Marketing of High Education Services: Students' Opinion towards Repositioning Public Universities for Global Competitiveness

This study investigates the marketisation of public universities drawing from Nigeria students’ learning experiences. The study adopted the interpretive paradigm and the population comprises students from 4 public universities in two states in South-South Nigeria. The purposive sampling was used to identify three categories of students in each of these universities, which is undergraduate, postgraduate (Master and Doctoral students) and 4 focus group interviews were conducted. Content and thematic template analysis techniques were employed to analyse the data with the use of NVivo 11. The study revealed that students’ learning experiences in these sampled institutions were unsupportive of global best practices for international marketisation of academic services of public universities in Nigeria. The key themes that validate these experiences include: infrastructure deficit, poor tutors’ commitment; unprofessionalism and inadequate training amongst others and recommendations are suggested in line with these themes.