The Role of Marketing Concepts in the Future Provision of Higher Education - Coursework Example

Introduction: One of the impacts of recession has been on the education industry. This industry that was once government funded in now witnessing a severe callous attitude of the government towards it. The government in order to mitigate some of the recessionary impacts has cut its funding to this industry. As a result of this, an environment of hyper competition has emerged in this industry. Education institutes are offering different value to students in order to attract the best and the brightest minds. However, these institutes are not at all compromising on their tuition fees, which are increasing exponentially as the government is adamant on decreasing its funding to this industry. This prevailing situation is forcing individuals to give a serious thought to the utility of a university degree. In this decision students are giving serious thought to their future job prospects, their loan repayment capability, their employability and the mind set of employers. This prevailing situation has provided an opportunity for the emergence of vocational train institutes, who are also competing for their share of students in this education industry (Adcroft, Teckman, and Willis, 2010). Looking at this situation, many universities have started adopting or making use of concepts that were previously confined to the business domain. More and more universities are getting market oriented and adopting practices that are aimed at positioning these universities effectively to face the tide of intense competition. This convergence of business practices in the education industry is raising eye brose of many critics, who consider this to be an unacceptable abomination (Blanden and Machin, 2004). By means of this report the researcher is going to critically evaluate the developments that are undertaking in this industry. Moreover, the researcher is also going to see how the contemporary marketing concepts apply in this industry. The researcher will conclude by giving a future perspective of this industry, basing his opinion on the current trends found in this industry. This research focuses on marketing concepts such as value proposition, differentiate, innovation, market orientation and relationship marketing and etch. Value in the Education Industry: Value is at the core of any product or service that is offered to a customer. The reason why this concept is important is because a customer shows a positive intension towards consumption only when they see a value that is compatible with their expectation. In any kind of product, it is imperative to have a differentiating value proposition that is compelling enough to induce customers to undertake a positive first step towards the product. In the case of a higher education institute, the items that create value for an institute comprise of the following items: University Reputation University Graduates Employability Quality of Education Quality of Faculty Infrastructure of the University University Environment Number of world class scholars and researchers developed by the university Number of researches conducted by the university’s faculty and the impact of these researches on the society. Increasingly, industry experts are supporting the notion that universities today are losing their clarity of vision and are moving away from their true purpose. According to these industry experts’ universities, which were supposed to provide knowledge base to students that would do more than just to enhance their skill levels, thereby making them an integral part of the society that would contribute to the economic and social well being of the society of which they are a part off (Clark ). However, instead of doing this, educational institutes are occupied by the drive to beat their competitors in this industry. In this situation, all universities are fighting for a differentiated value rather than offering price concessions to students entering this industry. Even though the quality of education remains the foremost pillar of this industry that attracts new students to this industry, but due to the high cost that has become associated with quality education, students are giving this segment a second taught. More and more students are moving towards the substitutes that have come to emerge in this marketplace. Substitutes in this industry have taken up variety of forms, some of these substitutes have been the result of technological innovations in this industry (Corcoran and Wals, 2004). Technological innovations in the Education Industry: The 21st century has been the epitome of technological innovations, which have almost penetrated into every industry. Technological Innovations in the field of communications have made immense progress in recent decades. These innovations have literally reduced the geographic distance that previously existed between nations. This obviously has long ranging benefits for students who without moving out of their comfort zone can study in a foreign country’s university. This method of acquiring university education has been considered by many as a viable option that saves student’s money. This method erases costs such as hostel fees, health insurance, travelling expenditure and etch. Most important thing that has emerged out of this development is that a student can acquire a foreign university’s education (quality of education) from his home country, at almost half a price. In this kind of situation, foreign universities which do not offer long distance education, tries to attract students towards them by means of providing superior university life experience. This drive entails offering students superior educational facilities like libraries, sports complex, dining