Strengths and Weaknesses of the Huddersfield University - Essay Example

of Huddersfield Table of Contents Introduction 3 A Brief Background of 3 Future Objectives 4 Future Strategies 5 Advertising Strategies 5 Impact of Fee Increment 7 Strengths and Weaknesses of the University 8 Strengths 8 Weaknesses 9 Conclusion and Recommendation 10 Reference 12 Introduction Education industry is one of the most thriving industry segments of the world. The emergence of globalisation has generated new avenues of job options which demand high skill set of individuals. Universities and academic institutions have emerged to provide skill sets which have made them largely popular among the students across the world. In addition to regular courses universities are also tying up with various organizations to provide tailor made courses specific to different industries. The large scale demand for quality education has triggered a wave of competition among educational institutions especially the private institutions to promote themselves among the students which includes both domestic as well as international students. Academic institutions apart from serving as learning centres are also emerging as a major contributor to the economy of nations. A research report states that the education sector in UK provides employment options to approximately 345,000 individuals and generated approximately 34.8 billion pounds of output in UK alone (Go, 2004, p.19). The present study would focus on the education industry with a special focus on Huddersfield University. The study would encompass an analysis of the different courses as well as the marketing and advertising strategies which would be discussed in the sections to be followed. A Brief Background of University The roots of Huddersfield University could be traced back to the year 1825 with the establishment of Huddersfield Scientific and Mechanic Institute. In the year 1884 the university undertook a series of mergers and renamed itself as the Huddersfield Technical College in the year 1896. The institution had a humble beginning with only basic courses and is presently offering quality education for a vast array of subjects ranging from engineering and technology to arts, drama and music. Presently the university has student strength of approximately 24,000 students representing as many as 130 different nations from diverse cultural background who live together in common harmony. The total annual turnover of the university has been stated at a value of approximately 120 million pounds. The university is known to contribute approximately 300 million pounds directly or indirectly towards the economy of the region and also providing employment to a large number of people apart from the benefits of research carried out in the campus. The university has opened up two new campuses apart from its existing location at Oldham and Barnsley so as to cater to the demands for quality education which has become the need for the hour (University of Huddersfield, 2010). The academic excellence of the university could be analysed from the fact that the university was ranked among the top ten universities in UK with regards o the sandwich courses. In addition the university also has a dedicated research and analysis wing hat undertakes quality research work for the benefit of mankind. The Provision technology wing of the university has the reputation of being the best of its kind in UK. The university also has a large pool of talented faculty members who are known to be experts in their areas of academic domain (University of Huddersfield-a, 2010). Future Objectives The future objectives of the university would include the following aspects namely, Creating a state of the art facility that provides academic excellence in various disciplines. Imparting knowledge with focus on quality research and development to address the needs of the society Creating a favourable promotional and advertising mix so as to create a formidable image of the university in the minds of the prospective students. Future Strategies The university aims to be one of the finest of its kind in promoting research and development as well as imparting quality education. Future plans of the university include a CRM project that would serve to enhance the quality of learning as well as enhance the developments in the research and development divisions. The ‘University Business Mine’ is another such initiative of the university to enhance its academic capabilities. The university also aims to recruit experienced faculty members to add to its existing army of skilled professors. The ‘Centre for Provision technologies’ is another tool that seeks to enhance the research and development activities of the university (University of Huddersfield-a). Advertising Strategies There have been significant changes in the organisational management since last decades. Many new concepts like management tools, models and theories have evolved that strive to facilitate the task of management. In case of managing an organisation, there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration. Marketing plan is one of the major areas of consideration that helps an organisation to generate sustainable sales revenue by countering the intensifying competition. The marketing plan is consist of four Ps i.e. product, price, promotion and place (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2008, p.46). This section deals with advertising strategy of the University of Huddersfield. Advertising strategy is an integral part of marketing strategy and it is one of the major tasks in promotional activities. Advertising is an external communicational tool of a company. Dayer (1990) has used very common term to define advertising. He explained that “advertising means to inform a large number of people about something” (Janoschka, 2004, p.15). In this definition, ‘people’ are the target audience or consumers and ‘something’ is the information regarding the offered product or service. In case of University of Huddersfield, the target audience are the aspiring students who want to pursue courses for undergraduate, postgraduate and aspiring doctorates etc. This university is primarily using its websites for its advertising strategy. Its website provides essential information considering needs of prospective students. Advertising should be altercative and must appeal the target audience. As this university offers part time as well as full time courses, its base of target audience is quite large. This website also offers online prospectus for each part time and full time courses. Moreover, impressive photos of campus infrastructure and location are helpful to attract target students. It is an effective way of executing adverting strategy. Moreover, in order to promote and build its brand image, the university is using popular social network sites. This is known as social network advertising and the popular social network sites used by this university are like Facebook, Linked-in, MySpace, and Twitter etc. Social network advertising is the best and very cost effective way to communicate with the large numbers of target audience (Tuten, 2008, p.35). Impact of Fee Increment In this modern age, the education has become an expensive affair. Due to technological developments, there also have been improvements in the field of academics and education. In order to equip with better technology, the modern universities need better infrastructures which costs high. Moreover, in order to provide the world class teaching, the universities hire many international part-time and full-time professors, lecturers etc that also costs combatively higher. There are wide ranges of academic areas, like technology related, literatures, business, finance, media etc. Due to technological advancements, various supporting technological gadgets and tools are required and these are expensive. The modern world has become very competitive and student must know the technical know-how of their domain. Therefore, the universities have to provide these facilities to its students and it causes an increase in fee structures. However, in spite of such