polish PR agencies) - Kinga Kubiak10. This mode of appointment of the jury has two
important advantages:
 the best projects are selected by people who are able to assess their value from the side
of implementation in university conditions, which is decisive for the objectivity of
assessment,
 no less important is the fact that the awarded projects are announced publicly to the
entire community at the Association's annual summer conference, giving a sense of
well-deserved pride in the group of “equals”.
They are also an undoubted inspiration for other universities, which have missed honors in a
given year.

Projects categories – methodological challenge

The organizers of proMYKi, when creating the first version of the competition regulations,
anticipated the upcoming difficulties related to heterogeneity (both thematic and scope), the
scale of the project, the size of the university and many other factors.

Figure 3. Amount of universities and other institutions of high education in the biggest cities of Poland

10
The author of this article had the undoubted privilege and honor to be the president of this jury between 2011
and 2016, which also allowed to collect representative material analyzed here.
 10

Source: Central Statistical Office Republic of Poland

That is why, two fairly broad competition categories were adopted, allowing for free
assignment of each submitted project to one of them. These were:
 science promotion,
 university promotion.
Despite such a cautious approach, reality turned out to be even more complex. There were
projects promoting the academic center or region:
 University of Szczecin,
 University of Economics in Katowice,
 Janusz Korczak Pedagogical University in Warsaw.
The essence of projects from:
 Gdańsk University of Technology and another project from
 University of Economics in Katowice
was promotion of the new media. Warsaw University of Technology dedicated its project to
girls, and University of Silesia and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań presented
important social campaigns. Anniversary and jubilee projects of Cracow University of
Economics and Łodz University of Technology turned out to be a separate category. Should
the fact that the first of these universities collected over PLN 400,000 from sponsors be
assessed higher, or the fact that the second one presented striking possibilities related to one
 11

ordered faculty (bankier.pl)? And other universities subtly included concepts from the field
of ecology (not ecology studies, but pro-ecological behaviors) to promote science or
universities.

Not everyone took advantage of the opportunities created by the application form, for
example, presenting measurable effects mixed with irrational ones or in the category
“measurable” by writing “numerous press releases”. In this situation, the applications that
already assumed the evaluation were especially appreciated. However, it is worth
remembering that evaluation alone does not make a project more valuable than other, it only
allows you to measure the results. Considering the promises of a given brand in prepared and
implemented campaigns, it turned out that future students take into consideration the
following issues:
 attitude to student diversity (gender, race, religion),
 location of the institution,
 employability of graduates,
 image and its “atmosphere” (Ali- Choudhury, R., Bennett, R., & Savani, S.)
and this finding was broadly confirmed in the projects that are the research resource in this
article.
Further methodological dilemmas appeared in subsequent editions. In smaller academic
centers, the only university functioning there often performs not necessarily strictly scientific
but also culture-creating and integration functions towards the city. Should this disqualify
projects presented by them, and if not - how to evaluate such projects, since universities from
large academic centers do not have such obligations? Can and should a project in which all
the scientific and organizational potential of a great university is involved, supported by the
actions of a promotion office compete with projects endorsed solely by the activity and
ingenuity of individual people who created a work with strong promotional values basically
on their own? Such examples were provided, for example, by the edition of proMYKi
competition in 2013, when two projects from Wrocław University of Economics were small
original projects; these were:
 a serial video blog on the dedicated YouTube channel showing the life of a couple of
first-year students in a dorm, and
 a book with extensive indexes about the university - its history, characters, events,
architecture, and development perspectives.
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Although successful, they had no chance to compete with projects with a much larger scale.
The introduction of the so-called independent projects category the following year was
unsuccessful because in the subsequent years no such project appeared anymore - teamwork
dominated. Perhaps this would be the field to organize a separately promoted competition for
individualists.
As the years went by, more and more projects carried out solely using social media were
submitted to the competition. The university teams working on them showed far-reaching
ingenuity and included - in addition to Facebook - Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram into their
actions, gaining significant audience share and positive reactions among young people -
potential students. Blogospheres grouping thematically the creation of people associated with
universities started to appear, many universities created their channels on YouTube and are
still placing current promotional and information activity there. In this situation, the jury of
the competition decided that a new category related to the use of the new media should be
created. In the case of proMYKi, the category was called Andrzej Sołtysiak Award – to
commemorate a prematurely deceased administrator of PRom Association website, a
promoter of all the technical solutions enabling universities to optimize their actions on the
Internet.

