SWOT Analysis Of De Montfort University's International Distance Learning Program: Essay.

De Montfort University is a thriving institution with a very distinct identity and clear strategic plan. Part of its strategy has been to develop and increase the number of international students who choose to come to the UK and study at DMU. Currently the University offers a range of courses at UG and PG level and recruits students from a number of countries, including India, China, Malaysia, etc. who come to the UK to study and complete their degrees. The University is considering extending and growing its International numbers by offering more courses to be delivered to overseas students in distance learning mode. This alternative channel has the basis for increasing the number of International students choosing to study at DMU and for increasing the number of countries that they could market their courses to, thus providing the potential for significant extra revenue and also increasing awareness of DMU in the global marketplace.

This assignment is in several parts and will require you to undertake research, use and apply the knowledge that you have gained on the course and your own personal knowledge and experience.

Part 1 

In your role as an external consultant to the University you have been asked to undertake a SWOT analysis for the Universities proposal to offer more courses to overseas students through distance learning.  Your analysis needs to be detailed and will require you to research the DL marketplace, examine what the University currently offers, what its resources are etc. You need to then create and provide a SWOT diagram based on your analysis.

Based on this analysis, write a short 300 -500 (max) report that includes a summary of your findings and a list of any specific recommendations that you have. These recommendations are likely to include how any weaknesses or threats identified in the SWOT analysis can be overcome.  

Part 2 

Having completed your SWOT analysis, using any external situation analysis model for e- commerce that you have knowledge of, for example, Porters Competitive Forces Model, or Angherns’ ICDT model, undertake an analysis and use the outcomes from the analysis, to provide a set of objectives, identify some critical success factors and key performance indicators that could be used to measure if the objectives were being met. You need only set a maximum of 5 but a minimum of 3 objectives. These can be presented in either a report or tabular format Part of your analysis should focus on what competencies and resources are required, what competition exists, what organisation changes are required or forced, what is the demand?

Part 3 

In about 300 words suggest what DMU could do on its website to address issues such as culture and trust and how it could use on line communication tools to reach out to its potential target audience.   

The given SWOT Analysis has been conducted based on the distance learning market place environment and the courses offered by DMU, along with the courses offered by its competitors.

Figure 1: SWOT Analysis (As created by the author)

Analysis

The SWOT Analysis is a strategic management tool which helps in the analysis of the strengths and analysis of a certain project to be implemented, a product or a particular service which has been launched recently. It will also help in analysis of the opportunities that the product might face in the external environment of the business (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014). The threats that exist in the environment are also stated.

For the given analysis, the SWOT Analysis has been performed with respect to the strategy of DMU where it plans to expand its distance learning program by offering a wide number of courses. From the SWOT Analysis the following could be found:

• The university is a leading established university in the United Kingdom, which has a wide range of experienced teachers who have been highly trained (Barney 2014).  The university has an international presence that has the experience of providing various courses in the campus.
• However, when the video is uploaded, it may not be of the optimum quality. There may also develop a situation where the student undertaking the course, is unable to comprehend the teachings.
• Furthermore, the given distance learning program, lacks flexibility with respect to the timings of the class specifically when the lecture is a live one. Adding to this, there is hardly any doubt clearing sessions for the students in a personal format, this may lead to problems in the future.
• However, as the demand for learning from the foreign universities has increased considerably which has lead to an increased demand and the university can see to it that they are able to harness this demand (Eden and Ackermann 2013).
• Various technological innovations like Live chats and video chatting has further increased the success opportunities for the university.
• The major threats are the competition present like Liverpool University, Ruskin Anglia and others.

Recommendations for the university are as follows:

• The University can arrange for personal doubt clearing sessions so that reach distant leaner can clear their doubts and easily connect themselves to the tutors.
• Offer courses at competitive prices. If DMU offers various courses at competitive prices then it will be able to gain advantage over its competitor universities (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez 2018).
• Lastly, for videos on different chapters, the quality and language option should be enabled.

The given Porter`s five forces model analysis the external environment of the e-commerce industry with respect to the distance learning program offered by the DMU

Figure 2: The Michael Porter`s Five Forces Analysis (As created b the author)

Findings:

• From the application of the Porter`s Five Forces Model to the e-commerce industry pertaining to the distance based learning program offered by DMU, the following could be witnessed:
• The industry has the presence of a large number of competitors with respect to the different universities (Wheelen et al.2017). There are many universities who are better than DMU and are providing larger opportunities for distance based programs. High intensity of rivalry.
• The threat of substitutes is also high as there are various online websites who are providing the students with free courses. The courses offered by them are generally free which saves huge costs of the students.
• The bargaining power of the suppliers who are the teachers is low as they are generally the tutors teaching in the university or the ones who are appointed specially.
• The bargaining power of the buyers which refers to as the students is high as they have various other options at their disposal (Slack 2015).
• The threat of new entrants is also high as online presence these days is very easy.

Objectives identified for the university:

1. Achieve enrollment of 5000 each year.
2. Earning a profit of $100000 in the first year
3. Offering more than 50 specialized courses

Table 1:

Organizational change required

If DMU decides to invest more in the distance education based technique then it will be required to see to it that it is able to bring about a change in the structure of the organization. A separate distance learning department needs to be set up who will be required to see to it that the student grievances and management is done in a clear and concise manner (Moriarty et al. 2014)

Competition present

Presently, there exists vast competition with various other universities offering the same program.

Demand

However, as education forms and integral part of life, the demand for learning programs is very high.

Ensuring promotion of culture and trust in the website:

In order to ensure that there develops trust among the students with respect to the course offered the DMU webpage needs to ensure the following:

• Professional Web design: The design of the website should be done in a professional manner to ensure that it looks like it belongs to a professional institute
• Brand Humanization page- There should be a section `About us` in order to ensure that the website viewers feel as if they can relate to the university and its offerings.
• Privacy Policy: The privacy policy of the university should also be given.
• Contact Us Section-This section should provide detailed information on how to reach out to the university.
• Certified seal- The registration number and certified seal of the university should be given (Andrews and Shimp 2017).

The given communication tools can be used by the University:

• Email marketing : Sending out email in form of a brochure to the  potential students
• Search engine marketing
• Social media marketing- As the primary target market of the University is the students; social media marketing would be the perfect method to contact them.
• Educational magazines can also be a method to target the audience.

References

Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education.

Barney, J.B., 2014. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson higher ed.

Eden, C. and Ackermann, F., 2013. Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage.

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N.D., Wells, W.D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L. and Spence-Stone, R., 2014. Advertising: Principles and practice. Pearson Australia.

Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI Tourism Texts. Cabi.

Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.