Systems Thinking Report-Group11

8/14/2019 Systems Thinking Report-Group11

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Attracting current undergraduate City University students towards the

postgraduate programs A holistic approach

Prepared by: Group 11

Alba Ruco

Alisha Kothari

Izabela Perseng

Jocelyn Uthayakumaran

Sylvain Fresia


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12. APPENDICES 21..................................................3

1. ACKNOWLEDGMENT.......................................................4

2. INTRODUCTION.............................................................5

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................5

4. BACKGROUND ON CURRENT SITUATION .........................5

4.1 Primary Research..............................................................6

5. A MORE HOLISTIC APPROACH.........................................8

6. COMPETITORS ATTRACTING STUDENTS ..........................8

6.1 Postgraduates courses....................................................11

6.2 Communication Software.................................................11

6.3 City University Website....................................................11

6.4 Events............................................................................11

7. ACTION PLAN: IMPLEMENTATION OF CRM SOFTWARE....13

8. ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS ................................16

8.1 The City University house.............................................17

9. INVESTMENT AGAINST COSTS.......................................18

9.1 Outcomes........................................................................18

9.2 Incomes .........................................................................19

CONCLUSION...................................................................20

This report analyses the current situation at City University

in terms of targeting current students in order to retainthem for post-graduate studies and recommend appropriateways and incentives to achieve this goal. It was found thatonly 29% of students in City wanted to stay forPostgraduate studies, with still 42% undecided and 29%negative answers. One of the aims of the report is to reducethese undecided in order to keep 50% of City students forPostgraduate studies. Further data was researched aboutother universities to be able to see what incentives orimprovements could be made to retain students. It

appeared that university websites is holding an essentialrole to communicate with students and offer theminformation. Also offering students discounts and combined

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courses was a great encouragement for them to select auniversity. In order to capture information about currentstudents and be able to target them better duringmarketing campaign, the implementation of CRM software

appeared to be essential. These campaigns would includedifferent types of events and open days designed forcurrent students. After analysing the costs implied it wasconcluded that, if asking for an important investment forthe university, it would create a high return on investmenton a longer term and provide City University with acompetitive edge............................................................20

10. REFERENCES.............................................................2112. APPENDICES______________________________________________________

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1. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to thank Jenny Rampling, for the time and effort, and the guidancegiven to make this study possible, and Misha Hebel for giving us the opportunity towork on a consultancy project that is close to us. In addition, we would like to thankStephanie Shaul staff of the student centre, and the marketing team of City University,for providing us with some relevant information to carry out extensive analysis.

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2. INTRODUCTION

Analysing research recently carried out regarding postgraduate studies, it has beenfound that 60% of current undergraduate students at City University are interested instudying a postgraduate course once they are done with their undergraduate.However, further analysis shows that although 60% are interested in doing a

postgraduate course, only 38% would consider City University as their place of study.In addition, the actual conversion rate is found to be much lower than 38%. The aimof this report is to analyse the current situation at City University, in order to grow themarket as well as the revenue stream further and to create an appropriate balance inundergraduate and postgraduate student numbers.

In order to achieve the above objectives, qualitative and quantitative research hasbeen carried out, in order to identify how other universities attract current students tocontinue a postgraduate course at their institutions, following which, research will becarried out regarding how City University can capture information about those current

students who may potentially be interested in pursuing the universitys postgraduatecourse. Finally, analysis will be carried out to identify appropriate ways to market theuniversity, and the costs of implementing the means recommended will be outlined.

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Primary research conducted at City University shows that a majority of students wereaware of the universitys courses through the internet. Therefore, City Universitymust continue to advertise its courses through the internet, as it is found to be asuccessful informing approach. However, this also shows that the advertising

campaigns must be revised in order to further reach out to a larger potential market.

It is found to be lack of variety and lack of combined courses offered by CityUniversity. This restricts the choice available to students who may wish to studycourses from two different faculties of City University. Therefore, this should beanalysed further and City University should consider introducing more combinedcourses.

Based on similar initiatives that higher ranked universities have taken, it isrecommended that City University introduces customised CRM software in order tocapture the relevant information about students, to identify trends and finally target

them by designing appropriate marketing activities.

The recommended steps have been illustrated using a more holistic approach knownas Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). In addition to the above, a framework has beendesigned to show the benefits of implementing the recommended options for CityUniversity. This framework will also cover the additional recommendations that have

been identified in the report that follows.

4. BACKGROUND ON CURRENT SITUATION

In order to get an insight of where City University stands currently, some primary and

secondary research has been conducted. The gathered information helped inunderstanding the situation of the current students from their perspective andanalysing the key issues arising from it.

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4.1 Primary Research

A survey was conducted within the City University student community in order to seewhat their point of view was about City and what their plans were for post-graduatestudies. The data collected was based on a 97-student sample from various faculties ofthe university.

Please note that some questions of the survey were multiple choices, which explains

the percentages adding to above 100% on some questions.

Firstly it was observed how the students heard about the University. It appears that48% of them have heard of it through the Internet. The 2 other main sources wherestudents heard about the University are through their family and friends and theircareer advisors (respectively 38 and 22%). The newspaper (which includes articlesabout the university and advertisement included in the newspaper) and advertisements(flyers, posters in the tube for example) options obtained a very low response rate

(less than 2%).