Results. Projects and implementations – an attempt at typology

During the analysis of the resource of projects submitted to proMYKi available to the author
between 2011 and 2016, intersecting categories often appeared, which also cause some
methodological cognitive anxiety. Their presentation below is the result of what reality, not
the regulations of the competition organizers, brought. Assuming, however, that the
methodology of the competitions is not the subject of this text, let us present the categories
that have emerged as a result of this analysis.
1) Communicating science - universities submitting such projects assumed that a
fragment of some scientific reality presented in an attractive way has such a strong
promotional potential that the presenting entity gains the opinion of an expert and a
university where it is worth studying. Of a dozen analyzed, three projects submitted in
2013 and 2014 by the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering (WIM) of
Warsaw University of Technology (inmat.pw.edu.pl) deserve special attention:
 As part of the first of them, invited children from Warsaw primary and
secondary schools met “TuWIM Engineer”11, watched Warsaw University of
11
Quibble - Julian Tuwim was an outstanding Polish poet (1894-1953), creating, among others, for children.
 13

Technology Theater performances, searched for the relationship of the subject

with art, music and film. Fairytale characters inspired by Tuwim's poetry
brought them closer to the issues of materials engineering. Tommy the
locomotive talked about the history of trains and modern rail vehicles, and
Paddington Bear about the weather and biomimetics. Children learned why
polar bear and penguin inspired contemporary designers, then tested samples
of outdoor materials from Wolf Gang company. Brainy Smurf in “Glasses”
talked about “repairing” a man and bioimplants, and Floppy Bear - in the
episode called “Bird Radio”, about acoustic and sound emission. The
employees of the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing presented
an ear model, talked about hearing implants and showed how a piece by
Antonio Vivaldi changes when we hear only low or high sounds.
 The second project – “Bio-WIM”, involved the dissemination of knowledge
about bioengineering and building the faculty brand as an expert. Desiring to
reach various social groups, the authors used the press, television, radio,
theater and the Internet. Contact with children was made using a simple
language, for example, definitions such as “bioimplant is something you put on
when something breaks down in your bones” were presented. The fables about
pirates and the Flower Eater Dragon were written, an art contest and stylization
of Richard the skeleton were organized. Older children were told about
bioengineering during a picnic and a science festival, a bio-conference for high
school graduates and an implant knowledge competition for students were
held, and young women were encouraged to study bioengineering at the
faculty (“Girls to Universities of Technology”). Lifestyle magazines inspired
the authors to prepare a lecture entitled “Medical Haute Couture”, during
which bio-implants were compared to nineteenth-century costumes created by
the first tailors.
 Finally, the third project from the same authors, the inspiration of which were
the International Year of Crystallography and the idea to show the great
importance of this science for the development of materials engineering.
Katarzyna Kołys, the creator of the aforementioned projects, also prepared this
one, and it was aimed at making children and young people aware that
crystallography enabled them to acquire knowledge about DNA structures,
create proteins in cells, design modern materials, and develop electronics. The
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uniqueness of “BaWIMy się kryształami/ We play with crystals” project was