rooms, state of the art class rooms and etch. However, in this drive to offer superior university life experience, universities are moving away from their foremost purpose of providing superior quality education. This changed focus of educational institutes has a very profound implication; in order to fund these above mentioned expenditures without the support from the government, universities are charging students exacerbated rates (fees). In this situation, the universities are failing to realise that fundamental need of today’s students. In today’s education industry, students are looking for universities which can enhance their employability skills. Not only students are showing this need but also employers who want to recruit already trained employees, so as to avoid the cost associated with training newly recruited employees. This is the need which majority of these universities are ignoring. This ignorance is providing a thriving ground for vocational institutes and short certifications. The widening of the gap between the value expected (by students) and the value delivered (by universities) is creating problems for the universities and presenting opportunities for vocational institutes and training certifications (Dobson, Quilley, and Young, 2010). The argument that has been presented in the above paragraph has two opinions. Proponents of the first opinion say that there is bound to be a difference in the value that is actually perceived by the customer in this case the students, with the product offering which in this case is the skill oriented education. For some students the education imparted by the university might be sufficient while for some it might not be sufficient. In addition to this, it is also not necessary that the value that is delivered by a university is tangible; instead it can be in the form of intangible and long last things like friendship, personal experience and memory. For some students, this important juncture represent a life changing and shaping investment, which comes to them when they select a particular university and that university selects them. Contrary to this point of view is the view that they importance of imparting quality education at a reasonably cost, which trains an individual to be personally and socially responsible, is an undeniable reality to which there is no replacement (Dobson, Quilley, and Young, 2010). The reaction that is being witnessed from the students towards this recent hike in tuition fees is inclined towards the second opinion. Student protesters are of the opinion that rising tuition fees does not necessarily leads to the enhancement of the quality of education, and therefore this hike in tuition fees is not justified in way. And for them, this entire situation is contrary to their expectations with this industry. Scope of Technology in the Education Industry: Recent wave of technological innovation has not only played a role in reshaping the previous dynamics of this education industry, but also has penetrated farther into the operational processes of the university. Some of the processes where technology has found its application are: online course registration, online admission, online university promotion, disbursement of online prospectus of the university, online class rooms, online university portals and networks and etch. Technology revolution has enabled universities to offer e-learning options to students who could view live lectures of university professors, with an added feature of replay. This innovation has helped universities to enhance the learning experience of students. However, this evolution has all got its dark side. Ever since its emergence in the industry, the number of teaching hours that each student had to go through previously have been reduced. In current times, student are paying more tuition fees for less number of teaching hours. This aspect of technology has seriously gone on to hurt the value of education that is being offered by universities to students. Another issue that has been raised by the evolution process of technology and its resulting digitisation of information is that more and more information is available online, which exponentially decrease the utility of libraries for students who can easily access a pool of information without any effort at all (Oakleigh Consulting, a). Market-Orientation in the Education Industry: The fundamental logic that governs any market driven strategy is that the market and the customers that form a particular marketplace should be the point of focus of any business strategy. By keeping this focus, a firm or an educational institution in this case become more aware about the needs and wants of the marketplace and this awareness in turn enables them to anticipate accurately future needs of the marketplace. However, in the case of the education industry this market driven strategy has failed to make its mark. The error lies in the fact that universities in this industry have failed to understand the actual orientation of their marketplace and their customers (students). Emphasis of universities on providing complementary facilities at a price that is not compatible with the students is an outrageous ignorance to the prevailing situation in the industry. Universities failure to provide a skill based curriculum to students at a cost that is acceptable to them is a total misrepresentation of the real market need currently prevailing in the industry. This ignorance also fails to consider the needs of the employer who currently is seeking individuals who can bring certain skill to the organisation. This is advantageous for an employer from two perspective, one they would not be entitled to pay hefty salaries to university graduates and, secondly, they would not have to spend on