From this data it is possible to draw the conclusion that City should focus its effortson the internet as a way to communicate with the students as the advertising apartfrom being a costly option, does not have a high impact and efficiency on students.On the other hand, the advertising campaigns should perhaps be revised, so thatalthough it is costly, it will have a greater impact on informing prospective students.

The second question of the survey was to know why the students of City selected itfor their Undergraduates studies. It appears that a majority (72%) of students selectedCity for its reputation and/or ranking. The courses offered and its central location also

played important roles in selecting City, with a response rate of 45% and 40%respectively. Thus it is apparent that the reputation of City University and the varietyof courses are crucial in the students view.

The third question is one of the most important ones for the study as it indicates thepercentage of students who will continue study further at City and who will not aftergraduating from the undergraduate degrees. It appears that there is an equal 29% ofyes and nos. But still 42% of students are undecided. This project aims at targetingthis fraction of unsure students and reducing the number of nos. An ideal goal forCity would be to obtain 50% of yes and nos. This balance is selected in order toretain a higher number of City students after they graduate. However, it is important

to note that it would be best for the university to leave 50% of the remaining studentsto come from outside the university. This is simply due to the fact that it is always agood thing to allow new students; hence new ideas into the University thus creatediversity. It also creates variety within the University and finally enhancescompetition between external students to enter the university, which would influencethe universitys reputation in the right way.

The 50/50 balance is a goal that was set for the project, but it is unrealistic to say

that it is possible to know/influence all the students choices in advance and avoid anyuncertainty. However, the aim of the project is to get as close to its goal as possible.

Following to that question, the students were then asked the reason why they wouldselect to study in city in their future. It is found that a major part of the students wouldselect City University as their postgraduate university, for the same reason they

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selected it for their undergraduate, with 67 and 78 students selecting it for its coursesand reputation.

It is interesting to note that 57% of the students selected City University due to careeropportunities, proving that what the university advertises as being one of the bestuniversities for career prospects is appealing to students. It seems that 42 studentsappreciate the location of the university. Also about 20 students would select CityUniversity for their postgraduate studies due to the facilities and entry requirements.Finally 7% of students have selected City for its tuitions fees, the social life and otherreasons. What comes out of this question is that the students are career focused andappreciate high reputation and take interest in courses of the university. It reasonableto assume that answers with a lower response rate are other factors influencing thechoice but not the main reason for selecting the university.

Another very important matter was to consider why the students did not select theuniversity, or whether they are unsure of their choice, and what would help them

make their choice/change their mind. The majority of students (42%) are expectingbetter courses and/or teaching from the university. Very close to that, students wouldappreciate financial support (39%) from the university and have other reasons thatwould influence their choice (41%), which is going to be thoroughly discussed further

below. Students would also like to develop the facilities and research within theuniversity (23%) and improve the social life as a student (13%).

The last question was an open question relating to what would students want fromcity if the choice that interested them was not present (students who hence selectedother).What stands out from this question is that students would appreciate:

-A better ranking/reputation of the university

-Better quality of teaching/staff (some students advising to recruit famous academicsand/or increase research budget in order to generate famous academics within CityUniversity)

-More contact with lecturers and more information provided on courses

-Finally, some students would like a presentation demonstrating why they shouldselect City University for their postgraduate studies.

What was revealed from this survey is that Students are using the internet as their

main source of information about the University. There are still 42% of the studentsthat are undecided and these are the main target, hence, those students who havedecided not to further study at City University, can be the second target. But thisshould stay a secondary objective as it is easier to influence and satisfy students whoare not yet sure of their choice rather than turning around students who already madea choice not to stay on.

An important fact that comes out from this survey is that most students would likecity to have a better reputation or ranking along with the staff quality. Also studentswould be interested in gaining information on the courses and on a more global basis,to be demonstrated why they should stay on at City. Finally some students have

communication issues with their lecturers. Please see Appendix 1 for survey results.

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5. A MORE HOLISTIC APPROACH

In order to view the situation at City University as a whole, it is imperative to includeall the stakeholders, identify key issues and recommend feasible solutions through awider perspective. For this purpose it is recommended that systems approach, alsoknown as the holistic approach as which supports the ideas illustration and provides

practical solutions to improve the business situation. In the case of City University,Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used to illustrate the major steps of analysis andfindings. This approach was firstly developed by Peter Checkland and his colleaguesin 1969 and is used in order to deal with more soft problem cases and structuredissues that take into consideration the main stakeholders and circumstances (Jackson2000). This systems approach offers students perspectives as well as the universitys

perspective of the key operations and interactions between them. The SSM approachconsists of 7 steps and each of them will be illustrated below in this report according

to their relevance with the analyzed content.As a first step of the SSM, the rich picture is one of the most common techniques indealing with complexity in problem situations, which may involve multitasks and

people. A rich picture is initially used to demonstrate the current situation at CityUniversity illustrating the interrelation of the key stakeholders in the problemsituation. Please see Appendix 2.

6. COMPETITORS ATTRACTING STUDENTS

Our qualitative research was based on surveying students from City University aswell as four other comparable universities in order to have a representative sample inwhich we could evaluate what leads students to continue postgraduate studies at theircurrent institutions. The selection of 4 universities was based on similar ranking toCity University (Times Online, 2009) and they are the following: University ofWestminster, Queen Marys University of London, University of Edinburgh, andUniversity of Southampton. One important aspect of the chosen universities is the factthat two of the universities are in London and thus can be closely compared to CityUniversity. The city of London itself makes a huge difference for people studyingthere as it is one of the largest cities in the world and the students will most likelyhave a different outlook on continuing their studies, which can also affect their career

perspectives. This comparison will be investigated further in the report.