based on a combination of chemical and physical aspects with art and design.
The author created the project in cooperation with Maria Skłodowska-Curie
Museum, the Polish Chemical Society, scientific journalists, an art restorer and
designers. Interdisciplinarity definitely increased the interest of recipients in
materials science, physics, chemistry, art, upcycling, and design. At the same
time, the campaign promoted Professor Czochralski, called “the father of
materials science”, and his methods famous in science (janczochralski.com).
It should be mentioned that all the faculty projects from Warsaw University of Technology
were implemented on many communication platforms:
 meetings,
 discussions,
 lectures,
 articles on the university website, and
 publications in traditional media)
and gained a significant number of recipients. No other faculty from Polish universities
submitted such a competitive achievement - although it cannot be ruled out that they
implemented various other projects within the university, but did not submit them to any of
the competitions.
In this category, the author's attention was also drawn to two initiatives endorsed by
University of Gdańsk:
The Year of Mathematics appeared in the 2015 edition of the competition. The assumption of
the project was to present the importance of mathematics as approachable and accessible to
everyone, helpful in self-development, necessary in the development of the region, and
encouraging to study exact sciences. Actions planned as part of the Year of Mathematics at
University of Gdańsk were targeted at children, students at all the levels of education,
teachers and residents of Pomerania, regardless of age. A multitude of initiatives, specific
results measured by the number of participants, events, competitions and volunteers earned
the university a well-deserved prize in the competition.
 “The Brains Day“ submitted in 2016 – a recurring event, organized and endorsed by
University of Gdańsk since 2011, was equally appreciated by the jury. Thanks to
skillful promotion, lectures, workshops and laboratory shows addressed to all that
allow to deepen knowledge about the structure and functioning of the brain as well as
 15

to get to know the work of neuroscientists, neurosurgeons and psychologists, every

year are of great interest to the city and region communities.

2) Event for city and region12 – in this category, interesting proposals appear every year,
indicating that universities understand their role in urban organisms much more widely than it
would appear from the status of the university as a teaching unit or a research institution. The
awareness that the university's logo can be used to mark an event that would not otherwise
reach the local community is in such cases also supported by a specific image calculation - if
a given university can create such an interesting and popular event, it is probably good and it
is worth beginning studies there. Such a message, reaching both young people and parents,
can bring measurable recruitment results.
In this category, therefore, we include the project of University of Lower Silesia called
“Promotion and education through culture” awarded in the first edition of the competition
(2011). A series of lectures organized as part of it in Wrocław's Multikino, their attractive
titles and interesting content attracted a large number of participants. We can also find here a
project from a small town of Piła (73,000 inhabitants) awarded in 2012, and submitted by the
local PWSZ (State Higher Vocational School), which is the initiator and sole organizer of
science festivals in Piła. This largest public university in northern Greater Poland Voivodship
has taken over the culture-forming and city-forming role as well as the mission of expanding
the perspectives of the local community, whose needs (due to remoteness from large urban
centers, post-collectivist traditions and - as a consequence - material deficiencies) have been
marginalized so far. The event called ”The Propaganda of Success – The Success of
Propaganda” organized with a grain of salt, during which interesting guests also appeared, for
example, Jan Miodek (tmjp.pl) or Michał Ogórek (pl.wikiquote.org), attracted crowds from
Piła and from surrounding villages and towns.
In 2013, Opole University of Technology submitted two similar projects, this time addressed
to the region, namely:
 “It railway’s turn for orchestra, that is Opole wind express train” and
 “With the orchestra down the Oder.”
The assumption and expected result of the organizers of this artistic event with the
participation of the university orchestra was to create the image of an open university that is
not only focused on technical education as well as promotion through culture and art and, at
12
The use of English in this case is justified by the widespread recognition of a new phenomenon in our reality,
i.e. event marketing, defined as a marketing communication tool for companies based on direct contact with the
company's brand. See http://forumbranzyeventowej.pl/ (access date: 14th Mar, 2018) and others.
 16

the same time, supporting the recruitment process. In the same year another project appeared:
a large university - University of Łodz - took on information obligations towards the city's
inhabitants by launching and running the city's Cultural Portal. Two years later (2015)
Koźminski University, which at that time overtook its competitors in public rankings of
economic public universities, submitted a project well illustrating the methodological
dilemmas of the competition organizers. YouTuber Sailing Championships of Poland were
organized. It is hard to say what the event was. Promotion of the new media? Of the
university itself? Because, after all, not of science that was not discussed during the
competition. And yet the event should be assessed as a great success in terms of image, taking
into account the number of entries, statements, links on social media, etc. Probably never
before was there so much talked about one university on social media in Poland in such a
short time. The organizers emphasized in particular that the tone of all the comments was
friendly, properly deprived of hate that characterize Polish part of Internet. Within public
relations actions at YouTuber Sailing Championships of Poland:
 57 press publications,
 32 video materials on YouTube,
 95 mentions on Instagram and
 80 Facebook posts with a total coverage of 17,935,186 impressions were generated13.

