Title page Course name: Marketing for Managers Assessment Task 2: 'Marketing and Competitive Environment' Analysis on University of Sydney Student Name: VAMSIKRISHNA BEZAWADA Student ID: 12049297 Tutor Name: Cuc Nguyen Course Coordinator: Parves Sultan Submission Date: 21-04-2017 Weighting: 40% Summary Like that of the other entities or organizations, it is also important for higher educational or other educational institutes or universities to stay competitive while expanding. The marketing, as well as competitive environment of an organization or a university decides a lot about its success in staying competitive in the competitive higher education market segment. This is an assessment of marketing and competitive environment of a reputed university brand of Australia the University of Sydney which has a glorious history of over one and half century. This assessment task would give a glance of the present marketing and competitive environment of the University of Australia, the issues related to higher education in Australia and what it should do to cope with the present challenges, as well as expand more. Table of Contents Title Page ..................................................................................................................................1 Summary....................................................................................................................................2 Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................3 Background ...............................................................................................................................4 Market Summary .......................................................................................................................4 SWOT Analysis .........................................................................................................................5 PEST Analysis ...........................................................................................................................6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................8 References .................................................................................................................................9 Background The University of Sydney is the Australia’s first university established in 1850 and is engaged in public research over the past 167 years. It is located in Sydney, Australia and is one of the country’s leading universities. The founding principle of the University of Sydney was to be a modern, as well as a progressive institution. William Charles Wentworth proposed the idea of setting up the Australia’s first university (Du Plessis, Strydom and Jooste, 2012). Wentworth imagined there should be opportunities for the child from every class to become great in the destinies of Australia. Since its establishment in the year 1850, the University of Sydney has stayed true to the original value and purpose William proposed by promoting diversity over a century. From the very first beginning, the university has given the chance of access to further education through scholarships to the talented students from all the backgrounds. As early as in 1881 the University of Sydney had started giving the opportunity of education to the women and admitted female on an equal percentage as compared to male. The University of Sydney had been ranked as one of the top three universities of Australia and forty-fifths in the QS World University Rankings. Market Summary The University of Sydney has a strong presence across Australia, especially in Sydney and in the world. It faces major competitions from its main rivals in higher education segment in Australia and across the globe. The University of Sydney has 3400 academic staffs and 70 research, as well as teaching centers. The university is connected with 300,000 alumni around the world and students of the University of Sydney take part in 300 exchange agreements in more than 30 countries. The University has been awarded 400 million dollars in federal research funding, as well as has raised 137 million dollars from 13,000 donors (Hooley, Piercy and Nicoulaud, 2012). In the year 2015, the University of Sydney has taught 33 thousand undergraduates and 21 thousand postgraduates including more than 10 thousand international students from 140 countries across the world. It has adopted several notable methods to promote its higher education opportunities and research offers. SWOT Analysis Strength The University of Sydney has a positive reputation in the external communities in Australia and the world. It is ranked among the top three universities in Australia and 45th in the QS World University Rankings. The students or teachers or researchers who have interacted with the campuses of the University of Sydney have gained positive experiences. It has a proactive partnership with other universities, community colleges, several agencies and various organizations (Huber, 2007). There are many accredited programs enacted in the campuses or teaching centers of the University of Sydney, and the faculty or the staffs of the university support the campus mission, as well as the overall mission of the university. The university campuses facilities include well maintained, as well as new attractive buildings and grounds. The environment of the campuses is friendly and safe for students, teachers or researchers. Weakness The University of Sydney’s campuses has sluggish responsiveness to the student, as well as community needs or requirements. High and unequal workloads exist in the campuses as some faculties or staffs are entrusted with much responsibility than the others. The University of Sydney has lacked in ability to retain faculty (Keegan and Green, 2017). There are limited resources available for the development of the faculty or staff, and the Australian education market is highly diverse for the faculty or staff. The perceptions of appropriate proportions of the main employee categories vary, and there is a lack of strong, pervasive presence of the university in the external community. Opportunity There are several opportunities lay ahead for the University of Sydney, and it has growth potential. Partnerships with the University support the university's initiatives and several partnership options for this purpose are there for the University of Sydney. The university can build successful external community and university campus relationship, as well as can match the curricular and societal interests (Kotler, Armstrong and Harris, 