UNIVERSITY IN A COMPETITIVE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

Like several other nonprofit and for-profit industries, the higher education sector has been subject to a series of fundamental challenges in the past decade. Now, higher education is becoming a global service delivered by quasi-companies in an ever-more complex and competitive knowledge market place. Constantly growing number of universities and decreasing number of secondary education graduates in the Slovak Republic cope with many challenges. Higher education institutions need an appropriate strategy, a necessity reflected in numerous calls for research on strategy in the higher education sector. It is important to realize, that the university in the emerging market is striving to gain sustainable competitive advantage. This paper makes an attempt to study university marketing communication. This article's purpose is to contribute to this discussion by providing prescriptive guidance to higher education managers in areas of competition strategy and sustainability of higher education as well. Marketing is being transferred from business applications to many academic institutions, and the pressure of a global economy and the pervasiveness of the internet had profound influence on education. The paper through descriptive statistics and regional analysis evaluates the current state in comparison with past situation of higher education in the Slovak Republic and discusses the necessary changes.