3) University recruitment campaigns – in this category, universities have undertaken and

continue to take on the greatest challenges. Generally, it is the senates of universities that
decide to launch a campaign, and their hopes are directly linked to the results of recruitment,
on which the existence of the university depends a lot, namely the number of student groups,
the number of hours of classes, demands placed on the workers and filling the teaching load,
the amount of budget subsidy, etc.
This kind of activity of specialists from university promotion offices requires careful
preparation, considerable budget and reasonable deadline planning. As a rule, it turns out that
there are too few people, too little money and too much work and too many expectations of
superiors. Achieving the set goals is uncommon, but it brings the implementers a lot of
satisfaction.
In this category, it is worth taking a closer look at two campaigns that brought the expected
results to the organizers and were also appreciated by the jurors of proMYKi.

13
Data based on Press Service monitoring - according to the competition entry ALK, May 2015.
 17

 In 2013, University of Wrocław submitted its campaign called “Good to Know”14.

This promotional campaign was aimed at the candidates for undergraduate and
graduate full-time studies, and its concept assumed a change in view on studying. It
was assumed that this is a period in life that builds identity, develops competences,
encourages consistent lifelong learning, that studying is the sum of the most important
experiences, the best moment to make friends, a way to search for your place in the
world. Furthermore, it was assumed that studies no longer give a restricted set of
knowledge; studying is creating a specific attitude, lifestyle, and not “learning a
profession” (so there are no references to various artifacts symbolizing specific types
of study). It has been noticed that studies are diverse, as are study motivations and
lifestyles. These assumptions were the basis for building a new line of advertising
materials that show studying as a lifestyle. The production of these materials took
place at the university with the participation of students. The Internet became the basic
communication channel, also the versions for mobile devices (web versions of
newspapers, professional websites, social media, video services, media packages of
web publishers) were included; in addition, the press, outdoor advertising (murals,
citylights), cinema and festival screenings were employed. Media purchases were
made both directly and through agencies. As measurable results of the campaign, the
organizers mentioned the following: halting the downward trend in the number of full-
time students compared to previous years:
o over 380,000 entries to the recruitment website of University of Wrocław,
o over 13,000,000 views of various advertising forms prepared in the campaign,
o over 23,000 views of “Good to Know” video on Vimeo.
 Two years later, the competition jury received an application from AGH University of
Science and Technology. The title of the application was “#AGH - comprehensive
social media actions promoting the university and science” 15. The organizers presented
not only the impressive ranges of their presence on Facebook (40,000 fans), Instagram
(2,100 followers), Twitter (1,800 followers) and YouTube (over 1,000 subscribers).
Let's list just a few of the lots of promotional campaigns that resulted in a high turnout
on the university's social media:
 launching the fastest supercomputer in the history of Poland;

14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nUWQ36iYGw (access date: 25th Apr, 2018).
15

See https://www.facebook.com/Juwenalia.AGH/ (access date: 19th May, 2018).

 18

 creating a place for discussion, exchange of opinions and comments (for example, 85 user
comments on how to use space on the university campus);
 unusual, entertaining undertakings, for example, Miss of the Internet users and runner-up
Miss Poland Paulina Maślanka (surname translated as buttermilk) visiting the Rector of
AGH prof. Tadeusz Słomka (surname translated as straw) sipped buttermilk through a
straw;
 playful and humorous posts, for example, “Jagiellonian University thinks that AGH is the
first three letters of the alphabet”;
 “I study” »at« or »on« AGH?” Or maybe on »AGieHu«? How to say that?” - Jan Miodek
was asked to resolve this very emotional issue, and the video on YouTube channel had
over 17,500,000 views;
 photos of the rectors of AGH during spring break;
 current events, sports achievements, students successes.
As a kind of subcategory, let us point out to the type of projects in which the university
informs the surrounding world about a significant change in its way of functioning, which has
a significant impact on its image. Such projects include the Press Center created for the needs
of the media by SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in 2011 16, the new
logotype book of Poznań School of Logistics or the successful project of merging two
vocational universities - from Polkowice and Lubin - into one organism called Jan
Wyżykowski University and their image-related activities. These projects required their
creators to use specialized sociological tools to check their ideas in a series of tests, try out the
results on a selected group of stakeholders: what they think when they hear the proposed
advertising slogan. Do their associations match the will of the creators? Especially for large
enterprises, these preparatory works are of great importance (Marcos 2003, 9).

