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The way students portray the institution influences their perceptions about life on campus. As soon as students get into university, they bring with them a multitude of views drawn from various sources such as interpersonal connections and media – outsiders’ thinking about the institution (Dutton et al., 1994). In doing so, they paint a portrait of the university and place themselves within that picture, what Dutton et al. (1994) refer to as matching with organisational attributes and in the process measuring their fit to establish their survival and belonging to it.

The issue of branding was explored by Chapleo (2011) cited in Wilkins and Huisman, 2011, p.69). Chapleo contends that strong branding can boost an institution’s reputation and reputation plays an important role in determining positions in some of the most

122 globally well-known media rankings. Branding implies the building of a lasting image about a product or service which consumers or customers will feel eternally proud to be associated with (Maringe & Gibbs, 2009, p. 133).

Many expressions and images about the university’s status are common among the participants. They include “Wits is the best”12, “it’s internationally recognised”, “one of its own kind...it’s unique”, “Wits has high standards”13, “...it is a renowned university”14_{, “it is one of the best universities in South Africa”}15_{, “it is well known”}16

, and so forth. Expressions like, “Mandela came here”17, suggest what students want to be identified with the alumni. Some of the views come from the students’ interpersonal connections or relations, “I applied to Wits only because it’s what my parents thought was a good university” [02H3]. The following quotations also capture influences of other people:

...Through word of mouth I have heard a lot about Wits. I have heard of its high standards, I have heard about its graduates, how successful its graduates are; its alumni and all that. I also want to be part of Wits… [20E1].

You hear people talking rumours, Wits is the best... Wits have been given this ‘thing’ of being the best in the communities so via that I was able to [join] [9E1].

…the people I am surrounded with, they were people who were committed with whatever they were doing so I came to here with a positive mind. I suppose that way I manage to cope [01H3].

Other students come to know about the institution and get motivated to join through career exhibitions held at their high schools but they complain about not being fully informed about the institution. 1E3 says:

...they told us about Wits, but they never said, they always tell you the good things that Wits graduates have better 12 _{11E3; 9E1; 1SC1} 13 _{9H1; 9SC3} 14 8H1, 15 _{2E3; 11E3; 2SC3} 16 _{8H1; 9H1,} 17 _2SC3

123 opportunities after the school. But they will never tell you the

journey from starting first year until your final year, how it is. They just tell you the final product that’s the problem with it.

Some international students used the internet:

I joined Wits University by looking for a couple of universities online and looking at their reputation and what they did and found Wits University which was closer to my home country [x] and also provided very good education in the field of science [15SC3].

This trend of students choosing to study at Wits because of it being regarded as a ‘high standing’ institution is noted in previous research (CHE, 2010, Cross & Johnson, 2008). What is emerging in this study reinforces what Cross and Johnson (2008, p. 309) found namely “The high standing of the university was articulated through a variety of descriptors based on information from their parents, friends, media, and the voices of loyal alumni, proud staff members and fellow students”. While skillful branding and marketing can assist institutions to project an image of high quality, it may in fact not necessarily be so and so is detrimental to students (Wilkins & Huisman, 2011). Students enter the institution with flashy images only to be confronted with complexities and dilemmas about upholding the cherished image as they experience the real campus environment. This resonates with what happens in the media industry as Rodriguez (2002) explains that “we are constantly bombarded with information; we are forced to experience a mass media space, assimilating fluctuating images”.

The data reveals that while in some cases enthusiasm is generated from idle talk, some students are aware of that and hence seem to be cautious and are prepared to face the challenges. For instance, one student said:

…my sister is studying here so she used to tell me that sis, just study…you have to come [here] it’s the best. She talked about it… and I was like, okay, let me go there then. People were talking…like they say, you fail because Wits is very difficult what, what and then when I came, yeah, it is challenging but, what I realised is it is not that hard. You have to work very hard…to figure out yourself what to do [13H1].

124 Others participants expressed their difficulties in gaining access into the university and because of that they considered themselves privileged to have enrolled:

To be here at Wits well, it’s been a rocky journey…it’s a great honour. First of all it’s difficult. Not everyone gets to be at Wits. It’s a great honour because Wits has its own standards so knowing that you are accepted as a student at Wits, it’s something of its own [12H1].

My brother is a lecturer here at Wits and so he made it easy for me to come here. So in terms of getting around and knowing my way around, it was easy to have someone who was already here [03H1].

There are participants who acclaim their entry into the university because of their high performance at school and their passes in matric and so identify themselves with the university and sense their achievement. Thus, confirming what is in the literature that the “similarity between the self-concept and perceived organisational identity enhances continuity and that continuity strengthens a members’ identification by making the perceived organisational identity more attractive” (Dutton et al., 1994, p. 244). This is supported by the following quotations:

I looked at my marks and I felt that they were…good enough because I knew that Wits [has] very high standards…I have just been looking forward to come for a while. …well, basically I am one of those very hard headed academics at school… When I came to Wits University, they had the same sort of ethos in terms of work so I kept the same decorum” [1H3].

I knew I was the best in my school so I was like okay; the best only goes to the best, yeah as you know Wits is marketed as the best. I chose Wits because of its exceptional standards. When it comes to universities, it’s known as the greatest. It produces and it takes only the best students you can find [14H3].

From high school, looking at my performance, I was like okay, I was performing really well…I looked at the choice of universities and saw that Wits is like the best [1SC1].

125 The construction of Wits through images confirms the views in the literature that values and practices of specific institutions are instrumental in shaping individual experiences of higher education (Holdsworth, 2006). The literature also points out that rituals, ceremonies and stories objectify and communicate the collective institutional identities to its members (Dutton et al., 1994, p. 243).

There also seems to be an impression among the students that when one holds a Wits qualification one is assured of a job. It seems that students already have confidence in the strength of the courses that they do: “Wits is one of the best universities. If you hold a degree from this university, then it’s easy for you to get employed” [01H3].

However, not all students were excited about their experience of being at Wits and rejected the notion of it being ‘harder to get in’ and reputable. The following quotations capture the views expressed by some students:

Wits was never my first choice so it wasn’t the first university I applied for. I wanted to go to university[X] initially and then I didn’t get res…I think there is this whole thing of about [sic] if you get a degree from Wits you are like guaranteed a job or you are of high standard…if you can get into Wits you are really smart, I don’t…I don’t know of Wits still has its reputation, It doesn’t affect me at all [4H3]. Okay, with Wits, I didn’t actually choose Wits. I chose another private university…because of funds, I had to seek for an alternative of which Wits was an option left [14H3].

The narratives above show some variations as well as significant convergences in students’ perceptions about university images (Dutton et al., 1994) at the point of entry. As Cross and Johnson (2008, p.308) pointed out, at the point of entry, students have their own readymade constructs embedded in their expectations about what it is like to live on campus. They argue that “such constructs have some bearing on the ease or difficulty with which they experience initiation and integration into campus life” (Cross and Johnson, 2008, p. 308). What is striking in this current study is how the students seem to paint their own images or imagined identities within the portrait of the university which they have created. Within that university image, they shape their own

126 image and in the process mould their own identity. So the images students construct about the university are resources that they utilise in acting upon themselves and others.