Marketing And Business Education: Swinburne University Essay.

Overview of Swinburne University

Question:

Analyze the Marketing and Competitive Environment of Swinburne University.

Most students who are looking for business education resort to their known seniors and extensive research- online and offline for deciding the best university for their needs. With an increase in global business markets and the need for good marketing skills, Universities will become a high source of interest. And in this period, it is essential that universities market their packages and education well, i8n order to create a brand name for them and to also attract better students. Here we have taken the example of Swinburne University which is known for its good marketing and technological courses and good rankings.

The Swinburne University of Technology is often called as just Swinburne and is known as a leading university in Australia. The university has more than 24000 students and has been a premier learning institute since 1908 (Wolanski, 2013). The University – Swinburne is in Melbourne in the district Victoria and is a large urban campus with Undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students. Overall it is a top ranked university in the World and is also known for its various high profile courses and programs such as Law, Language, Design, and Aviation, Environment, Business, Media and Communication, Science and more (Technology., 2000).

There are a number of Universities that are largely popular as great places to; learn a varied number of skills and have great education. The first and foremost of Swinburne's market benefit the University of Melbourne which is ranked the top and the Swinburne University ranks at 20^{th (Hyde, 2015)}. The Market for universities is quite high as not only local students, students from developing countries such as India and South East Asia have great interest in having academic experience and to get education from Australian Universities, making it a great place for marketing and impacting future students (Raciti, 2010).

Demand of the course

Marketing courses are highly in demand and they are highly in vogue.  The need for proper marketing, be it offline or online has been soaring high since the start of the decade and Universities today are trying their best to integrate learning and experience into each student’s process of going through marketing (McMeeken, 2014). The whole concept of marketing is to know what your customers desire or need and getting them just that. With a high boost in sales and the high amount of people getting influenced by campaigns advertisements and other promotional activities, marketing is in high demand and the better a person can understand and has the skills, it is better. In this regard, there is a high demand for marketing and good marketing people (Beesley, 2015).

Segmentation & target market

The target market of the Swinburne University is the students around the Australian continent and the south-east Asia. The most interesting factor to consider is that today international students are ready to relocate for a good degree. Students from developing countries are one of the section of the target market. Also, the students in leading schools and colleges are the right target. Also, since for many students their peers and family are the information sources it is needs to reach these people and influence parents with the great track record of Swinburne (Affairs, 2006) 

Current marketing mix

Current marketing mix for the Swinburne College is through the use of traditional methods and through the use of brochures, newspaper advertisement and leaflets provided to the College and School students. Also, the website is used to promote the brand. In order to reach preoperative students, the admission dates, facilities, courses and other information (Goi, 2014)  

Market for business education

Current offer (product/service), distribution, promotion, and price

Currently there are some very popular yet varied course offered at Swinburne, with Arts as well as Social Sciences, Business and Management, Aviation, Engineering, Design, Environment and Language, Aloes film and television as well as health are available... With a few more courses available and all courses are highly promoted through the traditional methods of brochures, school fairs and university fairs. Swinburne is looking forward to selling its courses, which have good costing yet offer a good education and learning experience to the learner though the use of latest learning technologies. The University looks forward to attracting more meritorious students from across the world, with its marketing efforts and also to convert the interested students into learners at the university, achieving the opportunity to provide good education and better prospects in business and marketing students (Salim, 2017)

The Australian educational sector is booming and with more and more students entering the universities from abroad, it is the best time to attract bring students and provide them with the latest standards of education. The PEST analysis of the market shows that there are recent developments in the educational sector which has helped make the university and other universities to upgrade their offerings and the political developments within university is quite low. The Economical condition of the desired market is quite high with education becoming an essential part of new age living and the easy methods to get student loans assisting increased education properties. Also the Social aspect of Swinburne is quite stable and with more than a century of goodwill it provides students with a trust factor which is socially acceptable. There is also factor of technology; the university has its own intranet system providing information to university staff. New course materials, guidance. Also the students get same facilities and opportunity to use internet on the go throughout campus (Burgemeister, 2003).

There are a number of competitors of the Swinburne University worldwide as well as in Australia, these competitors are the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, Australian National University, University of Queensland, University of South Wales and Monash University to name a few. Although Swinburne has other global competitors, in Australia these are the top ones. The most interesting thing is that each university has its own method of development of study and also at the education journey. Swinburne has a wide array of education options for the students as well as various facilities, being near the business hub, it provides good exposure for the students as well.

The SWOT analysis of the Swinburne University shows that there are some interesting strengths and weaknesses for the university. In order to assess the Strengths of the University we should provide information about the best and most interesting features. The University is more than a century old university with a seriously good reputation and good ranking. There are numerous international partnerships with foreign countries. There are a few weaknesses also, and that is that the University has a large number of competitions and a limited seat capacity which prohibits it from taking a large number of students.  Also for marketing, there are some weaknesses; the university is just starting its journey with marketing so it will take more time. There are, good opportunities to use these things like Internet and use it’s website to engage more students. Also teaming up with schools and conducting special inter school projects and small courses can make more people interested. Threats are also eminent as there are a large number of competitors who are more efficient in marketing and have a better brand presence in Australia (Goi, 2014).

Creating value for a brand is essential. and the Swinburne university has already created a recognition for itself. In order to use that reputation and leverage it to excel in the marketing efforts, there needs to be continuous efforts to highlight the areas of strengths. There needs to be a good brand positioning for the Swinburne University with more preference provided to attracting global students and students from high academic qualifications. Attracting interventional students will create a diversity situation in the University, helping to increase the student base (Hyde, 2015)

Conclusion

In the concluding part, few lines we would like to highlight the fact that Swinburne has major aspects of developing itself into a more successful brand and help students find it easier and retain the brand name. In order to create a lucrative option and get the better students, the Swinburne university must get into the competition and use the internet methods, reaching out to more prospective students, maybe provide mock and sample classes to help students decide how they want to proceed.

References

Affairs, N. A. f. F. S., 2006. International Educator, Volume 6. s.l.:the University of Virginia.

Beesley, L. G., 2015. A critical analysis of ustralian hospitality industry, s.l.: Griffith University,.

Burgemeister, S., 2003. Market analysis. s.l.:GRIN Verlag.

Goi, C. L., 2014. A Review of Marketing Mix: 4Ps or More?. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(7), pp. 1-8.

Hyde, K. F., 2015. Auckland University of Technolog. The Australasian Marketing Journal, 5(8), pp. 1-9.

McMeeken, J., 2014. Australian physiotherapy student intake is increasing and attrition remains lower than the university average: attrition remains lower than the university average:, s.l.: The University of Melbourn.

Raciti, M., 2010. Marketing Australian higher education. e-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Te, 4(1), pp. 32-4.

Salim, K. A., 2017. Production and Hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. Journal of King Saud University - Science, 5(9), pp. 1-8.

Technology., S. U. o., 2000. Swinburne University of Technology.. s.l.:Swinburne University of Technology..

Wolanski, E., 2013. Estuaries of Australia in 2050 and beyond. s.l.:Springer Science & Business Media.