Strategic Partnerships and Online Marketing for DMU

The DMU university needs to form an integrated network at the global level for similar organizations or universities across the international arena. This strategy will help improve the university's international profile and secure huge investment which will enhance research as well as student experiences.

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E-Commerce System: DM University

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Table of Contents
Part 1................................................................................................................................................3
Background of De Montfort University.......................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis of De Montfort University in Context of Offering E-Learning Courses..............3
Summary of Findings...................................................................................................................8
Part 2:.............................................................................................................................................10
Part 3:.............................................................................................................................................14
References:....................................................................................................................................16

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Part 1
Background of De Montfort University
De Montfort University is one of the leading University that offers wide range of courses for
graduate and undergraduate students and it is a public University located in Leicester, England.
Higher education review states that DMU is also come under the list of top 25 Universities of
UK with world class teaching excellence (Dmu, 2017). DMU aimed to conferring the valuable
knowledge to the overseas students through e-learning education process which has opened up
new era for educational institutes to attract more number of students through diverse approach of
learning to strengthen the ability of students in order to build more employable students from this
university so that it can achieve the strategic aims between 2015-2020. SWOT analysis is
proposed in order to proceed with in-depth analysis of University in relation to attracting the
students for E-learning course that University is going to offer to the national as well as
international students.
SWOT Analysis of De Montfort University in Context of Offering E-Learning Courses
DMU has set strategic vision and aims to impeding the next five year plan to develop the
institution in potent organization and tapping the career growth of the student.
DMU University is offering several undergraduate and postgraduate courses to the domestic and
overseas students which come from the China, Malaysia and India. With this it also delivers the
combating value to students in order to being more competitive (Dmu, 2017). DMU is a high
technology enabled institution which confers the award winning studies involving the
professional values to the respective students and staffs. With this, this university is more

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focused on career development which confers the competitive advantage to the University to
attract huge number of students from the cross border territory including the professional courses
based on industry practices. University is getting enhanced campus so that it has capitalized £136
million to developing the campus areas.
Ranking of DMU is improving gradually from last five years and aimed to detain the good score
from the last year performance.
(Source: Timeshighereducation, (2017)
Strong Students Base
De Montfort University has strong students base from the national and international territory
around 20,000.
It is also depicted that the 25% students are from international background which possess ¼
overseas students (Cojocariu, et. al, 2014).

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(Source: Timeshighereducation, (2017)
As line graph dictates the overall performance of DMU is increasing with short down gradual
growth from 2016, so the student can be attracted to be a part of this university.
Excellent Learning Experience
This University also having stunning employability rates of undergraduate students, as it is
researched that 96% of students are working and have standard level of income. E-learning
would also raise new opportunities for domestic and international students to develop the
capacity to enable them get job anywhere (Zhang and Goel, 2011). As e-learning education is a
value adding programme that is time and cost saving access the programme through online with
limited financial resources.
Opportunistic E-Learning Market of UK
UK market is adopting the distance learning due to the time issues and working class people are
also intended to proceed with higher education in flexible manner. As the trend is also changing
in market with off-the-shelf e-learning facilitates. It has reached up to the USD 165 Billion in
2015 and it is expected to grow at 5% by 2023 (Teicrete, 2016).
.
Decreasing Industry Income

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Distance education industry is growing very well but the income for this institutional industry is
decreasing.
It is researched that the income in this educational industry is increasing from the year 2016 but
in year 2017 it is going to decrease and the movement is also indicating the slight downward
arrow (Mendonca, 2014).
Highly Developed Infrastructure
DMU has well furnished and world class infrastructure that is built by investing 136 million to
enhance the class room’ s technology, this s better for the University to attract the students to
take admission.
Increased Competition
In UK market the competition has increased highly as most of the Universities are allowing the
students to proceed with the distance learning for supportive educational developments. As there
are many courses available for the students to gain excellence but Universities are also intended
to earn the additional income from the diverse market that might increase competition in the UK
market (Elearningmarketplace, (2017).

