The Courage to Choose: Why Distinct Positioning Matters More Than Ever for Universities in the Gulf

Men walk at the campus of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP)

I have come to see universities from three angles at once.

I was a student. Later, I spent years inside educational institutions in the Middle East; building brand identities, strengthening research visibility, shaping enrollment strategies, and crafting institutional narratives across Qatar Foundation, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and the Community College of Qatar, and consulted for regional institutions on brand communications.

And now I am on the other side again, evaluating universities for my daughter.

With that combination of experience, one observation becomes clear. The biggest challenge facing universities today especially the emerging ones is the absence of a clear, distinctive positioning that unifies everything the institution does. Without that centre, the brand fragments, messaging contradicts itself, and the university spends more energy than it gains.

Positioning and the Courage to Choose

Most universities claim excellence, innovation, community engagement, and student-centred learning. These promises once had weight, but today they are simply the expected minimum. They no longer differentiate or persuade.

Real positioning requires a university to choose what it stands for and to accept that it cannot be everything at once. Some institutions define themselves by access and inclusion. Others by entrepreneurship or research strength in specific areas. Others by their role in national development. These choices give the brand shape. Without them, every department tells its own story and the institution becomes a collection of disconnected messages.

The moment a university chooses its centre of gravity, everything begins to align. Undergraduate narratives start to reinforce postgraduate realities. Research priorities feel intentional rather than scattered. Industry partners see clarity in what the institution wants to be known for. A strong positioning choice gives the university a worldview; it turns the brand from a slogan into a direction.

For emerging universities, this can feel counterintuitive because they believe they must compete on every front. But over time, the institutions that choose and commit to a clear centre of gravity are the ones that build real distinction.

The Cost of Weakness: The Silo Effect

You see the consequences of weak positioning most clearly in how universities divide their communication. The marketing team shouts at 18-year-olds about campus life, clubs, belonging, and the first-year “experience”. The communications team quietly prepares research releases for peers, ranking agencies, and government stakeholders. Each is doing its job, but neither is creating impact. Real impact only happens when these two worlds work as one integrated function, shaped by a shared identity. When marketing, communications, enrollment, research offices, and alumni relations align around the same positioning and the same definition of value, the institution stops speaking in fragments. The same story begins to power enrollment campaigns, research visibility, industry partnerships, and alumni engagement. This is how a university builds coherence, and coherence is what turns activity into influence.

The Strategic Positioning Matrix

To build that coherence, the brand must speak two distinct languages that feed the same core. This table outlines how to translate your central positioning for your two most critical audiences without breaking the brand:

Research as Visible Proof, Not Hidden Output

If positioning defines the narrative, research gives it credibility. But many universities still treat research as an internal academic activity rather than a strategic asset.

Journals matter, but research impact only becomes brand impact when the work moves beyond publication. When faculty research turns into partnerships, commercialization opportunities, conferences, case studies, internships, or national projects, it becomes visible. It becomes part of the university’s identity.

For postgraduate students, research is not background noise; it is the product. It defines supervision quality, industry relevance, and career potential. For undergraduates and their families, research acts as a halo.

Even if they never work in a lab, they want to be associated with an institution doing serious work. In the GCC, universities are expected to support national priorities, so research that is inactive or invisible weakens the entire brand. Research is not just an academic pursuit; it is a strategic instrument of national development. Investments in energy transition, AI, biotechnology, sustainability, and public policy create a clear mandate for universities to contribute directly to economic diversification. Institutions that activate this support into visible outcomes strengthen their credibility and become magnets for postgraduate talent, industry partnerships, and international collaboration. Institutions that do not quickly fall behind, regardless of how modern their facilities appear on the surface

Strong institutions build systems that translate research into stories the market can understand. They create mechanisms where research leads naturally into collaborations, internships, executive learning, and real-world impact. This connection strengthens both undergraduate confidence and postgraduate demand, making research a living part of the brand’s proof rather than an isolated academic metric.

Alumni as a Community With Real Influence

If positioning sets the direction and research builds credibility, alumni create the momentum. Yet alumni communities remain one of the most undervalued forces in higher education. Alumni relations in the GCC is still at a very early stage, largely because there is not enough institutional knowledge, dedicated talent, or long-term strategy built around it. A lot of universities still treat alumni engagement as a ceremonial event, a yearly reunion, or a fundraising activity. But alumni are not a list to be managed; they are a community that requires ongoing relevance, recognition, value, and communication. Alumni expect status. They want to feel seen. They want to be recognised as part of the institution’s identity, not just contacted when needed.

And this is exactly where the traditional recruitment funnel begins to fail. A funnel assumes that the student relationship ends at enrollment or, at best, graduation. It is built to convert, not to sustain. It pushes attention in at the top and lets value escape at the bottom.

Alumni, however, do not behave like the end of a funnel. They behave like the beginning of the next cycle. Their promotions, ventures, research collaborations, and hiring decisions become new signals of trust. Their visibility becomes new awareness. Their networks become new reach. When alumni are active, the relationship no longer ends; it compounds.

This is the moment the institution must shift from a funnel mindset to what I call the Education Brand LTV Engine, a continuous loop where outcomes generate new demand, new demand creates better cohorts, and better cohorts become stronger alumni who feed energy back into the brand.

Brand Governance: The System That Holds It All Together

Positioning creates clarity. Research creates proof. Alumni create momentum. But none of these elements work together without governance.

Brand governance is the operating system that ensures everything stays aligned and consistent over time. It prevents brand drift and message fragmentation. It ensures that research stories support the positioning, that undergraduate and postgraduate communications reinforce each other, and that alumni engagement fits the institution’s identity rather than functioning as a separate parallel world.

Governance gives institutions the structure to scale. It keeps teams speaking the same language. It turns brand strategy into daily practice.

The Outcome: A University With Gravity

When positioning is chosen, research is activated, alumni are engaged, and governance keeps it coherent, a university stops thinking in enrollment cycles. It starts building momentum. The brand becomes a living system that connects student choice, student experience, research impact, and alumni success back into each other in a continuous loop.

In the Gulf, this matters even more. Universities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE are not simply academic institutions; they are national instruments with mandates to support economic diversification, research capability, and human capital development. A university that builds true gravity begins to align naturally with these national agendas. It attracts stronger faculty, secures more government and industry partnerships, becomes a destination for regional and international students, and grows its influence beyond campus walls. Momentum becomes reputation. Reputation becomes trust. And trust becomes long-term relevance.

This is what long-term value looks like in education. Not just a funnel to be filled every year, but an engine that grows stronger with every cycle. A university with gravity. A university defined not only by the students it attracts, but by the people it shapes, the work it produces, and the outcomes it sustains long after graduation.