Executive Summary

Latrobe University is a public research university established in Bundoora, Melbourne in 1967. The educational institution offers a wide range of undergraduate and post-graduate courses in a wide variety of fields. The university has a strong mission and vision that adheres to advancing the quest for knowledge and learning and creating a positive change in the community by displaying connectivity, excellence and Inclusiveness.

A thorough external situation analysis of the Latrobe university Bundoora Campus revealed that the institute operates in a fiercely competitive market with top universities such as the University of Melbourne (UoM), Monash and Victoria university. The environmental analysis also revealed that Latrobe was amongst a list of universities that went into a financial budget crisis after COVID’19. However, the university continued to display operational excellence in it’s online teaching endeavors. The internal situation analysis also showed that the company has a strong network of internal resources and capabilities that supports the university’s strategic growth. ‘The University of the City’ master plan is a prime example of the institute strategic competencies.

The problems identified via the environmental analysis included the lower ranking due to the fiercely competitive environment, financial deficit and online learning drawbacks due to COVID-19. The opportunities included the university’s strong network of resources and capabilities that can facilitate strategic expansion. A few proposal recommendations to the problems and opportunities included attracting the international students to shrink financial deficit, advancing the levels of online learning and continuation of investment in the new contemporary Bundoora Campus.

 1. Introduction

La Trobe University is a renowned Public research university situated in Melbourne, Australia. The institute’s largest campus is located on a 600-acre land in Bundoora and has a gigantic capacity of accommodating around 26000 students. This campus has been a part of the La Trobe Legacy since 1967 and has continued to serve the Melbourne’s northern communities by offering a wide range of specialist and generalist graduate and post-graduate courses. These courses are spread across 13 schools which includes colleges of Arts, Science and Health Engineering, Commerce and social sciences. The institute also provides a room for students to practice their co-curricular activities such as badminton, squash etc. and leverage their communication via involvement in multiple student clubs and societies (Dewar, 2018).

The university has a strong mission and vision that directs the operational dynamics of the institute. The company’s mission adheres to accelerating the quest for knowledge and learning in order to effectively shape the future of all students and communities. The institute has a broad vision of promoting positive change in the community and addressing integral modern issues by displaying inclusiveness, connectivity and excellence. The institute also aims to accomplish it’s core objectives which includes unparalleled student experience, research excellence, student employability and partner of choice. Through its dynamic strategy and endeavors, the university aims to redefine an enriched university in a modern era (Latrobe, 2020).

This report provides an external and internal situation analysis of the competitive university market in Bundoora, Melbourne. The text also highlights the problems and opportunities identified as a result of research and proposes a few recommendations to address the identified issues.

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2. Situation Analysis – External

An external situation analysis is an integral strategic marketing process that enables an organization to examine their industry and their current competitive environment (Gurel, 2017). The current university market of Melbourne has largely shaken due to the out-break of COVID-19. The educational institutions in the country are recovering from severe budget crisis and are charting new routes for reinventing their learning programs via the inclusion of online learning.  La Trobe University is one of those top institutions that was declared as being at a dire financial risk due to their humungous fee losses (Ketchell, 2020). However, the company continued to maintain it’s standards of education in all it’s undergraduate and post graduate qualifications via the online campus which combines the delivery of academic knowledge with an immersive learning experience (Latrobe, 2020).

One of La Trobe’s toughest competitors is the University of Melbourne, which was established in 1853 as a public-spirited institute aimed at delivering unprecedented levels of research, learning and engagement to the community of students (University of Melbourne, 2020). The university’s competitiveness can be reinforced by the fact it has a greater diversity of courses compared to Latrobe, thereby making this institute attractive for a greater bunch of audiences. This university was also one of the very few research institutes that survived successfully post the COVID-19 crisis due to the handsome amount of existent reserves that enabled the institute to offset the revenue losses (Ketchell, 2020). Currently, the institute is partially opening up, however, the campus gatherings and movements will be increasingly monitored. On the other hand, Latrobe’s on-campus educational operations are still halted which has affected the quality of learning(Davies, 2020). Hence, it can be asserted that this university will serve as a tough competitor for Latrobe Bundoora campus due to it’s strategic and innovative approach of providing education.

The other universities who might act as potential competitors for La Trobe University Bundoora campus is the Victoria University and Monash University. Both these universities also effectively coped up the COVID’19 crisis by developing an efficient system of remote learning and hence, they can act as a severe competitor to La Trobe in the future years (Ketchell, 2020). Despite the increasingly competitive university market, La Trobe university occupies a prominent position in the industry due it’s excellent objectives, operational excellence and transformational student experience (Dewar, 2018).

