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Marketing Catholic higher education: holistic self-actualization, personalized learning, and wholesome goodness

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Abstract

Research on the marketing practices of religiously affiliated post-secondary education (PSE) organizations is scarce, and generally geared towards assessing their “fidelity” to their religious roots. Through this study, we seek to examine the promotional strategies employed by 194 Catholic universities and colleges (CUCs) in the USA. Using a mixed-methodological form of content analysis, we examine the textual and graphic content of their institutional home webpages. We find that CUCs promise prospective students holistic self-actualization through (i) personalized attention within the classroom and (ii) a wholesome social environment. These efforts are found to render CUCs a “boutique” alternative to mainstream PSE institutions.

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Notes

  1. This included the likes of Notre Dame, Loyola, and Villanova University.

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  1. Centre for the Study of Canadian & International Higher Education (CIHE), University of Toronto, 252 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON, M5S 1V6, Canada

    Roger Pizarro Milian

  2. Department of Sociology, McMaster University, 1280 Main St W, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada

    Jessica Rizk

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Milian, R.P., Rizk, J. Marketing Catholic higher education: holistic self-actualization, personalized learning, and wholesome goodness. High Educ 76, 51–66 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0193-2

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