4) New media – is a category of projects showing forms of university promotion that would
not have been possible without these media. Lund's study provides evidence of a link between
popularity and interaction with the best university's Facebook fanpages and the attributes of
these universities. As social media continue to evolve and serve as a source of marketing
information, the prospect of identifying these relationships to increase the impact of university
marketing campaigns is extremely important. Specific solutions can give universities a
competitive advantage. Although Lund’s study has not reached this level, it has presented

16
See https://www.swps.pl/centrum-prasowe/ (access date: 15th May, 2018).
 19

preliminary findings that may be an interesting getaway in the future for more focused
research (Lund, 14).
 Already in the first edition of the competition in 2011, Gdansk University of
Technology submitted the blogosphere of scientists of one of the faculties,
 We have already mentioned the video blog presenting recurring episodes from the life
of a couple of students of Wrocław University of Economics,
 Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences submitted the film series –
Passions, posted on the university's YouTube channel - scientific mini-biographies of
a group of young scientists performing unusual professions,
 Warsaw University of Technology created a profile on Facebook, where candidates
for studies could ask various, often even quite intimate questions to those already
studying, with guaranteed response. This University of Technology also successfully
included the Snapchat service in the promotion of the undergraduate studies.
In the opinion of the author of these words, the most successful “new media” project in the
assessed resource was, however, the blogosphere submitted in 2015 by Koźminski University
(Warsaw), containing blogs of foreigners - university students, addressed to their colleagues -
other foreigners. They described their lives in Poland, their studies, new friendships, etc. The
creators of the “Students in Warsaw” project assumed that young people do not trust the
messages created by the institutions. They trust more Internet users, reference groups, and
people similar to them. Simultaneously to the blogging platform, the authors of the project
created the New Media Club - an English-language scientific club, in which participants got
various incentives to engage in editing the blog - specialized photography workshops, video
editing workshops, meetings with bloggers, etc. Recruitment for people involved in the
project was conducted among the New Media Club participants, appropriate functions were
also assigned, namely the editor-in-chief, a text editor, etc. Thanks to this, it was possible to
select really engaged and willing to cooperate people, and to maintain a high level of
motivation through monthly workshops and informal meetings. In addition, leaving students a
large influence on the shape and development of the project meant that they began to identify
strongly with it and naturally became its ambassadors.
 Thirty-six bloggers from the USA, Germany, Belarus and Ukraine,
 nearly 800 subscribers,
 first place in the browser when entering “students Warsaw”
 20

- these are measurable results of the campaign 17. We can wish similar results many official
actions supporting the internationalization of studying in Poland.

Figure 4. Number of students in thousands in selected European cities

Source: Eurostat

5) Conventional media – using traditional communication tools, universities inform about

themselves, sometimes creating very successful projects.
 University of Warsaw prepared a calendar for 2013 - the roles of twelve monthly stars
were played by mathematical equations.
 Two years later, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań published a series of
volumes which were the first in Poland to promote science and the university,
presenting memories of students, lecturers and studying.
 The academic yard is a metaphor of the subjective side of the university - people,
personalities, emotions, values, and attitudes. The creators of the project decided to
popularize unusual personalities, previously unknown to the wider audience. The

17
cf. http://www.studentsinwarsaw.com/ (access date: 17th May, 2018).
 21

volumes talk about serious issues of academic education in a light and friendly
manner.
 State Higher Vocational School from Legnica submitted a CD with jazz recordings
from the university club,
 Warsaw University of Technology prepared a series of articles about the greatest
Polish innovators in exact sciences,
 Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences presented a new concept of
the monthly magazine which has been a university periodical for years.

