IMAT5211 E-Commerce: DMU Distance Learning Analysis Report

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of De Montfort University's (DMU) E-Commerce strategy, specifically focusing on its distance learning programs. The report begins with a SWOT analysis, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with DMU's distance learning marketplace. It highlights DMU's strengths, such as its established legacy and large student body, while also identifying weaknesses like the imbalance between UG and PG students and limited course offerings. Opportunities include targeting distance learning students, while threats involve competition from other universities and external factors. The report then conducts an external situation analysis using Porter's Five Forces model, assessing the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threats of substitutes and new entrants, and industry rivalry. The analysis concludes with recommendations for DMU, including developing new entrepreneurship courses, maintaining a good relationship with the government, and improving the university's website to address cultural barriers and build trust with international students. The report also emphasizes the importance of podcasts, blogs, FAQs, and videos to enhance the user experience and attract a diverse student body to the distance learning program. The assignment aims to provide insights into improving DMU's online presence to attract more international students and increase revenue.

Running head: E-COMMERCE
E-Commerce
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author name]

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Part 1: SWOT Analysis:
SWOT matrix or the SWOT analysis is the framework that is used for the purpose of
elevating the competitive position of any organization and for the purpose of developing
strategic plans. SWOT generally stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats1. This
analysis helps in assessing the internal as well as the external factors along with the current and
future potentials. The SWOT diagram for the De Montfort University has been provided below:
Strength Weakness
 One of the Biggest Strength of the De
Montfort University is the legacy which
has already been established. Besides this
the University has also been associated
with providing quality education since the
year of 1992.
 There exists almost more than 20,000
students and the endowment of the
university is almost close to 1.17 M GBP.
 De Montfort University is consisting of
the 2nd highest number of National
Teaching Fellows of all the UK
Universities2.
Some of the major weakness of the De
Montfort University includes the following:
 There exists an inappropriate balance
between the ration of UG and PH. That is
there exists only 3000 PG students out of
20,000 students.
 The number of courses existing in the
University is also limited which means the
University is only associated with
focusing upon the entrepreneurs and the
innovations which in turn is associated
1 Shahijan, Milad Kalantari, Sajad Rezaei, and Christopher Nigel Preece. "Developing a framework of
internationalisation for higher education institutions in Malaysia: a SWOT analysis." International Journal
of Management in Education10.2 (2016): 145-173.
2 Douglas, Jacqueline Ann, et al. "Understanding student satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an interpretive
study in the UK higher education context." Studies in Higher Education 40.2 (2015): 329-349.

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with motivating the students to come up
with out of the box solutions so as to
solve the problems faced by real life
businesses.
Opportunities Threats
Some of the biggest opportunities includes the
following:
 Targeting the people with the various
distance learning as well as the online
programs
 Increased awareness level amongst the
people related to the post graduate
education has increased the opportunity of
the university so target the UG students so
as to get the post-graduation
Some of the biggest threats includes the
following:
 There exists numerous domestic as well as
international universities in the UK which
is associated with posing a huge amount
of risk for the De Montfort University.
 There also exsts threats from various
external environment such as the laws of
government and regulations as well as the
financial conditions of the market and
many more.
Discussion:
The SWOT analysis conducted above helps in concluding to the fact that the De Montfort
University is one of the great place for having education3. Various decisions taken by the
university so as to offer more courses to the international students is one of the best decision as
3 Underwood, Jason, et al. "Current position and associated challenges of BIM education in UK higher
education." BIM Academic Forum. 2015.

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the number of inbound international students coming to UK has increased a lot. Besides this in
each and every year there are millions of students who are coming from India as well as from
China, Malaysia as well as from many other developing countries who enter UK so as to get a
quality education4. So it can be stated that it is the correct decision which has put the biggest
opportunity for DE Montfort University to target the people seeking distance learning and online
programs. From the above conducted SWOT analysis it is possible to understand the objective
which would be helping in increasing the intake of the distance learning students5. So some of
the recommendations for De Montfort University has been listed below:
Recommendations:
 The University should think of coming up with few more set of new courses in the field
of entrepreneurship which would be acting as a very good selling point for the De
Montfort University. Additionally this would also be helping the university in improving
the process of differentiating the University from the other Universities which exists in
the country.
 The University De Montfort should necessarily be associated with maintaining a good
relationship with the government as well. Besides this it is also expected the University
should be associated with sufficing the different kind of laws as well as the regulations at
times of dealing with the international students. So it is recommended to have a good
4 Diaz, Anita, et al. "A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) evaluation of university student-
staff partnerships in co-creating educational resources, peer support and research within STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) subjects." Journal of Scientific Research & Reports 5.2 (2015): 161-170.
5 Banks, Mark, and Kate Oakley. "The dance goes on forever? Art schools, class and UK higher
education." International Journal of Cultural Policy 22.1 (2016): 41-57.