necessary expenses, many critics condemn universities for increasing fees abnormally that become burden for students. Ronald Ehrenberg has realized the tuition fees of universities are rising at higher rates than inflation rate. He commented that it “did not permit academia to share in the productivity gains that caused earnings growth in the rest of society” (Ehrenberg, n.d.). Government policies are one of the major drawbacks in this respect that leads to raise the tuition fees. “Dysfunctional university system” may be one of the major culprits and on the other hand, economic forces are also liable for increasing tuition fees in universities (Archibald and Feldman, 2010). The major impacts of raising fees are on the prospect of the students. Based on the above discussion, it has been realized that fees in universities are rising at higher speed than inflation. On the other hand, the rise in the income level of the people is as per the inflationary rate that creates a significant gap between income level and tuition fees. This leads to develop hurdles for students’ academic career. The governments must regulate the universities to control abnormal increasing fees and university authorities must design its fee structures after considering its internal needs and economic conditions. Strengths and Weaknesses of the University Strengths The main strength of the university is its long association with the academic world which begins from as long as 1825 when the university was first established. The university has achieved a distinction for providing quality education since a long time. Dedicated centres for excellence in diverse subject areas such as history, music, chemistry and other areas provide another feather to the cap of the university. The university also has ties ups with various national and international universities which includes collaboration in research, students exchange programs and tie ups with institutions of academic repute both within UK and the rest of the world. It also has the advantage of being located in a nation which boasts of being one of the economic superpowers of the world with a strong and a stable government always promoted towards promoting higher education among the masses. This aspect has also made it one of the most obvious choices of education among the international students who wish to select UK as a destination for acquiring higher education. A strong cosmopolitan culture also attracts a large number of international students which is quite evident from the fact that the university has students from approximately 130 nations across the world. In addition the university also boasts of a large pool of talented individuals who form the faculty members of the university. These individuals have earned a distinction for being among the best of their kind both in academic research as well as corporate experience. This rich blend of experience and knowledge makes the university as favoured destinations for students both from within the nation and abroad. A well dedicated and informative website adds to the strengths of the university. The well designed web page provides complete information about the details of the university including the courses being offered and other aspects with regards to education. A well defined scholarship program is also present for the meritorious students which are available for both domestic as well as international students. The university also has a provision for students who wish to earn a portion of their living expenses while studying in the campus (University of Huddersfield-b, 2011). The university also has a well dedicated library which is touted to be among the best in the nation. The libraries represent a gold mine for students as it has numerous collections of academic materials that are required to equip the students with the challenges of the present day business organizations and research agencies. Finally the university’s stress on enterprise based academics puts it among the select league of institutions helps students gain practical expertise while still being in the university. One such program is the Business mine program which is a unique program dedicate towards providing practical experience to its students involving both its preset students and alumni who hold considerable positions in their areas of academic domain all across the world (University of Huddersfield-a). Weaknesses Every organization of the world has its share of advantages and disadvantages and the University of Huddersfield is no exception. In spite of being a reputed academic institution of the nation it also has certain drawbacks of which the primary weakness remains the high cost of education which deprives many talented individuals from pursuing their education at this coveted educational institution. Another disadvantage includes fewer corporate tie ups which is very important for educational institutions to make themselves popular among the prospective students. The analysis of strengths and weakness of the university shows the considerable brand image of the university amongst its target audience. The key for success lies in harnessing the opportunities by capitalising on the strengths and minimising the weaknesses so as to emerge as the most favoured destinations for prospective students both from the nation and abroad. Conclusion and Recommendation This paper has dealt with the different aspects of the universities in respect of University of Huddersfield. The primary aim of this paper is to analyze University of Huddersfield’s different areas to offer a set relevant and plausible recommendation. The first section has provided a brief introduction of the university followed by an analysis of its advertising strategies. The university primarily uses its website for advertising, promotions, and for maintaining relationship with potential and former students. The next section has discussed the impact of increasing fees on students’ prospectus. The analysis of strengths and weaknesses of University of Huddersfield has provided necessary information for framing recommendation. It should focus on increasing corporate tie-up that will help the university to get higher corporate exposures. University should maintain a trade off between potential students’ economic condition and its internal monetary necessity for designing fee structure. In order to offer better academic scope to its students, it can conduct greater student exchange programs. It should also focus on its advertising and promotional strategies. The competition in the academic sectors is being intensified and hence, it needs to position its brand in the academic industry. Reference Archibald, R. B. and Feldman, D. H. November 08, 2010. Why Does College Cost So Much? [Online]. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/01/rising-cost-education-opinions-best-colleges-10-feldman-archibald.html. [Accessed on March 04, 2011]. Ehrenberg. R. No date. Tuition Rising: Why College Costs so Much. [Pdf]. Available at: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0005s.pdf. [Accessed on March 04, 2011]. Go, V. 2004. Evolution of the University Business Model and Infrastructure Planning Due to Technological Innovations. [Pdf]. Available at: http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/16667/56607299.pdf?sequence=1 [Accessed on March 04, 2011]. Lamb, C. W. Hair J. F. and McDaniel, C. 2008. Essentials of Marketing. 6th ed. Cengage Learning. Janoschka, A. 2004. Web advertising: new forms of communication on the Internet. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Tuten, T. L. 2008. Advertising 2.0: social media marketing in a Web 2.0 world. Greenwood Publishing Group. University of Huddersfield. 2010. The University of Huddersfield. [Online]. Available at: http://www2.hud.ac.uk/about/history/index.php [Accessed on March 04, 2011]. University of Huddersfield-a. 2010. About us. [Online]. Available at: http://www2.hud.ac.uk/about/index.php [Accessed on March 04, 2011]. University of Huddersfield-b. 2011. Tuition fees 2011/12. [Online]. Available at: http://www2.hud.ac.uk/international/fees/ [Accessed on March 04, 2011]. Read More