Leveraging social marketing strategies to promote global citizenship among university students

Universities globally are increasingly seeking to improve the international mobility of their students. There are several latent benefits that accrue to a university, whose students and staff actively participate in international exchange programs. Essentially this can lead to an increase in the university's international reputation, opportunities for benchmarking against best practices, capacity to develop international relationships, diversity of student population and access to potential recruitment markets. In this paper we review extant literature to elicit the range of practical factors that play a role in the decision of students to study abroad. We then recommend practical social marketing strategies to enhance student mobility and promote global citizenship. The implications of these recommendations for universities and the broader student population are discussed with suggestions for future research.