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relationship and rapport with the government which would be definitely helping the
University.
Part 2: External Situation analysis:
The external situation analysis would be conducted by making use of the Porters
Competitive Forces model. This is one of the powerful tool which helps in assessing the external
environment of the University. The five forces of this model has been discussed below for the De
Montfort University:
Bargaining power of the Suppliers: The bargaining power that the suppliers are having is seen
to be from LOW to Average and besides this there are some students who generally takes the
route of the agency so as to take admission6.
Threats of Substitutes: The threats which are faced due to substitution is seen to be from
WEAK to LOW and the reason behind this is that there does not exists any strong substitute of
the quality education7.
Bargaining power of the Buyers: The power related to bargaining which the buyers are having
is considered to be very HIGH due to existence of huge competition in the market8.
6 Douglas, Jacqueline Ann, et al. "Understanding student satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an interpretive study in the
UK higher education context." Studies in Higher Education 40.2 (2015): 329-349.
7 Underwood, Jason, et al. "Current position and associated challenges of BIM education in UK
higher education." BIM Academic Forum. 2015.
8 Hsiao, I. "A Strategy for the Vocational Education and Training Structure of the Beauty Profession in Taiwan,
with Lens Comparative Analysis of the UK." (2016).

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Threats of New Entrants: The threats which are faced due to new entrants is seen to be
MODERATE and the reason behind this is that it is not an easy process to open a University in
UK9.
Industrial Rivalry: The rivalry existing in the industry or the completion is considered to be all-
time HIGH in the Education Industry of UK.
Objectives of the De Montfort University:
Some of the major objectives of the De Montfort University which would be associated with
helping it in increasing the scope of the distance education has been discussed below:
 There is need of making investments in the Information technology for the purpose of
developing the platform which would be helping in providing a seamless user experience by
making use of the online education platform.
 The university needs to explore the new courses in the upcoming years which would be
helping the university in improving the product offerings
 The university also having the objective of making huge investments upon the social media
marketing platforms such as the Facebook and twitter.
Part 3: How can DMU Improve its Website:
There are various cultural barriers which acts as one of the biggest barrier that is faced by
the international students. For this reason it is essential to recommend DMU that it must be
having a strong view about the cultural vie of the website that the university is having. Besides
this the University should also be getting the message straight through a Podcast or by making
9 Gooderson, Matt, and Jennie Henley. "Creativity, the creative process and tensions between higher education
songwriting and industry practice in the UK." The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music
Education (2017).

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use of blogs in the website. Besides this it is also recommended that the university must be
associated with making it clear that it is not differentiating amongst the students depending upon
their culture as well as background along with the making sure that there is also no
discrimination based upon the race and religion of the students who are willing to join the
distance education learning program of DMU.
There also exist another issue that is the trust issue of the students. So it is very important
to make sure that the University is capable of providing a culture as well as environment for the
students where the international students are felling any kind of trust or respect issues. Along
with blogging the university should also be associated with the usage of the FAQs which should
be associated with addressing the common questions that are put forward to the university.
Besides this people would also find it very easy to look into the videos so as to learn from the
video as many times as people do not like to read the content.

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References:
Banks, Mark, and Kate Oakley. "The dance goes on forever? Art schools, class and UK higher
education." International Journal of Cultural Policy 22.1 (2016): 41-57.
Diaz, Anita, et al. "A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) evaluation of
university student-staff partnerships in co-creating educational resources, peer support and
research within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) subjects." Journal of
Scientific Research & Reports 5.2 (2015): 161-170.
Douglas, Jacqueline Ann, et al. "Understanding student satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an
interpretive study in the UK higher education context." Studies in Higher Education 40.2 (2015):
329-349.
Douglas, Jacqueline Ann, et al. "Understanding student satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an
interpretive study in the UK higher education context." Studies in Higher Education 40.2 (2015):
329-349.
Gooderson, Matt, and Jennie Henley. "Creativity, the creative process and tensions between
higher education songwriting and industry practice in the UK." The Routledge Research
Companion to Popular Music Education (2017).
Hsiao, I. "A Strategy for the Vocational Education and Training Structure of the Beauty
Profession in Taiwan, with Lens Comparative Analysis of the UK." (2016).
Shahijan, Milad Kalantari, Sajad Rezaei, and Christopher Nigel Preece. "Developing a
framework of internationalisation for higher education institutions in Malaysia: a SWOT
analysis." International Journal of Management in Education10.2 (2016): 145-173.

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Underwood, Jason, et al. "Current position and associated challenges of BIM education in UK
higher education." BIM Academic Forum. 2015.
Underwood, Jason, et al. "Current position and associated challenges of BIM education in UK
higher education." BIM Academic Forum. 2015.