Marketing Strategy: University of Greenwich, Brunel University, Middlesex University - Case Study Example

Marketing Strategy By of Greenwich The entry requirements for the business programs are at least 260 UCAs points. This can be either a minimum of 200 points obtained from at least 2 A- level subjects plus an additional 60 points that can be obtained from the AS levels. Admission can also be allowed by at least 14 A level points, if these exams were taken before 2002. Another option is an accepted equivalent Level 3 qualification or an International Baccalaureate with at least 28 points. These standards also apply to students who are from overseas (Meredith, 2012). There is a competitive fee structure for all the courses at the university plus scholarships and bursaries that are available for students who might need financial aid. The average tuition fee rate for the coming academic year at this institution is 10000 Euros for an undergraduate program. The fee for the post graduate program is much higher and is set at 10950 Euros. On acceptance, all students are required to pay a certain amount in advance and this ensures they position is held valid for the next 3 years. Students can also be engaged in employment on apart time basis so as to help them off set their fee arrears. The duration of any of the general business courses that are provided by the institution is 3 years. That is from the beginning of the course up completion and graduation by the student. The university offers General business courses Business Administration Business entrepreneurship and innovation Business with Finance Business with Human resource management Business with Law There are several types of support that are provided by the university administration to enable students to settle in and are comfortable. There are counselling services that are available to all the students and this helps them to cope with life in the institution. There is the chaplaincy that provides religious services to students who might need spiritual nourishment. All students have access to the career canter that offers employability support and ensures that they are guided wisely in terms of career choice and giving them job placements. There is a 24 hour health facility at the institution to ensure that the students receive appropriate medical care.The university has Facebook and twitter pages that provides information about the institution and provides a point of interaction for potential students and university personnel. Brunel University There are various criteria that can be used to gain admission by the University. One is by attaining a score of over 60% in International Baccalaureate diploma examinations. A minimum number of 5 passes in GCSE and this must include English and Mathematics. 3 A; level passes in the appropriate subjects as per the degree requirements. Some course can accept candidates with a Business and Technician Education Council Level 3 Diploma. There is a competitive fee structure for all the courses at the university plus scholarships and bursaries that are available for students who might need financial aid. The average tuition fee rate for the coming academic year at this institution is 10000 Euros for an undergraduate program. On acceptance, all students are required to pay a certain amount in advance and this ensures they position is held valid for the next 3 years. Students can also be engaged in employment on a part time basis so as to help them off set their fee arrears. However, the cost for an international undergraduate degree can go up to 16, 000 Euros. The duration of any of the general business courses that are provided by the institution is 3 to 4 years. That is from the beginning of the course up completion and graduation by the student. Name of course and award titles offered in Business Business and Management (Accounting)Bsc Business and Management (Marketing) Bsc Economics and Business Finance International Business Business computing There are several types of support that are provided by the university administration to enable students to settle in and are comfortable. There are counselling services that are available to all the students and this helps them to cope with life in the institution. There is the chaplaincy that provides religious services to students who might need spiritual nourishment. All students have access to the career canter that offers employability support and ensures that they are guided wisely in terms of career choice and giving them job placements. There is a 24 hour health facility at the institution to ensure that the students receive appropriate medical care. The university has Facebook and twitter pages that provides information about the institution and provides a point of interaction for potential students and university personnel. The university website can also be found upon searching on Google. Middlesex University The University accepts admission from candidates with various academic backgrounds such as A levels, BTEC certificates, Access Diplomas, Scottish Highers, International Baccalaureate and equivalent international qualifications. There is a competitive fee structure for all the courses at the university plus scholarships and bursaries that are available for students who might need financial aid. The average tuition fee rate for the coming academic year at this institution is 9000 Euros for an undergraduate program. On acceptance, all students are required to pay a certain amount in advance and this ensures they position is held valid for the next 3 years. Students can also be engaged in employment on a part time basis so as to help them off set their fee arrears. Students can apply for student loans to cater for their maintenance while they are at the institution. The duration of any of the general business courses that are provided by the institution is 3 to 4 years. That is from the beginning of the course up completion and graduation by the student. The university offers General business courses Business Administration Business entrepreneurship and innovation Business with Finance Business with Human resource management Business with Law There are several types of support that are provided by the university administration to enable students to settle in and are comfortable. There are counselling services that are available to all the students and this helps them to cope with life in the institution. There is the chaplaincy that provides religious services to students who might need spiritual nourishment. All students have access to the career canter that offers employability support and ensures that they are guided wisely in terms of career choice and giving them job placements. There is a 24 hour health facility at the institution to ensure that the students receive appropriate medical care.The university has Facebook and twitter pages that provides information about the institution and provides a point of interaction for potential students and university personnel. The university website can also be found upon searching on Google (Chouhdory, 2008). In summary, there is increased demand for Business courses in the UK by international students and this has led to the development of a learning environment that caters for their needs. This is important as they want to feel at home in these institutions. The universities have also gone out of their way to accept international requirements so that more students can easily gain admission into their Business programs. Table 1:Percentage changes recorded between 2011/12 and2012/13 (Cheverton, 2004). Table 2: For the year 2012/13, you have figures showing