SWOT Analysis For Analyzing The Suitability Of Offering Courses By Del Monfort University

SWOT Analysis

Disucss about the SWOT Analysis Of Competitive Knowledge From Social.

SWOT analysis is a both external and internal analysis tool which is used in strategic management to identify what are the strength and weaknesses of the company and also what are the opportunities and threats which the business is likely to face. SWOT analysis of allows a business to recognize the above four mention aspects for which the management can plan accordingly (Brooks, Heffner and Henderson 2014). The university plans to offer courses which are related to subjects like applied physics, economics and combined courses. The management of the university first of all needs to analyze the educational market of the country where the university is planning to offer long term courses. The university only needs to decide whether there is a potential market in the country where the company is planning to launch the long-distance course.

In order to analyze the suitability of the plan, SWOT analysis is to be conducted to get an idea about the strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threat of the plans.

1. Strength: The basic strength of the university is that it has already been accepting students from different countries therefore they are familiar with the expectations and needs of the students residing in other countries and engaged in long distance education (Awais and Samin 2012). Another thing is that the university has excellent resources which includes study materials, lecture notes, recorded classes, test kit which are on offer for potential students which will definitely make the plan a great success as students will be attracted to the quality of education provided. Moreover, another strength which the university has relates to the number of courses and the combination of courses which are offered by the University for the students. The number of courses and the combination of subjects which are offered by the university is in the advantage of the university. The university offers the best combination of subjects and offer the rarest of the subjects like Sanskrit, Pali, native languages of the countries where the university is providing its services. The university provides such services to students which will be considered to a strength of the company.
2. Weakness: One of the major weakness is the cost of education which is on the part of students. Long distance courses in major subjects are costly and students might be discouraged by the high costs which are charged for fees or study materials or portal access fee. The techniques which are used by the university for conducting the exams or test or even in academic learning of the subjects can be different for the university and different for other countries. Therefore, the international students might face difficult to cope up with the changes in the educational systems.
3. Opportunities: There is an opportunity for the university to penetrate new markets which have potentially good students and also make the university more reputed globally. Thus, in the process, the university will be able expand the market in which the university operates and gain new students and promote the overall reputation of the university.
4. Threats: The major threat which the university will be facing is from rival universities who also have long distance programs and more or less offer the same courses and there is also the threat of the universities established in the host country which the students might prefer as it gives a chance for regular courses.

Figure 1: (SWOT Diagram)

Source: (Created by Author)

The following recommendations can be offered to make tackle the weaknesses and threats which are identified above:

1. The university needs to consider the cost factor of the education which the university will be providing. Moreover, the quality also needs to be maintained with keeping the cost as low as possible.
2. The university can offer discounts on the fees of such abroad students and also provide scholarship to good students.
3. The university needs to ensure that the courses offered are of best subject mix and innovative ideas need to be applied to gain a competitive edge against competitors.

Porter’s Competitive forces was introduced by Michael Porter which considers the factors which affect the competition present in the market. The five factors which affect Porter’s Five Forces model are bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, rivalry, Threat of new entrants, threat of new substitutes (Dobbs 2014). The five forces are discussed below in details:

1. Bargaining Power of the Buyers: The bargaining power of the buyers refers to the cost expectation and bargaining ability of the students who are engaged in long-distance education. The fees which is charged by the business will be changing to facilitate the requirements of the international students. If the university can keep the fees which is charged from the international students low then the bargaining power of the students will be low. The plan of the management is to keep the prices of the commodities as low as possible so that the bargaining power of the students are low.
2. Bargaining Power of the Suppliers: The bargaining power of the sellers refers to the different individuals or agencies from which the business gets some resources such as books, website access, test materials, advertisement and promotion agencies (Dälken 2014). The bargaining power of the suppliers will be high as they will be providing resources which are unique for the university and therefore the bargaining power of the suppliers will be high.
3. Threat of Substitutes: The substitutes refer to alternative educational services which can be taken by the students instead of the courses offered by the university. The threats of substitutes refer to the other universities providing the same educational courses. Such can also be courses which are provided by domestic universities. If there are alternative sources which provides similar courses then the threat of substitutes will be high.
4. Threat of New Entrants: The threat of new entrants means the new university which are set up either in host country or home country providing the same services. The new entrants in the market are always rare as the level of competition in the market is intense. The threat of new entrant will be low for the university as new educational institutes rarely enters the market.
5. Rivalry among Competitors: Rivalry among competitors is an also important factor which affect the industry competition. The rivalry among the university will be intense as there will be new entrants as well the old players who have been dominating the market. The educational market is normally very much competitive in nature since globalization.

Figure 2: (Diagram Showing Porter’s Five Force Model)

Source: (Created by Author)

The Key performance indicators of the business is the number of student current taken courses in foreign countries, the overall revenue of university from foreign countries and similar other factors (Marr 2012). The objectives of the business should be as follows:

1. To increase the number of students who are opting for long distances courses by providing them with quality education practices.
2. To include and introduce new courses mix with subject combination choices which can be offered to the students.
3. To reduce the cost of fee charged and offer scholarship for students who are financially weak and have good academic record.

The overall demand of the university is quite good as the university has gained positive reputation over the years and also the quality of education is excellent. The study material which are provided by the university covers all specific areas and are appropriate for the curriculum.

Del Monfort University have an excellent plan which can provide an opportunity to the university to reach new markets and offer their courses. In order to achieve this the university needs to formulate a proper advertisement and promotion plan which can result more recognition and more students as well. The following suggestion can be given to the university for further improvement:

1. The university can post in the website that the education of each and every student will be given priority and equal treatment which can be shown by the university by providing same study material and kits which are offered to regular students and also states that the university does not make discrimination on any basis and always education is given preference (Laudon and Traver 2013).
2. The university should use social media tools such as facebook, snapchat, hike for reaching out to students and update on the courses which are provided by the university. The university can use such platforms for further advertisement of the university in order to promote the courses which is provided by the university among students who wants to pursue courses in international universities.
3. The university can conduct a seminar in the country where the company is offering long distances courses and communicate to the students what actually are they offering.
4. The university can also give one or two demo classes to prove the quality of the faculty and quality of studies.
5. The university can improve the online web services which the university is currently offering to the students which can facilitate proper handling of the website and also provide information to the students about the exams and other tests which will be taking place in the university.
6. The university also needs to ensure that the requirements of the international students are meet with the kits and student help services which are provided by the university.
7. The university in order to ensure that the university is competitive with other universities and also the domestic universities which are present in international markets will be providing its international students which are universally applicable and accepted by the all over the world. This a basic requirement if the university wants to be successful in international market.

Reference

Awais, M. and Samin, T., 2012. Advanced SWOT Analysis of E-commerce. International Journal of Computer Science Issues, 9(2), pp.569-574.

Brooks, G., Heffner, A. and Henderson, D., 2014. A SWOT analysis of competitive knowledge from social media for a small start-up business. The Review of Business Information Systems (Online), 18(1), p.23.

Dälken, F., 2014. Are porter’s five competitive forces still applicable? a critical examination concerning the relevance for today’s business (Bachelor’s thesis, University of Twente).

1. Dobbs, M., 2014. Guidelines for applying Porter’s five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), pp.32-45.

Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2013. E-commerce. Pearson.

Marr, B., 2012. Key Performance Indicators (KPI): The 75 measures every manager needs to know. Pearson UK.