The main method of research used was a conducted survey distributed to an equalsample of 20 people in each university. (See Appendix 1). The students in the abovementioned universities were contacted in person and through e-mails.

It is found that almost 37% of the students revealed that they were made aware oftheir own universities through the UCAS web-site. A good number of them wereinformed by friends and/or family relatives. Not surprisingly, almost 20% of thewhole sample got information about their chosen universities through the Internet.Taking up a smaller percentage, other sources of information were resulted to be

actual location, career advisers, other students and others according to a decreasingorder of percentages.

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The majority of students from other universities, with an overwhelming statistic of40.94%, agreed that the reputation factor played a considerable role in their decisionsto choose their university. Furthermore, 20.81% of them considered the offeredcourses as an important criterion of decision. However, the results for this question

showed that some students considered other non university-related factors for makingdecisions. These include 17.45% of the people that considered the social life, 14.77%for location and 6.04% chose others.

Further into the survey 43.16% of the students stated that they were planning tocontinue their postgraduate studies at their current university, and 28.42% said theywould not. Additionally, 28.42% stated that they were not sure about their choice.These results relate to questions 4 and 5 (refer to Appendix 1), which are verymeaningful in finding out how to attract current students to pursue their postgraduatestudies. Over half of the people said that it was easy to find information on their

postgraduate programs whether it is through career fairs, the university website or a

career counsellor. The other half of students was split fairly equal between No andHavent tried options. Unfortunately the larger statistic of No comes from the twouniversities located in London.

The following question was Which factors do you think are most important inchoosing a postgraduate program? The answers to this question were differentlydistributed; however, career opportunities earned the number one spot in thiscategory. After that it was ranking/reputation followed by courses and tuitionfees. It can thus be correct to state that when students are looking to pursue their

postgraduate studies they are considering the options which will improve theirchances for a better career. Furthermore, if theses answers are analyzed individually

by the university, the number one answer still remains career opportunities whichstrengthens the answers and validates it even more.

Question number 6 asked the students what would make them study further for thepostgraduate programs at their current university. The majority of people answeredbetter courses/teaching variability. The only university which had a different

primary answer was the University of Edinburgh whose students answered financialsupport. The reasoning behind this is that it is considered to be more expensive tostudy there in comparison to the other universities, especially for internationalstudents.

One of the most significant questions in our survey was regarding whether people

have heard about City University and if yes, in what ways they were informed aboutit. This question was asked in order to get a general outside perspective of how otherstudents perceive City University and what are the actual effective ways ofadvertising City University. This leads to a better insight on the universitysreputation in the eyes of the outsiders.

According to the surveys results, nearly 85% of the students asked were aware ofCity University. It was revealed that the main source of learning about CityUniversity is from word-of-mouth from friends and/or family members. The UCASweb-site has also played a significant role in informing people about City.Apparently, the career advisers also have had a great impact on making people aware

of City University. A very small percentage of students said that have heard aboutCity University from newspapers. The last question provides some insights into what

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outsiders think about City University and not surprisingly most people answered, Myuniversity is better. However, 18.82% still answered that it has a good in reputationand courses.

The survey provided a good and general point of view of how other students look atpostgraduate programs and also what the most important factors are in considering apostgraduate university/program. This is considered as very valuable information forconsidering our recommendations for improvements to City University.

Going more in depth for each of the universities, research was conducted on the mainways they try to attract students for further postgraduate studies. This can then becompared to City Universitys market campaign.

Starting with the universities located in London, Queen Marys website is very clearand easy to navigate for all the needed information to find particular postgraduatecourses. Furthermore, they provide Employability and Graduate Profiles which is

essential especially because most students answered that career opportunities were avery relevant factor. Although their website isnt flashy, it is full of detailedinformation which is what most people are looking for, when researching on

postgraduate courses.

The University of Westminster takes a different approach by providing variouspictures of students on the website as well as frequently asked questions which theygive thorough answers to. Just like Queen Marys, their website is easy to navigateand the colours add even more clarity through the menus and sub-menu of findingtuition fees and application requirements. The photos provide even more clarity as

prospective students might gain a general positive idea of what the university looks

like as well as the people that study there.

Looking at the universities outside of London, Southamptons and Edinburghswebsites are very informative and furthermore have a main page entitled WhyChoose Us. This answers the main question that students are mainly askingthemselves Why would I choose this university over any other one? As well asgiving information about the university itself, these two universities also provideinformation about the cities themselves, alumni, environmental sustainability, andcontinuous enforcement of career prospects. This is a noticeable feature as theiremphasis is definitely on what happens after the students graduate. Students from

both of these universities further stated that getting information about postgraduate

programs was straightforward.

After the thorough qualitative research, the results can now be compared to the actualmarket schemes that City University uses to attract current undergraduate students tocontinue their postgraduate studies. Having analyzed the main operations of actorsand the main factors influencing the problem situation by the rich picture, the mainhuman sub-systems have to be listed to offer a better insight of the issues (Jackson2000). Please refer to the attached Appendix 3.

After analysing the gathered primary and secondary data it appeared that issues wereraised from 4 main sectors within the university. These are the following:

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6.1 Postgraduates courses

There is an important lack of variety and lack of combined courses within the

University. What is meant by combined courses is that they are courses that mixsubjects from different horizons allowing students to have more choice. An examplewould be courses that combine Music with Physics/Engineering, or Chemistry andManagement for example. Students would then have more options and could learn asubject of interest and combine it with another subject necessary to have the basis toapply the subject in another area.