3. Situation Analysis – Internal

Internal situation analysis of an organization is an essential process in identifying the strengths and weakness of the company’s resources and capabilities. It also enables the organization to identify those core competencies that are essential in sustaining a competitive advantage (Gurel, 2017). La Trobe university Bundoora campus has a dynamic learning environment and opens doors to all students, specifically the northern suburbs of Melbourne, who are the institute’s primary targets (Latrobe, 2020). The university has a strong network of internal resources and capabilities which includes a well-equipped sports and recreation center, a success-drive research culture supported by various partners, industry driven curriculum, TAEFs partnerships and a well-established strategic plan for advanced learning and development. It also has advanced technological resources such as an integrated student engagement interface, which is required to host a well-established online campus that greatly facilitates the advanced outflow of knowledge with utter flexibility (Dewar, 2018).

The radical disruption caused by COVID’19 has enabled the institution to strengthen it’s vision and mission. The current economic down-turn will pose a potential risk on the student’s employability and hence it will be integral for the institute to develop a strategic learning environment through which students can become ready for a precarious employment market. Hence, the organization’s mission and operational philosophy should revolve around re-innovation and educational advancement that could pave a stable path for the student’s futures. Furthermore, the company should focus on reiterating it’s clever learning philosophy and should make student employability a priority amongst core objectives (Doidge and Doyle, 2020).

The university’s strong competencies and resources can also be highlighted by the fact that it has high aspirations of transforming the Latrobe Bundoora Campus to the University City of the Future in the coming few years (Latrobe, 2020). According to the master plan, the campus will be transformed into a new sustainable and a vibrant city with effective public and private sector partnerships. The new Latrobe Bundoora campus will have a world-class research and development center, health facilities, student residential facilities, cultural spaces and sports and recreation centers.  If the company is able to adhere to it’s mission and vision in the wake of COVID’19, it will able to fulfill the strategic master plan of the Bundoora campus, thereby enabling the university to attain a competitive advantage (Dewar, 2018).

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4. Problems and Opportunities

Problems

1. Financial crisis posed by COVID’19 – Latrobe University is one of the top Australian universities that suffered from a severe budget crisis due to the COVID’19 out-break. The company suffered from a reserve deficiency since the revenue losses by international students exceeded the university’s investment and cash reserves (Ross, 2020). In the year 2019, the international student revenue contributed to around 26% of the total underlying revenue, thereby revealing the university’s increased dependence on the international fees.

2. Drawbacks due to fiercely Competitive Market – Latrobe University Bundoora campus operates in an aggressively competitive market with top universities like the university of Melbourne, Monash University and University of Victoria acting as fierce rivals. Melbourne university, in particular was also one of the handful of universities that survived the COVID-19 budget crisis due to the presence of handsome reserves. Furthermore, the university also has a larger diversity of courses as opposed to Latrobe University (Ketchell, 2020).

 

3. Loss of Learning due to online teaching – Latrobe University has still adhered to Online learning as opposed to other universities like University of National Australia and University of Melbourne, which has partially begun in-campus teaching operations. This has affected the quality of knowledge deliverance and has hampered the learning and development process (Davies, 2020)

Opportunities

1. Scope of Strategic Expansion – Latrobe University Bundoora campus has a lot of scope for strategic expansion in the near future. The institute has a master plan of executing transformation of the campus to the University city of the future. The company has begun this mission, however there is a wholesome amount of execution left. This new setup will have all facilities including a world-class research and developmental institute, student residential and health facilities and cultural spaces. This is executable since the company has a strong operational framework with a firm vision, mission, values, cultural qualities, objectives and enablers. This fosters future growth opportunities and enables the institute to think of pursuing a full-equipped master plan (Dewar, 2018)

 

2. Strong Internal resources and capabilities – Latrobe University Bundoora campus has a strong network of internal resources and competencies that has strengthened the organization’s operational capability. From having a success-driven research culture and industry-curriculum to having TAEFs partnerships and technologically-equipped online interface, the university’s core competencies enable the institution to pursue greater grown and expansion (Latrobe university, 2020) 

5. Recommendations

 

