Making the Marketing of Higher Education More Ethical

Abstract

The ethical behavior of all institutions is increasingly being challenged. Higher education is no exception to this intensified scrutiny (Wilcox and Ebbs 1992). Many of the possible abuses stem from the accelerated use of marketing techniques by colleges and universities as they attempt to recruit and retain students (Lovelock and Weinberg 1989, 412–415; Simmons and Laczniak 1992). In this paper, several ethically troublesome areas of student admissions and college program marketing are highlighted. The case for the utilization of marketing methods, applied in an ethical manner, is also set forth. Then drawing on a sampling of the frameworks described by Laczniak and Murphy (1993), the application of moral reasoning to problem areas of admissions marketing is briefly illustrated. The paper concludes with a discussion of some newer ethics models as well as questions that require research investigation as college marketing becomes the growth sector of higher education administration (Hayes 1991).