Project Management: Coventry Universitys New Partnership - Assignment Example

(Source: The Complete University Guide, 2016)

Graph 2: Mode of Study of the Students

(Source: The Complete University Guide, 2016)

Graph 3: Student Domicile

(Source: The Complete University Guide, 2016)

Graph 4: Geneder Differntiation in the University

(Source: The Complete University Guide, 2016)

• UK Education Market

UK education market is one of the biggest industries of the country. Recent study noted that it is the second largest industry in the country after healthcare in terms of size of the market. As on 2012, this was the fifth largest services export sector across the globe with a global expenditure value of US$4.5 trillion and it was supposed to grow at 7% rate in next 5 years. With globalization, the pattern is changing in the UK educational sector. Two of the most well known concepts of modern era in the UK education sector are concept of education agent and concept of implementing franchising and licensing. Under this franchising and licensing concept, different UK universities look for strategic partner as this model is very much cost effective in nature. Universities in order to expand their own courses all across the globe look to implement this franchising and licensing concept (Märzheuser-Wood and Chatwood, 2014, Moustafaev, 2014). Coventry University is also looking for implementing the same concept.

• Scope of the Project

In project management, one of the most important points is analyzing project scope. Every project intended to achieve a specific purpose. Success of any project relies on how the concept of scope is being analyzed.

Image 1: Project Scope

(Source: Newton, 2015)

Keeping all this point in mind, it is very clear that scope for Coventry University to establish a franchise agreement with one of the private universities in Peru is very high. Following are the scope associated with this project for Coventry University:

• Able to exchange student throughout the year for different courses which will ensure admission of a fix number of student in each course every year
• Possibility of exchanging faculty for different courses which will help the students of Coventry University to get in more holistic view of different matters(especially related to business management courses)
• Opportunity to ensure the scope of research for the students in the University of Peru under the guidance of leading professors.
• Through student exchange program, establish a more systemic way of sharing social and cultural points
• Stakeholder Assessment

• • Who is a Stakeholder

Stakeholders are the major part associated with this project. It is one of the major tasks of the project managers to make sure that the stakeholders are able to understand the requirement of the necessity of the project and give significant feedbacks. The term stakeholders can be defined as “group or individuals with whom the organization interacts or has interdependencies. Stakeholders are those who affects or get affected by the actions policies and practices of the organization (Polonsky, 2005, p. 1063)”.

• • Stakeholder Management

In any education project, the stakeholders are student, teachers, parents of the students, the governing body of the institutes, companies which are coming for campus recruitment. Among all these, students and teachers are the most important stakeholders as without them the success of the project is very uncertain.

For Coventry University, Stakeholders are students in their own university, the top management, professors and parents of the students. On the other hand students from the University of Peru with which it will have the franchise agreement, Professors of that university and parents of the students and professors of the University in Peru are also the stakeholders in this project. To manage them properly, project manager needs to make sure that the rules and regulations associated with the student exchange policy is very clear from very first day along with the facilities that each University is going to provide to the students. The standard of education also needs to be same in both campus so as the value of the degree remains the same. Selection criteria that Coventry University uses to select students in their UK campus are according to the standard of the study in the country. The same standard will not be there in Peru, but still a minimum benchmark needs to be maintained to keep the faith of the students of Peru and their parents as one of the reputed Universities is providing the degree and the value of the same is at par the industry standard.

The governing council of each campus needs to meet on a regular basis so that they can discuss about all the points associated with the education such as fees, infrastructure development, student exchange, recruitment of professors, providing opportunity for research etc. A better understanding among all the members can help in increasing the possibility of success associated with the project

• • Initial Assessment of Risk and Opportunities
  • Risk Management

Success of any project is associated with proper assessment of risk and opportunities by the project management team. Risk assessment and designing proper mitigation planning is very much associated with the success of any project. According to Schroder et al. (2011, p. 2), risk is “measure of the probability and consequences of not achieving pre-define project goal.” Assessing all the risk effectively and designing proper mitigation plan is very much important in order to achieve the success in the project (Khatta, 2008)

In this case, following are the risks that the Coventry University needs to take care of designing the project of giving franchise contract to the University of Peru in order to expand the education in Latin America and at the same time, increasing their own standard. The following table is helpful to understand the possible risks associated with this project and mitigation options. Probability of occurrence is in the scale of 0.1 to 0.9 where 0.1 has the less probability and 0.9 has the maximum probability. Same way impact of the risks are categorized as low, medium and high where low is equal to 1 and high is 3.

Table1: Risk Assessment

(Data Source: Castro and Yamada, 2012)

Opportunities

The main focus of Coventry University is to get in association with one of the leading university in Peru via franchising agreement, to capture the growing demand of the education sector in Peru. At the same time, the university is looking forward to popularize its own course in and around Peru and attracting more students to take up those courses without visiting UK. Following are the facts and figures associated with the higher education industry in Peru:

• In last 10 years time, number of student completing the secondary education has increased by 38%.
• With the increasing per capita income of the families (33% growth), the demand for higher education has increased a lot.
• The number of private universities also increased during this time span as the number of increase from 29 to 65till 2010.
• From 2000 to 2010, number of student taken admission in university increased by 106% (Castro and Yamada, 2014)

Image 2: Higher Education in Peru from 2000 to 2010

(Source: Castro and Yamada, 2014)

For Coventry University, there are number of opportunities in the higher education sector of Peru to get in franchise agreement with any one of the top universities in Peru. Following are the key opportunities that the project can utilize in the higher education sector of Peru:

• Establish a well structures student exchange planning.
• Develop course materials to support the students of Peru to become more competent in the industry which is one of the main loopholes in the course structure
• Encouraging research works among the students of Peru
• Increasing the number of permanent professor in the University of Peru with which it is planning to implement franchise agreement.
• Encourage exchange of cultural values between European and Latin American Education sector
• Promoting the brand name of Coventry University in Latin America
• Project Approach

To be successful in this project, the project management team needs to ensure that there is a proper planning present throughout the project lifetime. In the education sector, the main objective of any institute is to ensure that the quality of the teaching remain the same everywhere (Cusworth and Franks, 2013). As Coventry University is looking to go for the Franchise agreement with one of the top University in Peru, the main objective needs to ensure the quality of the study alongside maintaining the standard of the students who are passing out of the university in Peru and getting the degree of Coventry University. It is necessary to make sure that the brand of Coventry University remains in place. To ensure the quality of the study, the project approach needs to be professional and must have following key points:

• The selection process of the students in the Peru University needs to be according to the standard followed and set by Coventry University itself. It is a matter of fact that the level of basic education in UK and Peru is different so as the quality, but a minimum standard needs to be there so the students who are taking admission in the University of Peru can able to cope up with the education system implemented by Coventry university.
• There should be enough number of permanent faculties in the University to ensure that students are getting proper guidance. To increase the number, Coventry University can encourage teacher exchange program as well-providing the teachers of Peru an opportunity to work with UK professors in seminars or presenting papers as well as guiding students for their research in the main campus of Coventry university
• In case of courses such as management etc, the expansion of soft skill is necessary. In Peru, although universities are providing these courses but the level of education is poor hence, student remains jobless. While starting franchise program, Coventry University needs to redesign the course and time to time monitor the same to make sure that the students passing out from this courses are ready for taking industry pressure.
• UK universities are known for research works which is not so popular in the Universities of Peru. By encouraging this concept among the student of Peru and guiding them properly by the experienced teachers of the Coventry University can increase the opportunity of getting more popularity
• Gantt chart

To complete any project successfully, project scheduling is one of the most important factor. Project scheduling is “determination of timing and sequence of operations in the project and their assembly to give the overall completion time” (Mubarak, 2015, p.4). To complete the project scheduling effectively, Gantt chart is one of the basic tools which helps project managers schedule the tasks associated with the project. It is generally associated with projects which are of short duration (Wysocki, 2013, Harper-Smith and Derry, 2012). Following is the grant chart for this project:

• Reference List

Attarzadeh, I. and Ow, S. H., 2008. Project Management Practices: The Criteria for Success or Failure. Communications of the IBIMA, 8, pp. 234-241

Castro J. F. and G. Yamada 2012. Declining Higher Education Quality Affects Postsecondary Choices: a Peruvian Case. International Higher Education, 70.

Castro, J.F. and J.F. and Yamada, G., 2014. Recent higher education trends in Peru: when increased access is not necessarily good. [Online] The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association. Available at: < http://www.lacea.org/vox/?q=blog/recent-higher-education-trends-peru#cuatro > [Accessed 21 June 2016]

Cusworth, J.W. and Franks, T.R., 2013. Managing Projects in Developing Countries. Abingdon: Routledge.

Gray, C. F. and Larson, E. W., 2008. Project Management: The managerial process. Singapore: McGraw–Hill Educations

Harper-Smith, P. and Derry, S., 2012. Project Management: Fast Track to Success. Upper Saddle River: FT Press

Hill, G. M., 2013. The Complete Project Management Office Handbook. Boca Raton: CRC Press

Khatta, R. S., 2008. Risk Management. New Delhi: Global India Publication

Märzheuser-Wood, B. and Chatwood, R., 2014. UK: How Education Providers Are Growing Internationally Through The Strategic Use Of Franchising. [Online] Mondaq. Available at < v http://www.mondaq.com/x/335030/Franchising/How+education+providers+are+growing+internationally+through+the+strategic+use+of+franchising > [Accessed 21 June 2016]

Moustafaev, J., 2014. Project Scope Management: A Practical Guide to Requirements for Engineering, Product, Construction, IT and Enterprise Projects. Boca Raton: CRC press.

Mubarak, S.A., 2015. Construction Project Scheduling and Control. New York: John Wiley and Sons

Newton, P., 2015. Managing Project Scope: project Skills. [Pdf] Available at < http://www.free-management-ebooks.com/dldebk-pdf/fme-project-scope.pdf > [Accessed 21 June 2016]

Polonsky, M.J., 2005. Stakeholder Thinking in Marketing. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing

Ratcliffe, R., 2015. University tables: Coventry slips past Russell Group peers to enter top 20. [Online] The Guardian. Available at < http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/25/university-tables-coventry-slips-past-russell-group-peers-to-enter-top-20 > [Accessed 21 June 2016]

Schroeder, B., Alkemade. J. and Lawrence, G., 2011. Risk Management-A Key requirement for Project Success. Pharmaceutical Engineering, 31(1), pp.1-6

The Complete University Guide, 2016. Coventry University [Online] Available at < http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/coventry > [Accessed 21 June 2016]

Wysocki, R.K. 2013. Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme. New York: John Wiley & Sons

• Appendix

Table 1:

Course of Study

Percentage

Undergraduate

78

Post Graduate

22

Table 2:

Mode of Study

Percentage

Full Time

81%

Part Time

19%

Table 3:

Domicile

Percentage

UK

67%

EU

6%

Others

27%

Table 4:

Student Gender

Percentage

Male

53%

Female

47%