Marketing of educational programs – a study of Swedish universities through presented images

Marketing of higher education through images sends a message about the targeted audience. Our aim was to investigate norms and representation in marketing images on the websites of higher education institutions. Critical visual methodology was used to study images from Swedish higher education programs in engineering, economics, and nursing. The results show a reproduction of already existing notions on societal norms and educational structure, i.e. that typical male- and female-dominated programs are still cemented in their thinking about the students targeted. Present study show that there is a potentially untapped opportunity to influence future inequality in both the labor market and in higher education through marketing. Imaging in marketing of higher education should therefore be well thought through and permeated by the pursuit of diversity in visual representations, so that stereotypical and norm-preserving images are avoided. Images that are more inclusive and show a greater variety of motif are needed.