Marketization and Higher Education Branding at NAU: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates how Nnamdi Azikiwe University has been involved in the marketization and branding of higher education. The institutionalisation of policies of marketisation of vision, values, and international excellence has transformed the culture of academic life. This process has been shown to turn higher education into a more adaptable and efficient institution by allowing the expansion of the market into lecture halls; providing better value for money and ensuring that the university sector becomes more efficient and more responsive to the needs of students, parents, and society. Given the foregoing, this study investigates how higher institutions, and in this case Nnamdi Azikiwe University, uses visual and verbal semiotics to re-design their identities to distinguish themselves through marketisation and branding from other institutions of higher learning. Using Multimodal Discourse Analysis, the study shows how NAU employs meaning-making resources to achieve its visibility locally and globally. The study employs a qualitative research design. Data on pictures of UNIZIK ID Card lanyards, memorabilia, logo, NAU landscape and website were selected for analysis. Finding shows that NAU has a strong brand identity as a marketing strategy for logos, images, words, and slogans: Project200, as semiotic resources for projecting herself through marketization and branding. Prominent among the branding tools are Projector200's mission/vision, remodelling of the Unizik website for global visibility. In this way, Nnamdi Azikiwe University has, more than in previous years, achieved more global and local visibility via its use of visual representation and online digitization.