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Figure: SWOT Analysis of E-Learning Strategy
(Source: Chen, 2014)
Lacking of Online Skills
It is feasible for the student to study through distance mode but at the same time, students those
are looking for e-learning may not be able to tackle the online activities and process due to
technical expertise.
Complex to Attract the International Students
Innovative technology has shortened the globe as a village but it would not be easy for the
University to influence the overseas students and bring into the member of distance learning.
Costly Study

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As market research depicts that University has developed in world class superior amenity
providing manner but it also derive the higher costly for the overseas students to get enroll with
distance education.
Summary of Findings
Over the market research taken in order to get in-depth market analysis for the DM University
for the purpose of increasing the value preposition and transforming the commitment into reality
is find out the appropriateness of distance learning. It is also found out that the University has
ranked among the top 10th University of UK and 25th Top University by the world education
ranking. Organization is aimed to explore the opportunities for institution to gain the more
income from these courses through distance learning education system (Filh and Pace, 2016).
With this, it is also assessed distance learning study is also accessible for the students to proceed
with the flexible manner. In order to this, it is also endowed that University have significant
resource to get succeed over this platform by evading the strategic planning (Uskov et. al, 2017).
Moreover, it is also valuated there are some weak point of distance education which is practical
aspect of knowledge and level of professionalism to capture the knowledge from surroundings.
Further, the external market has good opportunities to adopt these types of studies because of
time slack. Market analysis also evaded that cost is an important factor for the students to think
before taking admission which might affect the students to adopt the distance learning because of
cheap cost factor that create opportunities for students (Zhu and Justice, 2015).
On the other hand, it is also found out that institution may face threats such as fierce competition
in UK market as other Universities are also exploring the distance learning business at
international level of students. With this, proper knowledge for students might impact on the

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accessibility for e-learning studies. Technological issues might affect the accessibility of course
on time for reporting of foreign students.
Over the entire, it can be recommended to the University that it should adopt the easy procedure
to influence the international students in order to increase the revenue for institutions. Reliability
in distance learning affect the other students take e-learning from DMU. Promoting the
perspective society may also influence the students to be member of DMU so it should also work
on social responsibility and sustainability (Filho, and Pace, 2016). It should also be focused on
strategic planning to attract huge number of students and working people by cheap cost factor
and competing the leading market players.

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Part 2:
De Montfort University (DMU) is a potent educational hub which has vibrant and long history
for improving the lives of people through the medium of education. This university was
originally founded in 1870 as Arts School for Leicester and now has many other branches
including Leicester Polytechnic and College for Arts & technology, Leicester (DMU, 2017). The
university is providing several international level courses and exposure to their students which as
a result enhancing overall revenues as well as awareness of college at the global marketplace.
The educational organizations require a framework to exploit more marketplace using internet
technology and design more efficient online strategies for the business operations. Angehrn’s
ICDT model can be used by the university to develop a strong strategic framework that will help
to achieve all business objectives for the university with enhanced overall revenues (Waheed and
Yang, 2017). This model can be used to extend or explore more business opportunities for the
organizations by redesigning the business strategies or model.
(Source: SCRI group, 2017)

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The ICDT model is mainly divided into four segments including information, communication,
distribution and transaction. This model will certainly help DMU to enhance overall revenues by
increasing base for international students and by enhancing awareness about the courses offered
by the university at all levels.
Information:
DMU will use this segment to provide adequate information related to different courses and their
relevance among the international students in order to enhance more awareness regarding their
educational courses (Nanehkaran, 2013). The internet is the best medium to provide adequate
information related to different courses, contact information of university, or areas where the
courses can be applied or use to get professional exposure. This will certainly help the university
to interact with more number of international students and enable them to attract towards their
distant learning courses.
Communication:
The communication channels like e-mails, chat rooms or Usenet groups for discussion can be
used by DMU to share information among international students. This also helps DMU to form
strong online communities in order to share more information among international students
across different locations. This also describes the value or relevance of different courses for
students and enables them to join such courses at cost effective prices.
Distribution:
This segment will help DMU to share its information without using any physical component
including digitizable media as well services like technical support or consulting. This also helps
the university to reach more number of students across globe and provides them adequate
information which can force them to join their distance learning courses.