These types of combined courses would encourage students interest in the postgraduate courses. Also it would provide City with a whole new range ofspecialized masters that would appeal to students who want to do specialize in their

postgraduate studies rather than doing a general course.

Finally there are unclear subjects routes for postgraduate studies, all the informationneeded by the students are not present and very few master programs offer streams,which further reduces the possibilities proposed to the students.

6.2 Communication Software

The main communication software between the students and the staff is CitySpaceand there are many issues arise from it.

Student and staff actually cannot have advanced interaction through it. They areunable to talk the way they should/want by using the system, and are very limited byit. Therefore, both students and academics suffer from the limitations of a poor

blackboard learning system. They are not able to organize it in a convenient way fortheir needs, which leads to slow utilization and difficulty in finding relevantmodules/information. Finally, there is no personalization on the email system. Everyemail sent in a module space can be seen (questions as well as replies) by everyonewho is online. Therefore, customized profiles might be implemented in order to have

personal emails and information only available to particular users.

6.3 City University Website

The website of the university is a very important issue to consider. Students arestruggling to access the information they are looking for. The information is not easilyaccessible and often requires much time and effort to obtain the data needed. It is notuser-friendly and students do not feel encouraged to look for the information theywant and therefore might get discouraged to look for postgraduate information. Thereis also an important lack of interactivity with the web pages compared to what could

be achieved with the new technologies available to everyone.

6.4 Events

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Although City is organizing workshops, open days and events, there is an apparentlack of encouragement to attend these events towards the students who tend to skipthem. Especially current students who prefer avoiding open days because they aremore focused on external students rather than current students. Thus current students

do not attend them because they are not interested in seeing the facilities of theuniversity, which they already known. They would be more interested in having aninsight into what studying a postgraduate program at City University entails, throughworkshops and open days that represent reality and are specially prepared for them.Finally, the students seem not to be well targeted for these events, which lead tostudents ignoring numerous emails about events that are not relevant for them,sometimes missing events they would like to attend. It would be better to targetstudents and send few emails but only those that are relevant in order to obtain a

better response from students. After creating different options for ourrecommendations, it was realised that the open days could have an impact on thestudents of the university.

In order to verify this assumption, another survey was conducted including 20students from City consisting of the two following questions:-Did you attend an open day in City?-If yes did it have a good influence on you to select City?

It appeared that 60% attended open days and out of these, 66% thought that the openday had a positive influence on their selection of the university. As a result, it has

been easier to agree on the fact that open days if well lead could have a positiveimpact on students making it an important point for this project. This survey wasconducted face-to-face in an informal way.

This research and its results have thus raised major issues especially related to the ITaspect of the university and to the diversity of courses as well as the organized eventsthat do not appropriately target the current students.

The next step associated with the SSM includes the preparation of a set of relevantsystems regarding the current situation at City University (see Appendix 3).Afterwards, a Root Definition paragraph is prepared for a specific system chosenfrom the above list of issues in order to analyze it from a critical point of view. As theemphasis of this study is on the process of attracting the current students in continuingtheir postgraduate degree at City University, the chosen system would be: A systemto retain the current students for postgraduate programs. Please see Appendix 4.

The next step is developing a conceptual model in order to demonstrate the activitiesmentioned in the systems Root Definition. This model includes the logical sequenceof the activities included in the recommended action plan below. The Root Definitionindicates what the system is, whereas the conceptual map shows what the system does(Jackson 2000).

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7. ACTION PLAN: IMPLEMENTATION OF CRM SOFTWARE

Organizations nowadays are struggling with capturing changes in their customersbehaviour. The computerized technologies are used in the recent years to focus ontracking their trends information and then utilize it for Research and Development

purposes in the supply chains (Wagner 2006). Customer-centricity concept has beenaround for almost 50 years and it was first developed by thePractice of ManagementGuru Peter Drucker. He emphasizes that the customers are the ones that determinethe success of a business and whether it will grow in the competitive market. Verycommon software used to track customer information relating to behaviour, and thenutilize it across a range of touch points, is known as the Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) Software. CRM marketing is a business strategy that is aimed atunderstanding, managing and personalizing the needs of an organizations current and

prospective customers. Its implementation is offered by various software developingcompanies, some commonly known as Microsoft, IBM, and other competitors such asSAP and Siebel Oracle. Hobsons, another well-known software company developscustomized professional CRM software especially for educational institutions. It isimperative for universities to attract skilful students while maintaining the marketingand operations at a cost-effective level. Hobsons customized software provides acentralized platform upon which students are managed on the basis of theirexperience and lifecycle. The Hobsons software therefore allows the university tomanage the process of retaining current and attracting prospective students throughthis centralized system.

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According to Nicole Engelbert, the author of the study, CRM in the HigherEducation Market and lead analyst of vertical markets technology, this centralizedsystem helps to assemble three essential areas in higher education: recruitment,retention and development, in order to create the 360-degree view of the student

(Musico 2008). Keith Hontz, CRM development director of SAP Higher Educationand Research (HER), supports the above view and emphasizes that universities have been late in addressing these three key areas. Previously, universities had beenfocusing on the older technologies from niche retailers, specifically on one of theseareas, however they are now taking a more holistic approach by offering fullyfunctional software that connects into the overall CRM system.