1. The university should endeavor to reduce it’s financial budget crisis by taking a few initiatives. Firstly, the educational institute should attract more international students in order to offset the financial deficiency. This initiative can be executed by offering reasonable packages and attractive scholarships for the international students. Such overseas students can also be attracted by introducing unique selling propositions, digital advertisements and promotional campaigns on social media platforms. This strategic and consistent branding could leverage the marketing game of the company. Lastly, the university should also create special facilities for the international students that could ensure their safety in this time of COVID’19 (Aziz, 2020)

 

2. The university should work towards strengthening it’s online campus and enhancing the standards of learning provided by the staff. Advanced technology like e-portfolios and virtual learning environments can also be used to leverage the knowledge delivery in online campuses (Heitz, Laboissiere, Sanghvi and Sarakatsannis, 2020). Furthermore, the students’ learning environment can be leveraged by making the courses interactive, group-based, creative and student-centered. Furthermore, Face-to-Face lectures can also be facilitated by other advanced digital gadgets which can facilitate learning. These include G-drive, Google jam Boards, Open board software and Google classroom. Lastly, the institution can also employ artificial intelligence to monitor the student’s performance and thereby nudge their attention. Hence, a combination of tech-savvy collaborative, case-study based and project-based learning can enable the students to attain high quality education (Dhawan, 2020).

3. The university has a strong network of resources and capabilities that can be effectively exploited to make major transformations in the future. Hence, the university should continue pooling it’s efforts towards executing ‘The University City of the Future’ despite the COVID’19 outbreak. This COVID’19 will demand the university market to reinvent itself, rethink their operating models and provide more value to the students. In such an environment, the modern city of the future Bundoora campus would provide an extraordinary experience to the students by redesigning the campus dynamics and diversifying the facilities. This future campus will also provide a sustainable way of working and socializing, which is also an integral consideration for the future of Australia (Mirza, 2020).

 

Latrobe University should implement these recommendations via a strategic operational plan that would enable the company administration to schedule these initiatives slowly and gradually. Immediate implementation will lead to the failure of these plans since COVID’19 has not disappeared completely.

6.References

Davies, A., 2020. Australian Universities Take Tentative Steps Towards Opening After Covid-19. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/12/australian-universities-take-tentative-steps-towards-opening-after-covid-19> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

Deewar, J., 2020. Strategic Plan 2018-2022. Australia: La Trobe University, pp.8-9.

Doidge, S. and Doyle, J., 2020. Australian universities in the age of Covid. Educational Philosophy and Theory, pp.1-7.

Latrobe, 2020. Our Vision. [online] Latrobe.edu.au. Available at: <https://www.latrobe.edu.au/about/vision> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

Gürel, E., 2017. Swot Analysis: A Theoretical Review. Journal of International Social Research, 10(51), pp.994-1006.

Ketchell, M., 2020. COVID-19: What Australian Universities Can Do To Recover From The Loss Of International Student Fees. [online] The Conversation. Available at: <https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-australian-universities-can-do-to-recover-from-the-loss-of-international-student-fees-139759> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

Latrobe, 2020. How The Online Campus Works. [online] Latrobe.edu.au. Available at: <https://www.latrobe.edu.au/campuses/online/how-it-works> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

LaTrobe University, 2020. Annual Report 2019. Australia: LaTrobe University, pp.40-42.

Ross, J., 2020. Covid-19 ‘Threatens Viability Of Half Of Australian Sector’. [online] Times Higher Education (THE). Available at: <https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/covid-19-threatens-viability-half-australian-sector> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

Dhawan, S., 2020. Online Learning: A Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), pp.5-22.

University of Melbourne, 2020. The University Of Melbourne, Australia – Australia’s Best University And One Of The World’s Finest. [online] The University of Melbourne. Available at: <https://www.unimelb.edu.au/> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

Aziz, H., 2020. Raising Foreign Student Enrolment Post-Covid-19 | New Straits Times. [online] NST Online. Available at: <https://www.nst.com.my/education/2020/07/606823/raising-foreign-student-enrolment-post-covid-19> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

Heitz, C., Laboissiere, M., Sanghvi, S. and Sarakatsannis, J., 2020. Getting The Next Phase Of Remote Learning Right In Higher Education. [online] McKinsey. Available at: <https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/getting-the-next-phase-of-remote-learning-right-in-higher-education> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

Mirza, C., 2020. How COVID- 19 Can Reinvent Higher Education – QS WOWNEWS. [online] QS WOWNEWS. Available at: <https://qswownews.com/how-covid-19-can-reinvent-higher-education/> [Accessed 16 September 2020].

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