Recruitment is marketing
Recruitment is marketing, full stop.
At its core, talent attraction and recruitment is marketing. If you are an employer, you are faced with job seekers armed to the teeth with choices. Bad luck, the skills shortage problem is not going away soon, either.
So, Sydney University’s student recruitment function is placed under the marketing department. It’s a sign of the times. Whether it is about acquiring new new staff or students, recruitment is all about reaching out and selling your brand.
If you are thinking of hiring staff, talk to your marketing department first.
I agree that recruitment and marketing are intrinsically linked. Even so, this example is ill-advised. I have worked in marketing for a university in Sydney which also bundle marketing with recruitment. In the education sector ‘recruitment’ is really just a euphemism for ‘sales’. Universities are prestige-seeking and would never call what their marketing department does sales. They are selling an educational product when they are “recruiting”. Talent plays into this equation but selling an employer brand is very different from selling a university.
So I would agree sales and marketing are linked but not synonomous and recruitment is not marketing.