Presentation developed by Peter Vitartas

Introduction

Strategic Marketing Report:Situation AnalysisBy<Name>Presented to<Instructor><Course><Institution, State><Due Date>Executive summaryLa Trobe University was the third university to open in the state of Victoria. The university had about 552 students in 1967. It has now grown significantly in terms of its capacity. It has more than 7000 international students from more than 100 countries. La Trobe is a university named after a great leader referred to as Charles Joseph La Trobe, the first lieutenant-governor of Victoria’s new colony. Charles La Trobe started the university to make a difference to the community he was serving. He wanted to leave a legacy. The university has a five-year strategic plan, 2018-2022 strategic plan. The core objectives are to create an outstanding student experience, to achieve research excellence, to promote student employability, and to be the best education partner. The future of higher learning can be affected by global market trends which significantly impact the way institutions are run. Such market trends include labor market changes, an increase in non-traditional students, changes in people’s preferences about learning methods, and economic shifts. In 2019, the university management launched a series of projects as part of the implementation of the 2018 – 2022 strategic plan. One of the strengths is the creation of a university city to promote peoples’ health, learning, and socialization. The problems that present opportunities to the institution include Increasing total expenditure, substandard teaching faculty, and research issues. La Trobe University should consider creating more partners to have enough support for the implementation of the five-year strategic plan. The management should not wait until the university gets into a financial crisis for them to take action. The rapid changes in the higher learning industry result in new risks. The university should allocate more funds to the risk management department to ensure that employees and leaders are well equipped to deal with challenges.Table of ContentsExecutive summary. 2

• Introduction. 3
• Situation analysis – External 5
• Situation analysis – internal 6
• Problems and opportunities. 8
• Increasing total expenditure. 8
• Substandard teaching faculty. 9

III. Research. 9

• Recommendations. 9
• Cloud readiness. 9
• Identity and access management. 9

III. Acquisitions and mergers. 10

• Strategic risk management. 10
• References. 11

1. IntroductionLa Trobe is among the pioneering universities in Australia. It was the third university to open in the state of Victoria. The university had about 552 students in 1967. It has now grown significantly in terms of its capacity. It has more than 7000 international students from more than 100 countries. In total, there are over 36000 students in La Trobe. At the Melbourne Campus, there are over 28000 students, while the other campuses in Mildura, Sydney, Bendigo, Albury-Wodonga have over 7500 students. La Trobe is a university named after a great leader referred to as Charles Joseph La Trobe, the first lieutenant-governor of Victoria’s new colony (Ryan et al. 2013). Charles La Trobe started the university with the aim of making a difference to the community he was serving. He wanted to leave a legacy. The university motto “Qui cherche trouve” is a French term which means “whoever seeks shall find.” The university brandmark is a wedge-tailed eagle that has been redesigned over time to have a more modern look.La Trobe University offers courses across law, business, education, humanities, and social sciences under the college of art, social sciences, and commerce (ASSC). The other college, Science, Health, and Engineering offers degrees linked to critical global issues and emerging trends in scientific research. The university mission statement talks about shaping the future of students and the community by advancing knowledge and learning. The vision is to address the current major issues and promote positive change through being inclusive, connected, and excellent. The university has a five-year strategic plan, 2018-2022 strategic plan, with the following core objectives:

• To create an outstanding student experience
• To promote graduate and student employability
• To achieve research excellence
• To be the partner of choice for education, industry, and the community