CRM Software at City University

Analyzing the research carried out for this study, there is a recognized need for theimplementation of customized CRM software at City University. This would be acost-efficient way to capture information for the purpose of attracting current students

to the postgraduate study. The steps to the action plan for implementation of thissystem will be outlined below.

Step 1: It is imperative to be aware of certain information regarding current and prospective students. This will allow the university to be informed of variousstudents personal information, which will be an indication of their interests in CityUniversity. When students initially apply for the first year of City Universityundergraduate programs, they provide facts on their personal statements in theapplication forms. This data includes information about their backgrounds, such astheir nationalities, incomes, career focuses and expectations. Most importantly, ittakes into account information regarding their interests and hobbies.

Other sources of capturing information in the students first year degree will includeinformation related to their attendance in post graduate events such as open days andfairs. In addition, data will be captured from students participation in various clubs,societies and other social events. Finally, according to the carried out research, CityUniversity will soon be introducing a Course Management System (CMS) known asMoodle system (Hebel 2009). This is an interactive learning system and is based onexchanging information in an open source community. Additional information aboutstudents viewpoints and behavior will be captured by technologies enablingcollaborating sharing of information such as weblogs, wikis, forums and discussion

boards.

Step 2: This step is predicted to be implemented in the second year of the studentsdegrees as they tend to be aware of their future plans, as opposed to their first year.This data will be automatically captured and utilized by the CRM software. It willhelp to identify trends and categorize students into groups, such as by demographicsor psychographics. Therefore, if City University aims to target students with

particular personality traits and abilities, which will be suited towards a given courseavailable, the CRM software will find those prospects and deliver their information tothe City University research and development team.

However, students opinions, from the first year of the undergraduate program to the

third year is most likely to change, and therefore the trend will be continuouslyreviewed throughout the three years, such that if eventually the students wish to

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change their career path, it can be identified, and can still apply to anotherpostgraduate course at City University.

Step 3: Having gained the above information, the City University can thenconcentrate on designing and developing appropriate marketing campaign, in order totarget the current students towards enrolling in postgraduate programs. Thesemarketing campaigns should be designed such as to encourage current students to

perceive City University differently, which are found to be the underlying problemfrom the surveys conducted. City University has to take into consideration onlineways of targeting the various groups of students as well as direct, face-to-face ways ofapproaching them. Online means may include campaigning through personal emails,through the communication software (Cityspace) and through the interactive website.The direct, face-to-face ways of the marketing campaign can be used to broadcast tostudents, the various benefits and advantages of further continuing to the postgraduate

programs.

In order to capture the image of City University in the eyes of the students, and toensure that they will consider the universitys postgraduate programs, it is imperativeto keep them up-to-date with the latest news and events for postgraduates. Researchcarried out shows that the events currently taking place is not as informative as itshould be, and therefore students may not be as aware of the programs, especially ifthey wish to change their career paths. Thus, each course should encourage

participation in a common workshop by perhaps the course director, whereby thestudents will be informed on the various advantages and benefits offered to them byCity University. Guest speakers who were previous City University postgraduatestudents can perhaps attend this workshop too. They can share their experience withthe prospective students and explain the benefits of going to such a high reputedUniversity, in terms of career opportunities. This may be found to be highly valuable,for City University is known for its high career prospects. The course director maydeliver to the students, information to the current degree being studied, as well asadvertise new combined subject routes, for example Fashion Marketing. Since a lackof knowledge may exist regarding the other degrees, and subject areas, free brochureswill be distributed relating to the additional courses. Moreover, some freebies as wellas free food and drinks will be provided, as it will help provide a lasting impression ofthe event.

Students should also be made aware of the continuous advantages of going to CityUniversity, which is located in the heart of London, as recruiters might be more likelyto employ such students due to the overall exposure available to them. In addition,City University provides different assignments and projects that are mostly linked toreal life organizations and situations, thereby reiterating the fact that courses taught atthe University, are designed to be applicable to the real world. City University canmarket this through open days, in the form of lectures or workshops, whereby ratherthan showing the students the university facilities by tours, they can be assistedthrough a real experience in the day of a postgraduate student.

In addition, when the prospective students attend various workshops and open days,they should be informed of the benefits such as discounts available to them as they areexisting City University students. An example of the benefit offered by anothercompetitor for its current students, include London School of Economics offeringdiscounts on text books in the Waterstones book store.

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There is a lack of information easily exposed on the postgraduate programs.Therefore, City University should concentrate on providing relevant information,however it should be noted that too many emails could be possibly viewed as spamand disregarded.

Finally, City University needs to change the website, in such a way that it is moreappealing, easier to access information and there is more interaction between the two

parties. The website should include more advertisements for each degree and eachsociety, in order to increase students awareness.

Step 4: The last step will be implemented in the students final year of theirundergraduate degrees, since opinions are bound to change after having spent threeyears at the institution. Although the last step, it is not the least important and willinclude reviewing and monitoring the action plan to continuously improve its process.In order to measure its overall performance, different Key Performance Indicators(KPI) has to be taken into account on a long term basis. These KPIs can include the

overall number of students graduated from the postgraduate programs, as well asgeneral feedback received from source of information such as the interactive websiteand conducted surveys. These conducted surveys may include formal and informalways of gathering relevant information from students opinions in their final year.

