INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: ENHANCING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY

This article analyses integrated communication strategies in higher education that strengthen student engagement and institutional identity in an environment shaped by short-form video, meme circulation, and AI-generated media. Relevance follows from algorithmic distribution, fragmented attention, and synthetic disinformation that can erode trust in official university messaging. Novelty is achieved through a unified framework that connects branding and integrated marketing communication with transparency instruments for synthetic content and evidence-based creative design. The study describes how institutional narratives can be translated into platform-native formats (micro-video, memes, interactive stories) while preserving message coherence across admission, academic, and community channels. Sources on university branding, social media marketing, student engagement and trust, short-form video behavior, advertising engagement drivers, neuromarketing measurement, and synthetic-media governance are synthesized. The conclusion outlines actionable design principles, including channel orchestration, emotion-aware message testing, and layered integrity safeguards (labeling, provenance, moderation, and media-literacy prompts). The article targets researchers and communication managers in higher education.