UG full time students, UG part time students and a summary of both modes. For each of these three groups, calculate the percentage of UK students (Bos, 2008). Undergraduate 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 1012/13   Number % Number % Number % Number % Number % Social studies 116940 17% 122050 16 125665 16 118973 13 100123 13 Law 50123 9 58140 9 62890 8% 77356 11 49872 7 Business & administrative studies 166265 19 203000 26 258796 30 289721 28 278901 30 Mass communications/documentation 36390 7 34599 6 30213 4 39876 6 56748 8 Languages 79475 12 81990 11% 83155 9 85025 12 82347 10 Historical & philosophical studies 53105 11 50241 6 50001 7 49876 5 42310 7 Creative arts & design 112348 16 140615 19 114267 15 149610 14 167832 21% Education 54275 8 59000 4 60213 8 54637 10 23450 3 Combined 5260 1% 5420 2 4245 3 5225 1% 3462 1 Total – non-Science subject areas 674181 100% 755055 100% 789445 100% 870299 100% 805045 100% Undergraduate students on non-science courses (Berka, 2009) The number of students on non-science course increased over time Business studies were the most studied non-science subject. Combined subjects had the least number of students The number of mass communication students was at a regular level throughout the years. There was an irregular trend in the number of students taking education subjects over the years. Creative arts and design was the second most popular non science subject Cover letter for questionnaires Universities are learning centres and as such have a duty to impart knowledge on the minds of the learners. This illustrates the important role that students have to play in regards to the operations of the University. Without a student body, the campus is just another building without any significance. This therefore means that attention must be given to the welfare of students to ensure that they are satisfied with the services they are getting from these institutions. It is therefore important to obtain feedback from students in regard to the various Universities and the programs that they are studying. Students can further indicate if they feel that the academic programs fit the demand of the job market. This is an opportunity from students to state the weak points in the University operations and areas that they would like to be improved such that their efficiency may be improved. Students can evaluate their programs on set criteria to indicate if the programs that they are studying for represent their ambitions or some items are missing. These questionnaires will be distributed to the students and they will be able to fill the questionnaire over a period of 24 hours before returning the forms. This duration is appropriate because the questionnaire is detailed and a lot of information Is required. The main aim of the questionnaire is to provide a platform on which the services from the Universities’ can be improved (Choate, 2008). Online Course questions The following questions are to be used to evaluate the students’ opinion in regards to online degrees. This will be determined by using 6 types of question (Kerzner, 2000): Open ended Question: Have u ever undertaken an online study course. This question will be necessary so as to inform the respondent the nature of the questions that will be asked in this particular question. This is an introduction to the title question and they can think further in regards to this topic Multiple choice / one selection question: Have you ever considered online study courses? a)Yes b)No Students will be able to provide an answer and this can show the interest that they have towards the online programs. Multiple choice/multiple selection questions: What are your preferred modes of study? A).Full Time b). Part Time c).Online This question is crucial as it helps us which type of study mode is most acceptable to the students and they would use if they had a choice. The answers will reveal the number of students that will readily take up online study as a preferred mode of learning. Likert scales: How do you rate your current study mode (If not online).tick appropriately Poor------ Average-------Good-----Excellent These are used to measure the satisfaction of students in regards to existing forms of education. This will indicate areas that need to be enhanced upon or that can be an opportunity for replacement with online study modes Semantic differentials: On a scale of 1-10 rate the suitability of online courses (1 indicates less suitable while 10 indicates most suitable) This is used to show the suitability of online courses in regards to the students. The average from this figure will indicate the opinion of most of the students. Projective techniques: What do you see when you look at a computer screen with a web page opened. These types of questions expect a response from ambiguous scenes. This is to show if students think about education at all when they go on the internet. Sampling Qualitative research will involve the use of direct methods to obtain data in regards to a given topic (Alex, 2010). This will be the use of interviews so as to compare the attitudes of potential students and the attitudes of current students. To obtain 50 students for the interview is not a difficult task. However, this should be done in such a way that it is representative of all the students at the business school and it is not just a presentation of the opinions of a few individuals. There are various ways of obtaining the sample data and this can be either through simple random sampling or the use of stratified random sampling. The best form of sampling will be stratified random sampling (Rodgers, 2010). This involves the division of the entire population into segments known as the strata. The members of each stratum have common characteristics that make them unique. An example of stratum will be the gender of the students or the nationalities of the various students at the institution. After selection of the various strata, a random selection will be picked from each strata group and this will be pooled together from the selected samples from the other groups to form the figure of 50 students that is required for this study. The number of samples picked from each stratum is not exact but will be based on the size of the strata in relation to the size of the total population. This means that for a large stratum, more than one random sample can be picked to be part of the 50 students that are required for the interviews. The major advantage of this form of sampling is that it takes into account all the characteristics of the population in the sample. It is therefore suitable for a large population that has various attributes such as the one represented by the students at the University. It is also a cheaper option as the costs that would otherwise have been used to carry out the research over the entire University have been greatly reduced. This sampling method enables us to obtain enough information from the various samples that can support the separate analysis by any of the subgroups (McCleish, 2012). The main disadvantage of this sampling method is that it requires a lot of administrative input unlike a case where the research team would have used random sampling to obtain the data. Given that we have access to the student records this will be an easy task since we can select the various characteristics of students that will help us in the interview process. This is much easier as the interview subjects can be approached directly, informed about the process and then an appropriate date is set when they can be interviewed. 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