CDU Analysis Report: SWOT Analysis of University Performance

This report offers a comprehensive SWOT analysis of Charles Darwin University (CDU), examining its internal strengths such as online tutorials and focus strategy, and weaknesses including the general portal and need for technological advancements. It also explores external opportunities like the growth in the Australian education industry and external threats. The report delves into the methodological framework of SWOT analysis, highlighting its importance for strategic planning and risk reduction. The analysis provides insights into CDU's position within the education sector, focusing on library services and student engagement. Recommendations are provided to improve the university's performance, attract more users, and enhance service quality through technological advancements and strategic planning.

Running head: CDU ANALYSIS
CDU ANALYSIS
Name of the student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1CDU ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Methodological Framework:......................................................................................................3
Importance of theory for analysis:.........................................................................................4
Review of the Education Industry:.........................................................................................5
Analytical discussion:................................................................................................................7
Internal Strengths:..................................................................................................................7
Internal Weaknesses:..............................................................................................................8
External Opportunities:........................................................................................................10
External threats:...................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................12
References:...............................................................................................................................14
Appendix:.................................................................................................................................18

2CDU ANALYSIS
Introduction:
Charles Darwin University is one of the leading educational universities in Australia.
Majority of its campuses are located in Alice Springs and Casuarinas1. In the global ranking,
the University has been ranked among the top two percent at the global level. The main
vision of the company is that the university aspires to be one of the major multipurpose
centres responsible for academic excellence at the global level. The university prides itself as
a well=-specialized education centre by providing educational facilities in training avenues
besides technical education. The company also aims to prepare their graduates to be
successful in the academic field. The students are ready to be the leading contributor with
transformative skills and focuses on improving the quality of life.
The report aims to identify all the existing opportunities and threats present within the
organization. Moreover, strategies are also implemented to enhance and improve the inter-
organizational and customer relations. SWOT theory that is applicable to the current situation
is applied to analyze the University’s environmental factors2. The University aims to raise the
engagement level of its stakeholders. Moreover, robust research is needed for the
development of the world-class scholars. The mission of CDU is to improve the quality of
education through its library services and information departments. This makes the students
to be highly creative besides being an innovative thinker and highly sophisticated in nature.
1 Cdu.edu.au. "Home | Charles Darwin University". Cdu.Edu.Au, 2018, http://www.cdu.edu.au/. Accessed 10
May 2018.
2 Kangas, Jyrki, et al. "Incorporating MCDS and voting into SWOT: Basic idea and experiences." Serbian
Journal of Management 11.1 (2016): 1-13.

3CDU ANALYSIS
The Office of Library Services (OLS) is highly fundamental for the education,
research and learning exercises of the college. The services of library are mostly focused with
its access in the administrative department. Few methods are provided for the national and
individuual progression in the existing subordinate societies. The major goal of such
outstanding library facilities is to help the staff by providing an effective plan. This further
helps the staff for providing such successful and innovative mastermind in the ever-changing
world.
Methodological Framework:
SWOT theory helps in analyzing the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as
external opportunities and threats of the organization. The framework is a strategic method
used, where the management can easily identify the factors that affect the organizational
performance in future. SWOT analysis is done as a part for ascertaining the overall corporate
planning process. Both the operational and financial goals are already established and
through SWOT analysis the company goals can easily be achieved3. This framework used to
ascertain CDU’s internal and external factors affecting its profitability and proficiency. It
serves as a great source for planning in the long-term and achieving the desired
organizational goals.
The method is a planned and structured analysis for the proper analysis of the
business or venture. Growth in the business and services can only be possible if the business
seeks out new opportunities that include attracting the potential customer groups. This
includes developing new categories of services to geographic expansion besides the broader
3 Tan, Liwen, and Jingkun Ding. "The frontier and evolution of the strategic management theory: A
scientometric analysis of Strategic Management Journal, 2001-2012." Nankai Business Review International 6.1
(2015): 20-41.

