Subject and purpose of work: The article deals with the issues of promotion and its impact on the students’ decisions to choose a place to study. The problem seems to be important due to the changes on the educational market that have been taking place for several years. On the one hand, we have a large supply of academic institutions, and, on the other, an ongoing demographic decline. Such a situation requires the implementation of marketing activities which can establish and maintain permanent relationships between higher education institutions and the recipients of their offers.
Materials and methods: This study used a non-random selection. It included 100 randomly selected students of Pope John Paul II State School of Higher Education in Biała Podlaska (PSW). Its aim was to answer two basic research questions, namely what impact on students’ choice of a place to study have promotional activities undertaken by higher education institutions, and which forms of promotion have the greatest and the least impact on students’ choices.
Results: The survey of respondents’ opinions was conducted at the turn of January and February 2020 by the method of a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire. The main source of information on academic institutions to choose from, as stated by the respondents, were their friends and family. Such an answer was given by as many as 40% of the respondents. The research also showed that the greatest impact on students’ decisions were: the information on the website of a higher education institution (24%), open days (19%), as well as leaflets and guides (16%).
Conclusions: The arguments for the choice of Pope John Paul II State School of Higher Education in Biała Podlaska, and not some other academic institution, were primarily a convenient location, its prestige, the possibility of foreign trips and the positive opinions of their friends. The respondents positively assess the image of their study place, but they find its promotional activities to be insufficient.