Having analyzed the feedback gathered, this data will indicate possible changes thatare required to be implemented in order to continuously improve the process. TheAgenda for debate (see Appendix 5) is the next step associated with the SSMapproach and it outlines the main changes regarding the problem situation.

8. ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Having conducted primary as well as secondary research, it is found that CityUniversity does provide scholarships for their postgraduate programs. However, thesegrants are not standardized. The City Law School for example, offers a scholarship of2000 for its postgraduate programs, whereas the other schools of City University

provide a percentage of the tuition fee. This proves to be an uneven distribution, andmay have an adverse effect on the image of the City University. Furthermore,attempts to advertise their scholarship programs on posters and banners may fail as itcan create confusion in the minds of individuals, if different amounts are offered to

different schools of City University. Therefore, it is recommended that the scholarshipamounts offered to students should be revised, in order to create standardization andequality.

Furthermore, a 20% discount can be offered to all current City University studentswho are following on to the postgraduate programs. Indeed, City University will needto consider their costs incurred in doing so, and therefore when revising thescholarship programs, perhaps the university can lower the standardized scholarshiplevel set, and in addition offer this 20% discount to all the current students enteringthe universitys postgraduate programs as well. This may prove to be highlyfavourable, as current students will be offered a chance to feel valued as students. In

addition, the incentive of a discount on the tuition fees will surely encourage thestudents to apply to the university for the postgraduate programs, and this is verified

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by the surveys conducted within the university, which proved that money is anincentive that drives students towards a university.

In addition, City University can create a partnership agreement with Apple, in order toprovide discounts on the purchase of laptops. The purchase of laptops is highly costly,and this form of agreement is not currently incorporated in any university in London.Therefore, if such an incentive it offered, it will allow City University to market itself

better.

When the current students are applying for the postgraduate programs, and are putonto the waiting list for acceptance, City University should prioritize these currentsstudents, allowing them to receive an acceptance, as they were once current studentsof the university. Although this cannot be marketed, it should be taken intoconsideration.

8.1 The City University house

The above steps of action plan and recommendations are metaphorically compared tothe building blocks of a house, which in this case represents City University. This isconsidered to be the developed holistic approach that demonstrates the key benefits ofthe suggested action plan steps and activities. This systems approach is summarizedusing the following framework:

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9. INVESTMENT AGAINST COSTS

9.1 Outcomes

The cost of the customized CRM software cannot be defined easily. The pricedepends on how many services are required the number of features provided by thesoftware developing company and its users. However, after a thorough research, aminimum price of 25,000 including the implementation of the software, IT expertiseand the training for an initial predicted number of 30 users. Implementing CRMsystems requires new computer hardware, systems software, network equipment andsecurity software.

Hardware

The costs of hardware vary according to the features required. In a wide rangedependent on the scope of implementation and platforms. However, in mid-sizedorganizations where CRM are implemented, hardware could cost up to a quartermillion dollars.

Software

Just as the Hardware, the cost of the CRM software depends on the scope of thesoftware, its complexity (number of users, size of the database).The more users thereare, the more license the firm is going to need and probably more training too.

The cost of the software could then be reduced by reducing either the number of usersor the number of features.

Training

The cost for training depends on the number of users to be trained, and the level oftraining provided. The more complicated the software is, with many features, thehigher the price per user is going to be. Please refer to Appendix 6 for further detailson the Software cost calculation.

Advertising

Advertising campaign includes posters and flyers, and for both of these projectedcosts different providers have been consulted. An average investment of 2,000 isrecommended in order to reach a sufficient number of students.

Different sizes have been asked for quotes. A5 Flyers and A4 brochures will bedistributed during and before events such as open days, fairs and workshops. Theirformat will involve A3 and A2 and they will be displayed in strategic emplacementsuch as main entrances, corridors so they will be seen by a high number of students.These costs are totally projected to be 2,294 (See Appendix 7)

Events

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According to the City University marketing department, an open day currently costsaround 2500 pounds. We assumed that there should be 2 open days per year and thatthey will differ from the original structure of current open days and thus it would costmore than currently. It is predicted to cost around 5000 in total, including provision

of freebees (See Appendix 8) and the expenses for the organized workshops instead ofthe traditional tours. The total costs for the events are projected to be 13,800.

Direct Costs

Direct costs would mainly include lecturers and staffs salaries for the additionalrecommended courses. This does not necessarily mean recruiting new lecturers asmany teachers with required qualification are already working for the university. Ourresearch and comparisons with other school brought us to these prices.

Except a course officer to supervise the course, no extra staffs are required to add a

combined course in the universitys program. The average salary of an experiencedcourse officer is around 40,000 pounds.A course is divided in around 30 hours and each hour, the lecturer costs the universityaround 30 pounds. Thus the annual cost for teaching is around 43,000 pounds. HenceTotal direct costs for adding one extra combined course in the universitys programwill rise 88,000 pounds. (See Appendix 9).Assuming that less than 10,000 pounds would be invested for equipment and rawmaterials, the total direct costs are projected to be 95,000 pounds.

9.2 Incomes

Ranking/Reputation

One of the main factors that students are seeking for their university is a good rankingand good reputation. Thanks to a good internal promotion, current students get a

better image of their own university and will tend to give external people a goodfeedback on their university and perhaps continue their further studies at City.

Better customer understanding

The aims of the CRM software are to have a better targeting of students, creating andupdating their profiles overtime. Thus the university could fulfil the students needs

and expectations. Students will appreciate that kind of personal attention. Theybecome more than a random student and are subject to a regular attention from theirinstitution. They will feel more secured and will know where to go if they need help.