 6) Other – a few more categories appeared, represented by a few (sometimes two)

submitted projects, so we are obliged to mention them. Sometimes these projects were
very interesting. As for projects addressed to girls, Warsaw University of Technology
showed probably the largest activity in the country,
 Children's books, in a graphically beautiful and linguistically clear way promoting
science, were presented in the competition in various years by Nicolaus Copernicus
University, Cracow University of Economics and AGH University of Science and
Technology.
 There were projects addressed to a Ukrainian recipient,
 medical volunteering for Africa prepared as a comprehensive project by Collegium
Medicum UMK from Bydgoszcz,
 Exemplary cooperation with business was presented in projects of Cracow University
of Economics, Poznań School of Logistics and Warsaw University of Life Sciences -
SGGW, which made an interesting promotional tool out of its internship program.
 And finally, projects related to the university jubilees - from the 650th anniversary of
Cracow's Alma Mater to the 20th anniversary of University of Lower Silesia. The
project of SGGW, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2016, could impress with
the momentum, scope, financial resources, variety of actions and events (Kocoń
2009:498).
The jury of proMYKi could see that the seemingly unattractive anniversary celebration can
be turned into a well-oiled mechanism for creating the image of the university.

Discusion
 22

University leaders, that is university rectors and senates, when deciding on public actions such
as higher education and research, make decisions with publicly felt effects, so it is right to
expect that they will be accurate and purposeful, and the organization will demonstrate
efficiency (Kieżun 1994:18-28). The basic conditions for this efficiency include
completeness, reliability and speed of information. They require staff who can add these
assets to the information process. What is more, if the university wants its projects to be
circulated publicly to be considered fresh, innovative and dynamic, then you probably need to
reach for lively and contemporary design and youthful language (Ries, Ries 2003, 31).

Promoting academic education comprises primarily routine activities - a complementary set of

actions:
 maintaining media relations,
 traditional and digital publishing,
 organizing events around the university,
 lobbying,
 image advertising.
However, there is a narrow margin for non-standard actions, for creating your own narrative,
message. If a university is able to stimulate dreams, create a vision of the future, trigger
potential student’s interest to study there - it probably meets the most important requirements
on a competitive market. Ewa Hope claims that “the 21st century will certainly be the age of
the Internet and public relations, just as the 20 th century was the age of television and
advertising” (Hope 2010: 75). Conclusions must be drawn. As it results from the review of
promotional and information actions at universities after 2010, Polish universities have drawn
these conclusions. Today it can be said - and proven in many ways - that universities compete
for their image (Iwankiewicz-Rak 2004:53) at the regional, national or even international
level. It means the necessity to strive for full professionalization of:
 actions,
 selection of appropriate staff,
 application of recognized and effective techniques –
and in many cases it works. Balancing supply and demand is a real challenge. You must be
extremely active in dialogue with the international market (Belch, Belch 1995, 10).
For a significant number of large, prestigious universities, matters of image, good press,
visibility in spaces important for the place and line of business are unambiguous to impact on
 23

the expected level of recruitment. At the same time, awareness emerged that it could not
succeed without a qualified team of specialists. The rest of these positive phenomena were
forced by the market (Buszman-Witańska 2011:223), which many researchers predicted. The
planned and sustained attempt to establish contacts showing good will eventually led to
mutual understanding between the organization and the groups surrounding it (Kotler 2004,
6).
Every successful campaign on social media of a university is closely watched by others;
promotional teams are maturing and raising qualifications at courses, conferences and training
sessions, but above all, in everyday work that involves ever greater challenges. A significant
part of these positive comments also applies to smaller and private universities, but their
situation is definitely more difficult for reasons beyond their control. However, the game is
about brand recognition in the surrounding world. Communication effects are relatively
permanent mental associations, connected with the brand, in the mind of potential buyers.
They are necessary to position the brand as inspiration for the expected action. Universities
are trying to cause specific communication effects and, as a tool, choose any form of
marketing communication - advertising, events similar to ads, promotional offers and personal
sales presentations. These effects are the need for categories, brand awareness, brand attitude,
intention to buy the brand and - finally - to facilitate the purchase (Rossiter, 1997:109), and
thus - effective recruitment.

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