training new recruits. Looking at the prevailing mindset of employers, there is no point in spending heaps of money on potentially worthless university degrees (Oakleigh Consulting, b). It is important to mention that the concept of market orientation is different from the concept of free market. Although, the education industry is not truly market oriented at the moment but it is adopting the dynamics of the free markets. This move towards the free market is propelled by the universities initiative to extract funds from students and private sources of funds instead of the government (Osterwalder). Marketing blunders in the Education Industry: In the drive to remain in the education industry, educational institutions are opting for hackneyed and ill-focused strategies. These institutions rather than providing a truly differentiated value proposition are focusing on complementary features of this industry. Due to a weak core product (quality of education) these institutes are finding it difficult to operate along with competitive products (vocational training institutes), which are well focused and have a definite value proposition. Without a strong core product (right quality of education), educational institutes cannot operate effectively. In no circumstances can augmented product features substitute for core product features (Vita and Case, 2010). Conclusion: This report comprehensively analyses the applications of key marketing concepts and relevant theories in the education industry. In this analysis, the researcher found the participants of the education industry as wrongly applying the marketing concepts. In this report the focus of the researcher has been the universities operating in this industry. The researcher found that universities of this industry have failed to correctly understand the needs of its marketplace and as a result of this have provided an opportunity to competitors to come up the competitive ladder. The transformation of this industry into a free market industry, after the cut backs in government funding, has plunged this industry into intense competition (Ryan, 2001). As a result of this intense competition, universities are looking for a sustainable competitive advantage that would differentiate them from rest of the industry players (Royal education Foundation), however, this competitive advantage is getting harder to find or develop. Augmenting this difficulty is the fact that universities are wrongly perceiving the needs and wants of this marketplace. This entire situation is leading students to think rationally about the utility of a university degree. More and more students after conducting a rational analysis of this situation are moving away from universities. These students are opting for vocational training certificates or programs like apprenticeship in a particular area rather than university degrees. In order to be successful in this environment, universities need to adopt customer orientation or more appropriately student orientation. In order to adopt this kind of orientation, universities will need to design policies and degree programs that fit the need description of the industry participants-students and employers. Policy area that needs serious reviewing is that of tuition fees, while the degree programs, which are being offered by the universities of this industry, needs to be more skill oriented. By doing this, universities will be able to position themselves effectively in this industry. List of References Adcroft, A., Teckman, J., and Willis, R., (2010), ‘Is higher education in the UK becoming more competitive?’, International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 23, no: 6, pp. 578 – 588. Blanden, J., and Machin, S., (2004), Educational Inequality and the Expansion of UK Higher Education, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, vol. 51, no: 2, pp. 230–249. Clark, P., UK higher education as a strategic national asset, Pearson, Available at http://pearsonblueskies.com/2011/uk-higher-education-as-a-strategic-national-asset/ [Accessed 9 May 2012] Corcoran, P., and Wals, A., (2004) Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability: problematics, promise and practice, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London. Dobson, A., Quilley, S., and Young, W., (2010), Sustainability as competitive advantage in higher education in the UK, International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, Vol. 9, No.4, pp. 330-348. Lea, M., and Street, B., (2006), Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies approach, Studies in Higher Education, vol. 23, no: 2, pp. 157-172. Oakleigh Consulting a, Business & Market Intelligence In Higher Education, Available at http://www.oakleigh.co.uk/page/21/Services/Education/Articles/Business-%26-Market-Intelligence-in-Higher-Education [Accessed 9 May 2012] Oakleigh Consulting b, Benefits Of Market Intelligence In Higher Education, Available at http://www.oakleigh.co.uk/page/3493 [Accessed 9 May 2012] Osterwalder, K., The Role of Higher Education Institutions in Promoting Sustainable Development, United Nations University, Available at http://www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=705&ddlID=887 [Accessed 9 May 2012] Royal education Foundation, Study in UK, Available at http://www.royaleducation.edu.np/country.php?country=uk [Accessed 9 May 2012] Ryan, J., Academic shock: Thoughts on teaching international students, The Guardian, Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2011/may/18/teaching-international-students [Accessed 9 May 2012] Vita, G., and Case, P., (2010), Rethinking the internationalisation agenda in UK higher education, Journal of Further and Higher Education, vol. 27, no: 4, pp. 383-398. 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