Better Marketing

Open days, workshops, flyers and posters help reaching more current students andimprove the image of the university in their mind. It is easier to catch people attentionwhen the number of people in the audience is reduced. Thus, by conducting workshopduring lectures with a reduced number of participants, students feel more privilegedand closer to their university.

Strategic goals

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Vistaprint. 2009 Available: http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/personalised-pens.aspx?GP=12/2/2009+6:45:38+AM#here. Last accessed 03 Dec 2009

National Pen Ltd. (2009) Available: http://www.nationalpen.co.uk/. Last accessed 20

November 2009.

Flashbay. (2008).Logo Branded USB Flash Drives - Welcome to the Source!Available: http://www.flashbay.com/. Last accessed 20 November 2009.

Yo-Promotions. (2009). Welcome to Yo-Promotions. Available: http://www.yo-promotions.co.uk/. Last accessed 20 November 2009.

Click Promo Gifts. 2009. Available: http://www.clickpromogifts.co.uk. Last accessed03 Dec 2009

Amstore. (2009).Promotional USB & Custom USB Drives. Available:http://www.amstore-memory.co.uk/. Last accessed 20 November 2009.

Bespoke USB. (2009). Get noticed - in a flash. Available:http://www.bespokeusb.co.uk/. Last accessed 20 November 2009.

City University London. (2009). Why choose City University London?. Available:http://www.city.ac.uk/study/choosecity/index.html. Last accessed 26 November 2009.

Queen Mary University of London. (2009).Postgraduate Study. Available:http://www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/index.html. Last accessed 16 November 2009.

Times Online. (2007). Good University Guide. Available:http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php. Last accessed 16

November 2009.

University of Southampton. (2009).Postgraduate Study. Available:http://www.soton.ac.uk/postgraduate/index.shtml. Last accessed 16 November 2009.

University of Edinburgh. (2009). Why choose Edinburgh?. Available:http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/edinburgh. Last accessed 16 November2009.

University Of St. Andrews. ( ). School of History: Academic Support Officer.Available: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/LA263%2009%20FPs.pdf. Lastaccessed 18 November 2009.

University of Westminster. (2009).Postgraduate Study. Available:http://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/pg/student-life/postgraduate-study. Last accessed16 November 2009.

Moodle. (2009). Welcome to Moodle Community. Available: http://moodle.org/. Last

accessed 27 November 2009.

Hobsons. (2009).Providing Enrollement and Student Recruitment Marketing

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Solutions. Available: http://www.eduinreview.com/Education-Finder/Hobsons/. Lastaccessed 30 November 2009.

Musico, Christopher. (Aug2008). Making CRM Mandatory for University

Administration.. CRM Magazine. Vol. 12 Issue 8 (N/A), p20-20, 1p, 1 chart.Wailgum, T. (2007). CRM (Customer Relationship Management) topics coveringdefinition, systems, software, and more.. Available:http://www.cio.com/article/40295/CRM_Definition_and_Solutions?

page=1&taxonomyId=1461. Last accessed 26 November 2009.

Jackson, M (2000). System Approaches to Management. 3rd ed. : Springer. 247.

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Appendices

Appendix 1 - The surveys

Survey conducted at City University (1/3)

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Survey conducted at City University (2/3)

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Survey conducted at Queen Mary University of London (1/2)

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Survey conducted at Queen Mary University of London (2/2)

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Survey conducted at University of Westminster (1/2)

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Surveyconducted at University of Westminster (2/2)

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Survey conducted at University of Southampton (1/2)

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Survey conducted at University of Southampton (2/2)

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Survey conducted at University of Edinburgh (1/2)

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All universities together (1/2)

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All universities together (1/2)

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Appendix 3

Step 2 - Relevant Systems

The key systems relevant to City University situation

A system to transfer the knowledge

A system to assess the students

A system to market the activities to current and prospective students

A system to retain the current students for post graduate programs

A system to improve the current facilities

A system to recruit skilful staff

A system to improve the communication between the stakeholders

A system to manage the budget

A system to reflect the global environment to students

A system to improve teaching quality

A system to prepare students for future career jobs

A system to provide students with team work abilities

A system to offer social societies and organize social events

A system to keep up-to-date with the latest IT trends

A system to provide reliable Information Communication Infrastructurebetween the main operations

A system to deal with external economical factors, example, economical crisisand governmental funds.

Appendix 4

Step 3 -ROOT DEFINITION

A system that enables the City University operations to capture information aboutcurrent students through gathering personal data, monitoring their attendance in postgraduate events, and receiving information from the website in order to identifytrends. City University will then target the students by managing the load of data andorganizing students in groups of trends, in order to design the marketing activities.Finally, the university will obtain feedback by conducting surveys as well as

reviewing the marketing campaign, in order to measure the performance andcontinuously improve the retention process of current undergraduate students.

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In order to ensure that this Root Definition covers the main elements in the mindset, aCATWOE (customers, actors, Transformation, Weltanschauung, owners andenvironment) test has to be carried out. This will outline the main stakeholders in thesystem and the Weltanschauung view will take different perspectives of looking at thesituation.

