Rosebank College voted coolest college in South Africa

The results of the thirteenth Sunday Times Generation Next Youth survey are out and Rosebank College, an educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE) has been voted the coolest college in South Africa.

The annual survey, commissioned by the Sunday Times and conducted by HDI Youth Marketeers, is a measurement of youth sentiment towards brands and celebrities in South Africa. Nearly 12 000 young people aged between eight and 23 years, across urban and peri-urban parts of South Africa, were interviewed.

"We are humbled by the experience and the vote of confidence and we thank South African youth for this honour. We would especially like to thank our current registered students for being our ambassadors and flying the Rosebank College flag high. We look forward to educating and empowering more South African's this year and beyond," says Daphne Mphaga, Marketing Manager at Rosebank College.

The Sunday Times Generation Next Youth survey is a leading annual youth brand preference and consumer behaviour survey with two components, the first which focuses on brand preference and the second which focuses on lifestyle and consumer behaviour.

"Education and spirituality are the big themes in this year's study," says Catherine Bothma, MD of HDI Youth Marketeers. "Without a doubt, young people view self-enrichment as very important. Only nine years ago youth couldn't live without their cellphones and money, whereas this year, those have fallen to 4th and 5th place, making space for family, religion and education."

Asked why young people voted Rosebank College the coolest college in South Africa, Mphaga says: "We would love to think that they know that we are passionate about empowering the youth and that we believe that education is a tool to not only work in an organisation but also to build and manage organisations for the benefit of themselves and the continent."

Staying abreast of how young people interact with and respond to brands is an ongoing process. Intensive research process is conducted by HDI Youth Marketeers and the capturing, analysis and validation of the results are conducted by external third parties that specialise in statistical analysis and validation. Data collection took place between January and March 2017.