4CDU ANALYSIS
product distribution. Through the SWOT framework, the management team of CDU can
easily identify the emerging opportunities by raking advantage of the current opportunities4.
This also helps the firms to forecast on the long-term opportunities of the organization
through advanced planning. This can also help the organization ton enter the market when the
time is perfect.
The relevant data obtained from the SWOT analysis of the organization, the
management of the University can easily get the clear picture as the company itself position
against the competitors5. This further helps in gaining over competitive advantage by utilizing
its own strengths. Through the analysis, the weaknesses of the competitors can also be known
that can be used in future to increase profit.
Importance of theory for analysis:
It is one of the most widely used theory for analyzing the company internal strengths
and external threats. Through SWOT theory, the strategic planning for the advancements in
future can be easily known. SWOT theory is analyzed to evaluate, whether the operational
activity of the business is sick or healthy. This is a major undertaking that helps to evaluate
both the factors that affects the business success and failure. The theory helps in evaluating
the business environment in a very detailed manner so that proper strategic decisions can be
taken for acknowledging the future course of action.
4 Menga, Ebonzo, et al. "Ranking alternative strategies by SWOT analysis in the framework of the axiomatic
fuzzy set theory and the ER approach." Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems 28.4 (2015): 1775-1784.
5 Oliver, Beverley. "Redefining graduate employability and work-integrated learning: Proposals for effective
higher education in disrupted economies." Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability 6.1
(2015): 56.

5CDU ANALYSIS
Reducing Risk: SWOT analysis framework helps to improve or enhance the
company’s viability. The important threats that are coupled with the weaknesses of the
company generally put at risks the future of the company. Through SWOT analysis the risks
are easily identified. It helps in eradicating the internal weaknesses by assigning the
organizational resources so that the problem can be easily fixed6. This furthermore leads to
reducing the risks through external threats and therefore, eliminates the threatened area of the
business that is due to the existing risk.
Improving performances: by taking proper advantage of the opportunities, the actions
to be implemented for enhancing the strengths can easily be known. This analysis also pairs
the external threats of the business with the internal strengths7. In addition to this, taking
proper advantage of the given opportunity helps in making sure that the organizational
performance of the University is improved to a great extent.
Review of the Education Industry:
In Australia, the education industry has improved and enhanced at an unprecedented
rate since the past years. The industry market size was ascertained to be in USD- billion in
the year 20158. The higher educational sector accounts to more than one-third of the overall
revenue for the education sector in Australia. Education has been made compulsory in
Australia till the age of 10. It is mostly free of cost in most of the government institutes. E-
6 Kangas, Jyrki, et al. "Incorporating MCDS and voting into SWOT: Basic idea and experiences." Serbian
Journal of Management 11.1 (2016): 1-13.
7 Grassian, Esther. "Information Literacy and Instruction: Teaching and Learning Alternatives: A Global
Overview." Reference & User Services Quarterly 56.4 (2017): 232-239.
8 Hardy, Ian, and Stuart Woodcock. "Inclusive education policies: Discourses of difference, diversity and
deficit." International Journal of Inclusive Education 19.2 (2015): 141-164.

6CDU ANALYSIS
Learning was also estimated to be at an increasing rate of USD billion in the year 20159. The
Australian government has also made major initiatives to improve the accessibility off the
education through proper internet accessibility in the area. One of the most important
initiatives taken by the company was Digital Education Revolution (DER). The digital
platform that helps in transforming the educational sector with the application of new and
innovative techniques. The education market of Australia is therefore expected to increasing
during the year 2016 to 2020. This is also anticipated to have value around USD- billion by
the year 202010.
The library services provided by CDU have three established priorities for the next
three years. This includes the services models, Research collections and funding. The staffs
hired to provide such services are expected to change their management training methods so
that they have effective skills to handle the inevitable changes that would be arising within
the next few years11. The student engagement level is to be enhanced to increase maximum
proficiency and efficiency. Through library tours and presentations and organizing events or
orientation program, the students are engaged. During the year 2013, the library received a
sum total of $10,000 so that more improved technologies can e established within the
Casuarinas Campus Library12. In addition to this, Referencing and Research Support is
9 "Australia Education Market Forecast To 2020- Expanding Higher Education Segment And International
Enrollments To Drive The Market". Prnewswire.Com, 2018.
10 Blackley, Susan, and Jennifer Howell. "A STEM Narrative: 15 Years in the Making." Australian Journal of
Teacher Education40.7 (2015): 8.
11 Grassian, Esther. "Information Literacy and Instruction: Teaching and Learning Alternatives: A Global
Overview." Reference & User Services Quarterly 56.4 (2017): 232-239.
12 Marginson, Simon. "Is Australia overdependent on international students?." International Higher
Education 54 (2015).