CATWOE TEST

- Customers Current students

- Actors University operations

- Transformation Student personal information transformed into knowledge

for university, better targeting

- Weltanschauung City University has knowledge to share with the students,

retaining them will create a bigger and closer Alumni community

- Owner University dean, university operations

- Environment Sufficient funds, capable staff for using the CRM software,

technology to allow this

Appendix 5

Step 4 - Agenda for debate

Item in Conceptual

Map

Present in the Real

World

Debate?

Enables the City

University

An ongoing process -

reliable?

YES

Capture information An ongoing process appropriate?

YES

Gathering personal data An ongoing process imperative

YES

Receiving informationfrom the website

Functional deliverable YES

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Monitoring theirattendance

Assessed from theonline signed in students

YES

Identify trends Not fully functional the students interests andhobbies are notincluded

YES

Target the students An ongoing process appropriate?

YES

Managing the load ofdata

Functional deliverable NO

Organizing students ingroups of trends

An ongoing process reliable?

YES

Design the marketingactivities

Functional -appropriate? YES

Obtain feedback Functional reliable? YES

Conducting surveys Functional low rate ofresponse

YES

Reviewing themarketing campaign

Functional- deliverable YES

Measure theperformance

Existing does it work? YES

Improve the retentionprocess

Functional are morestudents willing to stayon at City?

YES

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Appendix 6

Software costs

In order to calculate the Software cost, different costs were projected.

Training: The price of training is included in the software price. The cost for trainingone user per month is 42 pounds.

VendorPrice

/ user / month

Price

/ user / month

Oracle CRM Ondemand $70 42,00

The number of users:

We assumed that lecturers were in overall not willing to be trained to use newsoftware and will tend to ask someone more qualified to do the task for them. Weassumed that the number of users for the software would be limited to 30 users.Hence, following our recommendation of 30 users, the cost of the software isapproximately 15,000 pounds.

However, another simulation shows that if more staff from different departmentssuch as Marketing, Finance, and recruitment department would be trained. It wouldcome to a number of 200 users. Thus, the cost would rise to around 100,000 pounds.

Indeed, as the number of users is not limited and not a fixed factor, the price couldvary, and be adjusted by adjusting this factor.

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Enter number of users 30

Cost incurred for the number of users mentioned above:

Zoho CRM Professional Edition $4 968 2 980,80

SugarCRM Professional Edition $14 400 8 640,00

Salesboom Professional Edition $16 200 9 720,00

Entellium $18 000 10 800,00

Salesforce Professional Edition $23 400 14 040,00

Oracle CRM OnDemand $25 200 15 120,00

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Enter number of users 200

Cost incurred for the number of users mentioned above:

Zoho CRM Professional Edition $35 568 21 340,80

SugarCRM Professional Edition $96 000 57 600,00

Salesboom Professional Edition $108 000 64 800,00

Entellium $120 000 72 000,00

Salesforce Professional Edition $156 000 93 600,00

Oracle CRM OnDemand $168 000 100 800,00

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Appendix 7 Adevertisment costs

Flyers and Posters

Quantity Unique Cost Total

A2 Poster 500 0,60 298,00

A3 Poster 2 000 0,16 316,00

A5 Flyers 10 000 0,03 305,00

A4 8pp Brochures 10 000 0,14 1 375,00

2 294,00

Different type of freebies could be taken into consideration, but we focused onfreebies that could be used on a regular basis so student will remember easily aboutCity University. Thus, freebies taken into consideration are customized plastic ball

pen, customized USB Flash drive, and customized mouse mat. All Freebies willcontain the logo of the university.

Customized pens

We forecast to buy around 2000 pens during the year, in order to cover both opendays and workshops. A wide range of pens is available. Different brands, differentquality.However, the average unit price of a customized pen in plastic with the logo on itwould be around 30p. Hence, the average price for 2000 customized pens would bearound 600 pounds.

Customized USB flash drive

The USB drive is made of plastic and metal. On the plastic part, the logo of theuniversity will be displayed. The unit price of such customized USB Flash drive witha capacity of 512MB is around 3 pounds. The idea is to load files with City Universitydetails on the drive so when the student will use the drive for the first time, he willfind more detailed information and pictures or video to make him remember City. Asthis freebie is a bit more sophisticated and more expensive, the number of unitforecasted is limited to 1000 units and will generate a cost of 3000 pounds. It will beonly distributed during workshops.

Customized mouse mats

The unit price of a customized mouse mat is around 60p. It will be distributed duringboth open days and workshops. Just like pens, the amount of units to buy would be

2000. It would generate a cost of 1200 pounds. The logo of the University and apromotional message will be printed on the mat in four line colours.

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Workshop

Workshop will take place during open days and some workshops will be set duringlectures. It will be conducted by a lecturer, and brochures, documentation, freebiesdrinks and food will be distributed. Freebies are already available and there is no needto buy more. Also as the workshop takes place during a lecture time, it doesntgenerate an extra cost for the lecturer.

Appendix 8 - Events costs

Events

Unit cost Unit/year Total

Normal Open day expenses (incl.food & drink ) 2 500,00 2 5 000,00

Customized pens 0,30 2000 600,00

Customized USB drives 3,00 1000 3 000,00

Customize Mouse mat 0,60 2000 1 200,00

Extra Food and drinks for Workshops 200,00 20 4 000,00

13 800,00

Appendix 9 direct costs

Course officer Annual salary 40 000,00

Lecturers cost

Hour rate/lecturer 30,00

Number of hours per week 30

Monthly cost 3 600,00

Annual cost 43 200,00

Documents

Systems Thinking Report-Group11