The increasing role of branding in the higher education sector is closely associated with enhanced marketing orientation of a modern university. This, in turn, is determined by intensified competition between higher education institutions for students, staff, sponsors, research funding, etc. A strong university’s brand related to excellent academic reputation can become a means for gaining competitive advantage in the global education marketplace. Brand is regarded as a complex concept comprising different constituents, brand image being an essential branding facet. Brand image is linked to customers’ perceptions of a brand that are echoed by a set of brand associations – usage situations, product attributes, brand personality, etc. The aim of the paper is to explore brand personality in higher education based on the data collected in two tertiary education institutions – RTU (Riga Technical University) and TSI (Transport and Telecommunication Institute). The study makes use of the conceptual customer-based brand equity model (CBBE) created by K.L. Keller, which assumes that brand equity is closely related to strong positive and exclusive brand associations that can be expressed as brand benefits, attitudes and attributes, brand personality attributes being an essential aspect of brand equity. For exploring brand personality the paper also applies the brand personality framework, including brand personality dimensions and associated attributes, developed by J.L. Aaker. The paper reports the results of a survey used to collect information about RTU and TSI students’ perceptions of different brand personality attributes. The results of the empirical study demonstrate that every university is recommended to be tolerant, open-minded and respected. The base of it lies on the same ground – the respect towards the personality. Moreover, every university is also recommended to become a “modern brand”, innovation, creativity and thinking “out of the box” being essential characteristics of the brand. The results of the study would contribute to overall understanding of brand personality in higher education, and how it may influence preference for a brand in educational settings.