7CDU ANALYSIS
provided by the library is playing a great role within the education industry. The students are
free to make a call during the need of appointment at the university’s Casuarinas Campus
Library. These advanced services provide assistance to a great extent to the students. The
services include searching for resources, EndNote, subject special database and referencing
helps the university students to prepare their assessments13.
Analytical discussion:
Internal Strengths:
The Charles Darwin University offers online tutorials via the Collaborate system. This
is one of the major strength of the organization. A large proportion of the students need to
have an easy access to the library, hence the CDU will have ample number of users to use the
face to face training system. By following the Differential strategy theory, the library
conducts tutorial for the critical subjects especially the technical ones through their YouTube
channel. As the world has become more technology based and no student in the country can
succeed without knowing the use of technical gadgets, the process of online tutorials will be
the best method for the students to understand their difficult area without visiting the tutors
who are much expensive to access14. This is the most important way that the library provides
the students online database for learning. As the Focus strategy ascribes the library focus on
a particular target group. The remote students can access the library and can get help for their
subjects like law, health and various types of research. The library can frame a systematic
13 Lynch, Kathleen. "Control by numbers: New managerialism and ranking in higher education." Critical
Studies in Education56.2 (2015): 190-207.
14 Patel, Umesh, and Rama Thakor. "Facilitating Change through Library Services Restructuring at SVIT-Vasad
Campus." (2017).

8CDU ANALYSIS
method of collecting as well as sharing information to guide the assessment activities15. The
system will be improved if the core team of the library staffs can capture the process how the
communities use the resources then only they can create a central archive the user data which
will be used over and over again.
Unlike other university libraries, this particular library provides help to increase the
study skills of the students, guide to decrease the language issues of the international
students16. This is the area where the library can get a scope for improvement. They can
experiment with more assortment strategies which will be purely user driven. The
international students will be attracted if the library develop project management proficiency
to implement projects which effectively respond these students’ needs17. The library can
attract more users and improve the service quality if it reviews as well as an initiate article
recommenders service in order to provide required information to the international or other
remote users regarding the actions of others who previously have performed the similar
searches. This will make the library more user friendly.
Internal Weaknesses:
The library has a general portal from which the students of various schools acquire
needed resources but this a challenging method for both the users as well as the library staffs
as they do not understand the specific requirements of the users. In this case, the library can
expand the core collection and provide perfect tools based on which they will be able to make
15 Gruber, Anne Marie. "Groundbreaking Partnerships for Engaged Learning: A Review of" Service Learning,
Information Literacy, and Libraries"." The International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and
Community Engagement 4.1 (2016).
16 Chauhan, Suresh K., and Ashok K. Bhatt. "User Perspective on Library Services at Jaypee University of
Information Technology, Himachal Pradesh: an internal survey." (2017).
17 Gao, Caihong. "A study on strategies to improve the protection of personal information for university libraries
users." Applied System Innovation (ICASI), 2016 International Conference on. IEEE, 2016.

9CDU ANALYSIS
the staffs understand their requirements or search their study materials easily18. The updating
of the information is necessary because the library aims to expand their service areas. Each
day new information needed to be incorporate in the library portal so that the students can
access them and gain knowledge which help in their study and performance. In order to
decrease such issues in the library, the technological advancement is essential19. Moreover, to
operate and incorporate the new information into the library database, the man power needs
to be increased. This is the reason why the library needs to employ more trained staffs who
will effectively cater such issues.
As mentioned before CDU library do not have proper instruments that can assist the
students to find out their desired data. The library needs to introduce new technologies in the
process of categorizing the thesis and other articles. In order to solve these problems, the
authorities need to spend more on technological advancement and staff training20. The trained
staffs will be able to categorize the searches based on the subjects. The method of text
classification based on subject and knowledge, will help the students to find their required
articles or thesis. The library can use notational system which represents the order of topics
an allow the items to be stored in the order. The library needs to have a well-defined service
model which will describe the similarities and the differences of the process of searching so
that the users can easily find their required data21. The link namely, ‘ask us’ describes that the
18 Jones, Michael J., and Morgan Harvey. "Library 2.0: The effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool for
libraries in educational institutions." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (2016):
0961000616668959.
19 Levenson, Helen N. "Collaborative weeding among public university libraries can lead to cost savings for
all." Space and Organizational Considerations in Academic Library Partnerships and Collaborations. IGI
Global, 2016. 130-156.
20 Portmann, Chris A., and Adrienne Julius Roush. "Assessing the effects of library instruction." The Journal of
Academic Librarianship 30.6 (2004): 461-465.
21 Grassian, Esther. "Information Literacy and Instruction: Teaching and Learning Alternatives: A Global
Overview." Reference & User Services Quarterly 56.4 (2017): 232-239.