The university management is building a world-class university city at the Bundoora campus. Major projects towards realizing the vision of creating a city of the future commenced in 2019. They formulated the 2018-2022 strategic plan to achieve academic excellence by providing a high-quality experience for the diverse student body. The plan is also aimed at lowering operational costs while maintaining high-quality services. Below are graphs representing financial data i.e. revenue and expenditure between 2015 and 2017.Figure 1.0: Revenue vs ExpenditureFigure 2.0: Revenue2. Situation analysis – ExternalThe future of higher learning can be affected by global market trends which significantly impact the way institutions are run (Lombardi et al. 2017). Such market trends include labor market changes, an increase in non-traditional students, changes in people’s preferences about learning methods, and economic shifts. The skill gap is also a global factor that has an impact on the students’ ability to meet the employers’ requirements in terms of knowledge and skills. There is also a rise in the rate of mergers and acquisitions as a result of restrictive budgets for most of the higher learning institutions globally. There are several prominent market trends in the university-industry that significantly influence higher learning operations. The first one is Artificial intelligence. AI disruption is a major factor influencing nearly all industries globally. According to Puaschunder (2019), more than 70% of paid jobs can be automated. Technology has reduced the amount of work that can be done manually by humans. It is high time now to rethink the purpose of higher education to prepare students for the future job market.The second global trend is emerging markets. Ortiz et al. 2015 claim that high-income countries are no longer the leading in tertiary enrolment. Lower middle-income countries are experiencing an ever-growing number of graduates. More than 70% of global graduates are expected to be concentrated in India, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, and China by 2030. The third global issue is immigration restrictions and student mobility. Studies show that there will be a growth of about 450000 international students by 2030. About two-thirds of internationally mobile students prefer joining universities in more developed countries. Universities need to devise ways of attracting international students. The fourth issue is the growth in demand. Projections show that there will be an increase of about 120 million students in higher learning institutions by 2030. The fifth issue is the rise of non-traditional students. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, about 4.5 million over 24 years of age are expected to enroll in the high-income countries.La Trobe University is facing stiff competition from both Australian universities and the United States universities. The top competitors of La Trobe include Griffith University, Australian Catholic University, Murdoch University, James Cook University Australia, Deakin University, and the University of Newcastle Australia. Most internationally mobile students prefer joining the United States universities. La Trobe has to device effective ways of attracting international students. The Australian universities compete for both local and international students.3. Situation analysis – internalLa Trobe University is doing great improvements in various sectors. In 2019, the university management launched a series of projects as part of the implementation of the 2018 – 2022 strategic plan. The university has its strengths and competitive advantages in the higher learning industry. One of the strengths is the creation of a university city to promote peoples’ health, learning, and socialization. The university commenced various projects in 2019 to realize the vision of building a city of the future as part of the five-year strategic plan. This is a good strategy to attract students both locally and internationally. La Trobe university becoming the first university in Victoria to launch the Net Zero plan in August 2019 is another competitive advantage of the university. The project, worth $75 million, involved installing 7000 solar panels on a number of buildings across the Bundoora campus. About 17 km of solar panels were the objectives for achieving the net zero emissions target by 2029 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2019). This plan would greatly reduce the university’s energy consumption as well as the annual expenditure on energy. Upgrading the lighting by installing about 50,000 LEDs across all the campuses would also significantly help in reducing energy costs. The third initiative that gives the university a competitive advantage in the industry is the construction of 624-bed student accommodation buildings at the Bundoora campus. The accommodation project worth $100 million that commenced in June 2019 will attract both local and international students.The other point that portrays La Trobe university’s strength is the collaborations it has with local communities and local governments. The partnership with Banyule City Council to develop a new La Trobe sports park worth $150 million is an example of the strong relationships the business has with local communities. The park is designed to accommodate about 10,000 members of the local community. Another good example is the Nangak Tamboree project which was launched in 2019 to connect communities by providing an attractive and open cultural space for interaction and enhancing biodiversity. The community projects help the locals to develop trust and loyalty to the university. The other initiative that the university is taking in its strategy is to strengthen the processes for the course and subject improvement. The implementation of the Annual Course Monitoring system provides a consistent and reliable approach in monitoring the quality of each course that the university offers. La Trobe has a good history of conducting academic research to address matters affecting society. In 2019 the university had moved up to position 291 in the global university rankings.The university has a risk management committee responsible for delivering strategic risk management programs. Financially, there has been a gradual increase in the university’s total revenue since the year 2015. In 2019 the operating revenues increased by 7.9% compared to 2018. The increase was a result of improvements in fees. There was also an increase in the international student load. The university total assets have increased gradually since 2015. There was a significant increase in 2018 and 