English Proficiency as a Quality Signal in International Higher Education Marketing: A Conceptual Framework of Signal Credibility, Student Trust and Enrolment Intention

Abstract

Purpose: International higher education is a market in which prospective students must commit substantial money, time and personal risk to a service whose quality they cannot inspect before purchase. Universities, particularly those offering English-medium instruction (EMI) outside the traditional Anglophone destinations, increasingly foreground English proficiency (of the institution, its staff and its graduates) in their marketing. This paper develops a conceptual framework explaining how, and under what conditions, English proficiency claims operate as quality signals that shape student trust and enrolment intention.

Design/methodology/approach: Following the theory synthesis and model-building approaches to conceptual research (Jaakkola, 2020; MacInnis, 2011), the paper integrates signalling theory (Connelly et al., 2011; Spence, 1973), source credibility research (Erdem & Swait, 2004; Ohanian, 1990), the integrative model of organisational trust (Mayer et al., 1995) and the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) with scholarship on EMI, language ideology and international student choice.

Findings: The framework proposes that English proficiency functions as a costly, partially verifiable signal of unobservable academic quality, international connectedness and graduate employability. Its effect on enrolment intention is transmitted through two sequential mechanisms: perceived signal credibility and student trust (in its competence, integrity and benevolence dimensions). The strength of these paths depends on signal characteristics (clarity, consistency, cost and verifiability), signal source (institutional, third-party or peer) and receiver characteristics (students' own proficiency, language ideologies and prior international exposure). Ten propositions are advanced, including the counterintuitive claim that overstated proficiency signals, once disconfirmed, damage trust more than modest but accurate ones.

Originality/value: The paper is among the first to theorise language itself, rather than rankings, accreditation or brand, as a market signal in international higher education. It offers testable propositions for empirical researchers and practical guidance for admissions, marketing and quality assurance teams, while recognising the ethical tensions created by native-speakerism and the commodification of English.