10CDU ANALYSIS
library authority do not have much attention on this part. It may be the reason of having less
number of employees and limitation of their skills22. It is an example of material failure
theory. This is the reason why the library can conduct a training session for the employees.
This will help the users to stay connected with the library and take all other imprint services
provided by them. Through online support portal the library will be able to get the feedback
of the users and enhance their service effectively23.
External Opportunities:
The library has initiated correspondence courses which has a great prospect to flourish
among the regional as well as the international students it involves the online education
which the library offers through a large scale interactive participation as well as open access
through internet. As the library has a very effective online portal and YouTube channel which
can be easily accessed by the students from any part of the country. To effective learning
theory, in this environment they will find this method of learning more effective as many of
the university libraries do not cater such services. Through this programs, the library will be
able to share a huge number of data through the internet medium for supporting voice, text,
video and video conferencing24. The Charles Darwin University Library though its online
study portal can easily attract the international students. This particular opportunity can be
leveraged if the authorities categorize them according to the study schools of subjects. Here
again, proper classification of subjects and searches will be able to enhance customer support.
22 Sobel, Karen, Susan Avery, and Ignacio J. Ferrer-Vinent. "Teaching Them to Teach: Programmatic
Evaluation of Graduate Assistants’ Teaching Performance." Public Services Quarterly 12.3 (2016): 189-213.
23 Zhang, Li, Erin M. Watson, and Laura Banfield. "The efficacy of computer-assisted instruction versus face-to-
face instruction in academic libraries: a systematic review." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 33.4
(2007): 478-484.
24 Sobel, Karen, Susan Avery, and Ignacio J. Ferrer-Vinent. "Teaching Them to Teach: Programmatic
Evaluation of Graduate Assistants’ Teaching Performance." Public Services Quarterly 12.3 (2016): 189-213.

11CDU ANALYSIS
Moreover, the library can introduce apps which are very much user friendly in one hand and
attract the interest the users within a limited time25.
The online students will always have wanted to get answered whenever they feel
difficulties in the proper understanding of the subjects or assignment, for which they usually
consult libraries. The online classes conducted by the library can increase user regiment if
they determine to respond the feedbacks and FAQs of the users26. Through responsive web
designing, they will be able to track the most searched article and questions and answer them
effectively to cater what exactly the students want. By making the process social, the library
will be able to increase popularity among the international students. Language translation and
chat features will improve user experience efficiently.
External threats:
The major threat that can affect the database of The Charles Darwin University is low
security of sources and open data. The library lacks an effective security measure which can
be mitigated in few ways. First of the library need to fix its venerable packages though
upgradation27. Through using new version of the system, the risk of data theft and misuse will
be fixed. Identifying the vulnerable packages require the knowledge that which versions are
the most vulnerable28. According to the ethical theory especially Deontology, consequences
of the actions when faced with the choices, one should operate according to responsibility
and obligations. Therefore, the library can use technological tools that can find issues and
25 Fourie, Denise K., and Nancy E. Loe. Libraries in the Information Age: An Introduction and Career
Exploration: An Introduction and Career Exploration. ABC-CLIO, 2016.
26 Kumar, K., and S. Tholkappian. "Attitude of library users in engineering college libraries at Vellore District,
Tamil Nadu: A Study." International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology 5.2 (2015): 96.
27 Gawli, D. Y., D. K. Veer, and G. P. Khiste. "Application of Information and Communication Technology in
VNMAU Library." Journal of Advances in Library and Information Science 6.3 (2017): 243-251.
28 Grassian, Esther. "Information Literacy and Instruction: Teaching and Learning Alternatives: A Global
Overview." Reference & User Services Quarterly 56.4 (2017): 232-239.