Implicit contradictions in public messages of "low-stratified" HE institutions: The case of Israeli teacher training colleges

The current paper explores the messages through which low-stratified higher education (HE) institutions strive to increase their organisational image and "product" status and concurrently to attract prospective students. Thus, by a qualitative content analysis of 66 advertisements of teacher training colleges in Israel, the paper provides insight into the complexity of re-building new images for HE institutions that have long suffered, and still suffer, from a low public image. It is argued here that both the messages directed to transmit a more "academic", "professional" and "university-like" image, and the messages aimed to emphasise the personal advantages gained by applying to the colleges, may, ironically, further weaken the publicly low-academic image of the low stratified HE institutions and re-position them in the postsecondary system. Practical implications for marketing the low-stratified HE institutions are suggested.