Branding Private Universities in Africa: An unexplored territory

Taking into consideration the competition and the privatisation drive within the higher education sector, branding becomes an essential element to distinguish the Universities and offer a competitive advantage. This paper made effort to explore the brand identities of private Universities in Africa. The study examines the brand names and brand logos as elements of the Universities’ brand identity. The study highlighted various naming nomenclature of private Universities and the trends in their logos were observed and reported. Integration of these identities on the Universities’ websites, social media and print media were also examined. While the University has a brand identity, it is expected that it should be integrated effectively across board however this was not found to be so in some of these media. Especially on social media whereby there is little evidence of content creation strategy to engage with stakeholders, especially with prospective students who are interested in knowing more about the University. The paper identifies common trends and practises with implication on the overall branding strategy of the Universities. The current study seeks to shed light on the branding practises of Private Universities in African and provides recommendations on improving their brands positioning