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Transaction:
Brochure ware can be used by DMU to perform its business transactions on online demand from
the international students. This platform will certainly ease students to make their payments,
orders and invoices. Brochures or prospectus of DMU, information related to different courses
and their fee structure, placement opportunities, information related to faculties and other
information can also be effectively shared with international students using this segment and also
helps the DMU to analyze effective external environment conditions in order to enhance their
overall revenues and become a global brand at the marketplace (Nanehkaran, 2013).
On the basis of above analysis different business objectives can be formed in order to enhance
global influence and reach for DMU. These are,
 To publicise, promote and develop efficient international profile for the students.
 To increase participation as well as recruitment for the international students.
 To enhance cultural and social competence for the international students (DMU, 2017).
 To provide individualised support and learning to international students through different
accessible and integrated networks as well as services.
From the above objectives, some critical success factors (CSF) have been analyzed for DMU in
order to achieve their objectives that enable DMU to enhance their overall revenues with global
presence. CSF can be described as,
 Proportion of income that comes from the different international activities across the
globe.
 Proportion of students who inculcated with the global experience of DMU.
 Learning gain – survey based on DLHE, entry tariff, good honours (DMU, 2017).
 National survey for students (NSS)

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 Number of students employed or self employed after educating from DMU.
After analyzing all the critical success factors, some key performance indicators (KPI) can
recommended for DMU which will help to enhance overall revenues with global presence for the
university.
 Number of enrolments for the international students.
 Number of international alumni who are actively engaged with DMU.
 Value as well as number of strategic partnerships based on international level for DMU
(annual reports).
 Engagement index of students (DMU, 2017).
 Diversity index for the international students comparing with national as well as local
communities.
The universities in coming years will be described by the cultural competence and global
connectedness of their students, staff, stakeholders and alumni with their contributions in the
economic development as well as enhancing global societal. The main internationalization
agenda for DMU is to design two-way mobility for the students for transforming their cultural
competence. The university is focused to expand its #DMU Global program which is QAA-
commended in order to make this program as the most extensive, flexible and accessible
program for international experience of any of the universities based at UK (Nanehkaran, 2013).
The university is also focused to provide innovative schemes related to cultural preparation and
language learning which will be mainly embedded within academic activities in order to ensure
that the students will get maximum benefits from their DMU experience. The university is also
focused to enhance number of foreign students and in order to ensure this, the university will
review its curricula and emphasize that it could be flexible enough for international students

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belong to different culture and location. The course structure will be designed in such manner
that it not differentiate among the local students with the international students.
The university will not able to achieve their objectives in terms of global presence as well as
overall revenues if not able to expand depth and range for strategic partnerships at international
level. DMU needs to form an integrated network at global level for similar organizations or
universities across the international arena. The university will emphasize to establish multi-
strand relations and sector leading with global universities whose values or objectives are closely
aligned with its own. This strategy will help the university to improve its international profile
and at the same time, also secure huge investment which will improve the research as well as
experience of the international students (Chung et al, 2016). It is also recognized from above
analysis that DMU’s strategic partnerships not only enhances financial benefits or revenues but
also develops focused portfolio for partnerships that will prove beneficial and profitable for
international students, researchers and DMU on complete basis. The strategy adopted for
transforming cultural competence by DMU will certainly help it increase the students of
international origin and which substantially increase revenues for the university.
Part 3:
There are various ways by which DMU can use its website to address important issues like trust
or culture. The university can provide staff proportion on their website which will certainly
motivate all gender students to access distance learning courses across the globe and potentially
help the university to improve its global brand. The university can also provide diversity index
over the website which compares DMU with the national as well as local communities. DMU
can provide more placement or recruitment opportunities for the international students that will
be a significant step to make MDU more culturally and socially diversified (de Godoi and de

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Almeida, 2017). The representation of important statistics on home page of the website which
proves DMU as the global leader in providing different educational courses will also help the
university to enhance trust among the national as well as international students. The recruitment
opportunities need to be placed on home page for all sections of society will also help DMU to
overcome cultural or other issues.
From the research it has been analyzed that there are various online tools available for the
communication which helps the organizations to reach their target audience. Skype, Dropbox,
HipChat, Flowdock, ProofHub, Tinyletter, various platforms of social media can be used to
effectively communicate with target audience. These tools prove beneficial for educational
organizations which are providing distance learning courses (Oliveira and Figueira, 2015). These
tools can reach audiences using different advertisements, brochures, posters, press releases,
videos, visual elements or different themes by providing important information related to
educational courses, fee structure and possible future scope for the courses. As most of students
are using the social media sites to communicates the students and aware the students in relation
to offering distance learning courses. DMU will post on time to time regarding the reporting and
submitting the essential documents and assignment through technological tools. Furthermore,
University would be updated through media communication on University site into the distance
education column (Lsco, 2011). With this, it would also offer the online training tutorial
regarding the communicating students on various courses in detailed manner. It would also adopt
the effective online marketing strategies to influence the targeted audience in effective manner.

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