2017). The university can use more technology, and the opportunity for upgrading technologies presently used in the campuses is available for it. Threat The possible threats for the University of Sydney include state budget crisis, private or for-profit or on- line universities responsiveness to program and student scheduling demand, increase in reporting expected by government and society, a shift of focus on numerical achievement versus qualitative achievement, negative public perception, , etc. (Lamb, 2012). There is a possibility of development of another university at any time in the area or areas where the campuses of the University of Sydney situated. Occurence of trading interests for local students in spite of attending Universities was also a threat for University of Sydney. PEST Analysis Political Factors The political theme relating to strategy, process and management which occur at governmental, as well as institutional levels impact broadly on higher education in Australia. The micro-environmental factors regarding higher education that influences teaching and research include existence of similar societies or communities in one region. The expectations of those who are motivated by technology-enhanced learning and teaching practice, those who want to motivate themselves in technology related scholarships and teaching, as well as expectations of those with a focus on high impact educational research in educational technology related fields etc. Recent strategies of the Australian government in this regard express a demand to increase student numbers (Sarangi, 2009). The policies taken by the Government of Australia regarding the higher education in the country have directed to cater to students from diverse backgrounds. The government of Australia has emphasized on giving higher educational opportunities to the students who come from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds or communities. Many significant agendas are occurring in the higher education sector where funding for large scale, sector wide learning and teaching innovation projects are less accessible, as well as scarcer. The governments in Australia are developing more comprehensive mechanisms for monitoring the quality of teaching and learning in the universities and higher education institutes across the country. Economical Factors Sector-wide funding, value for money, as well as employability factors in the present economic climate in Australia is the significant issues to be addressed. The education institutes or universities like that of the University of Sydney have to remain financially viable, and funding across the higher education sector in Australia is tight, as well as competitive. Therefore, the need for strategically prepared to woo funding and to sustain in the competitive environment have become crucial for universities or higher educational institutions. The universities or higher educational institutes need to adopt and enact community mentoring programs on the college campuses (Winer and Dhar, 2014). At the same time, these institutes have to offer value to both mentors and mentees by providing opportunities to increase knowledge, experience, as well as career prospects and job satisfactions. Social Factors Student’s needs or requirements and their expectation from higher education are rapidly changing. As a result, there has been a recent shift taken place to more client-centered focus which astute students about the value they are getting from their educational investments. Following which there is a growing need to accommodate the student work patterns in flexible ways and required to bring flexibility to the places where the students learn. The higher educational institutes and universities bear the responsibilities to adopt different teaching practice to interact with an increasingly diverse student body. The central government and other governments in Australia have begun setting targets and laying down directives for students from a greater diversity of backgrounds like from rural background and different socio-economic background (Lim, 2009). Therefore, the universities operating in Australia currently need to pay attention more in hiring students from diverse backgrounds and at the same time would have to hire students from traditionally underrepresented or low socio-economic backgrounds. Technological Factors Following rapid development in the technological field and continuous up gradation certainly the need for efficient, effective and meaningful ways to spread, as well as share technology enhanced practices is increasing. Students use mobile and social technologies. Universities have themselves been perceived over time that they would be considered as outdated if they follow the rigid structures, traditional teaching styles and use antiquated technologies that do not commensurate with the technologies students use in social lives. Following this evaluation and understanding about technological aspect, the University of Sydney has made significant progress in technology enhanced learning, teaching or innovation in the past decades (Knowledge, 2005). But, there are still large requirements for enhancing technologies and adopting new technologies for the purpose of providing higher education. Conclusion There is a scope of major further expansion for the University of Sydney and prospects for the university are high. But, besides this funding is a becoming major issue in Australia regarding higher education. At the same time expenditure for providing education to the students, teaching them and expense for research projects is increasing which indeed resulting in an imbalance between earning and expenditure. Therefore, universities or higher educational institutes in Australia such as the University of Sydney have to make comprehensive strategies to cope with the raised situation (Hooley, Piercy and Nicoulaud, 2012). The university needs to pay more attention to the critical issues regarding higher education in Australia and in addressing the issues thoroughly. The University of Sydney has a good marketing and competitive environment within and need to focus on the changing requirements of students, as well as researchers. References Du Plessis, P., Strydom, J. and Jooste, C. (2012). Marketing management. Cape Town: Juta. Hooley, G., Piercy, N. and Nicoulaud, B. (2012). Marketing strategy & competitive positioning. Harlow, UK: Pearson Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Huber, J. (2007). 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