The Marketing Mix Design for Attracting Foreign Students to Iranian Universities

Purpose: This study aims to design a marketing model to attract international students to higher education institutions in Iran. The necessity of this research is underscored by the fact that international students comprise less than 0.3 percent of the student body in Iran's higher education system. Methodology: The research was conducted at major universities in Iran that host foreign students, including Tehran University, Imam Khomeini International University, and Ferdowsi University. A sample of 367 international students and 23 academic and executive experts were randomly selected using a cluster sampling method. Two researcher-made questionnaires were employed, tailored separately for each group. The reliability of the research instrument was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.958. Findings: The results categorized the proposed model into four levels, 15 dimensions, and 96 components. The macro level includes political, cultural, scientific, and economic dimensions. The higher education level comprises internal and external dimensions. The university level is segmented into seven dimensions: place, people, program factor, prominence, price, prospectus, and promotion. The individual level includes personality and motivational dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis (first and second order) was conducted on the student questionnaire. For the expert questionnaire, all dimensions and levels were ranked and weighted using the TOPSIS method. In the resulting "marketing astrolabe" model, the university level holds 41% weight, the higher education level 25%, the macro level 23%, and the individual level 11%. Conclusion: The developed marketing model highlights the critical components and their respective weights in attracting international students to Iranian universities, providing a strategic framework for improving international student enrollment.