2019. This is due to the five-year strategic plan whose implementation started in 2018. Below is a representation of this financial data in an income statement and a balance sheet from the year 2015 to 2019.Figure 3.0: Income statement and balance sheet4. Problems and opportunities.I. Increasing total expenditureIn 2019, the total expenditure was $844 million which represents an increase of 9.2% compared to 2018. The increase is mainly due to professional fees, salary expenditure, teaching partner payments, and consultancy expenses associated with the new reporting methodology. The expenditure on salaries and wages increased by 8.8% compared to an increase of 1.1% in the previous year. This increase in salaries and other related costs for both academic and general staff is attributed to the increase in the number of students. In other expenses, there was an increase of 11% compared to 1.1% in the previous year. Other expenses mainly increased due to increased teaching partner payments as a result of the new reporting methodology. The increase in consultancy expenditure and professional fees was due to a large number of projects in 2019 compared to 2018. There was also an increase in depreciation and amortization by $4.3m compared to $3.7m in 2018. To reduce the total expenditure, La Trobe university management should revise the students’ fees to match the staff salary expenditure. To cut down other expenses, the management should adopt an affordable reporting methodology. They should also seek affordable consultancy services.II. Substandard teaching facultyDespite the effort to continuously monitor the quality of courses being offered, most of the courses are still not so informative. The learning management system is not user friendly. Some of the components of the system are difficult to use, for example, the enrolment process is too hard for a non-technocrat. Students are experiencing some minor issues with access to some programs. There are timetable issues. Sometimes students complain of getting allocated to teaching staff randomly. The university management should take advantage of the increased revenue they receive from increased student numbers to improve the learning management system. The courses should be reviewed every semester to maintain high-quality education service delivery.III. ResearchDespite the rise in the ranking to position 291 globally, the university still needs to put more effort into academic research. For La Trobe University to compete effectively with other international universities the need to invest more in research and increase the number of postgraduates annually. Research is the most critical feature that can contribute to academic excellence when it is well handled. A lot needs to be done to keep moving higher up the university rankings.5. RecommendationsI. Cloud readinessLa Trobe University needs to invest in software programs that will effectively enable cross-functional collaboration in the higher learning industry. The university management should employ a team of experts to monitor and implement the necessary changes in the learning management system. Redesigning operations and processes will generate cultural issues that will require the chief information officer to develop strong partnerships at work to drive change in the university. The CIO should acquire leadership roles to help the organization understand the need for cloud services and what is necessary to achieve the set goals.II. Identity and access management.There is a need to manage access to the university’s online services across all types of devices. Access management capabilities need to be modified and strengthened to support the emerging technological demands (Wells 2014). The learning system should be made easy to understand and use while ensuring that proper cyber risk management strategies are put in place. Identity and access management is budget-friendly and minimizes the expenditure on cybersecurity activities. It is the best option for all higher education institutions.III. Acquisitions and mergersLa Trobe University should consider creating more partners to have enough support for the implementation of the five-year strategic plan. The management should not wait until the university gets into a financial crisis for them to take action. The projects involved in the strategic plan demand very huge investments. The need for financial aid is driven by the increasing total expenditure especially in 2019 compared to 2018. Mergers or partnerships will help the institution to make it even during tough times of financial problems (Lubik et al. 2013).IV. Strategic risk managementThe rapid changes in the higher learning industry result in new risks. The university should allocate more funds to the risk management department to ensure that employees and leaders are well equipped to deal with challenges. The risk management issue needs to be addressed across all departments. The best method is the enterprise approach which allows institutions to take appropriate actions when crises occur. La Trobe University should adopt a good risk management strategy to prepare adequately for the changing threats.6. ReferencesLombardi, R., Lardo, A., Cuozzo, B. and Trequattrini, R., 2017. Emerging trends in entrepreneurial universities within Mediterranean regions. EuroMed Journal of Business.Lubik, S., Garnsey, E., Minshall, T. and Platts, K., 2013. Value creation from the innovation environment: partnership strategies in university spin‐outs. R&D Management, 43(2), pp.136-150.Ortiz, A., Chang, L. and Fang, Y., 2015. International student mobility trends 2015: An economic perspective. World Education News and Reviews, p.1.Pathan, M., Keerthikumar, S., Ang, C.S., Gangoda, L., Quek, C.Y., Williamson, N.A., Mouradov, D., Sieber, O.M., Simpson, R.J., Salim, A. and Bacic, A., 2015. FunRich: An open access standalone functional enrichment and interaction network analysis tool. Proteomics, 15(15), pp.2597-2601.Puaschunder, J.M., 2019, June. Artificial Intelligence market disruption. In Proceedings of the 13th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (pp. 1-8). Scientia Moralitas Research Institute.Ryan, S., Burgess, J., Connell, J. and Groen, E., 2013. Casual academic staff in an Australian university: Marginalised and excluded. Tertiary Education and Management, 19(2), pp.161-175.UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2019. Teachers and educational quality: Monitoring global needs for 2020 (Vol. 253). UNESCO Inst for Statistics.Wells, A., 2014. Agile management: Strategies for success in rapidly changing times–an Australian University Library perspective. IFLA journal, 40(1), pp.30-34.