From Local Voices to Institutional Value: Assessing Community Perceptions of Private Institutions in Malaysia

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-715-6_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Community Recognition; Public Awareness Channels; Perceived Institutional Impact

Abstract

This study aims to explore how community perceptions shape the institutional reputation of University Poly-Tech Malaysia (UPTM) and Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM) within the urban contexts of Cheras and Bangi. The purpose is to assess the extent to which local awareness, recognition, and communication channels influence public opinion regarding institutional impact. The research addresses a critical issue highlighted by the Ministry of Higher Education, which reports declining public trust in private universities, attributed largely to weak community engagement and limited visibility. Despite national policies encouraging university-society integration, many institutions struggle to build strong local connections. Anchored in Stakeholder Theory and the Corporate Image Model, this study used a structured survey distributed to 100 urban residents. Key variables included familiarity, information sources, and length of residency. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regression via SPSS. Findings revealed that only 15% of respondents perceived the institutions’ impact as highly significant. However, community recognition demonstrated a strong and significant correlation with perceived institutional, while awareness channels and residency duration showed weaker but positive associations. Regression analysis confirmed community familiarity as the most influential predictor. This study contributes to the discourse on higher education branding by emphasizing the importance of localized engagement over mere presence or media exposure. Institutions must prioritize sustained community visibility and authentic outreach to improve public trust, institutional relevance, and long-term reputation within their local ecosystems.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Norhaninah A. Gani
AU  - Nurisyal Muhamad
AU  - Nisrin Ishak
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/20
TI  - From Local Voices to Institutional Value: Assessing Community Perceptions of Private Institutions in Malaysia
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Cross- Disciplinary Academic Research 2025 - Track 2 Advances in Business & Economics, Social Science, Communications & Media (ICAR-T2 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 233
EP  - 250
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-715-6_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-715-6_17
ID  - Gani2026
ER  -