Key Business Environmental Factors Analysis: Higher Education Sector

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the key business environmental factors affecting the higher education sector, with a specific focus on the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD). The report employs Porter's Five Forces and PESTEL analysis to examine the industry's competitive landscape and the impact of various external factors. It explores the influence of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors on universities, including issues such as student loan schemes, Brexit, online education, and the role of technology. Furthermore, the report discusses the competitive pressures faced by universities, including the challenges from substitute services, rival competitors, customers, suppliers and new entrants. The analysis highlights the need for universities to strategically position themselves to remain competitive and adapt to the evolving business environment. The report also discusses the impact of the five forces on UWTSD, including the challenges and opportunities presented by each factor.

Key Business
environmental factors
in higher education
sector

Table of Contents
INTRDOUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Global Management can be basically involves the distinctive field of business leadership
which focuses of cooperation of strategies, individuals, facilities and resources and also pay
emphasis on concentrating on the management of quality in order to go beyond and above
expectations when it comes to objectives and goals of the business on a global scale. The present
essay basically pays emphasis on the identification of the key business environmental factors in
the higher education sector and also discusses the influence of the business environment on
University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD). The present essay comprises of Porter’s Five
Forces and PESTEL analysis in order to carry out a thorough analysis of the higher education
sector. In addition to that it helps in better understanding about how UWSTD is affected by
Global Factors both in negative and positive manner.
MAIN BODY
Higher Education basically comprises of research, teaching and exacting applied work and
also carrying out social services activities of universities. In context to higher education, it is
described as the third level education after you leave school. It generally takes place at
universities and also further education colleges and also comprises of postgraduate and
undergraduate study. In reference to the organization, the University of Wales Trinity Saint
David is a multi campus university with generally three main campuses in South West Wales, in
Carmarthen, Lampeter and Swansea, a fourth Campus in London, England and learning centres
in Birmingham, Cardiff and Wales, England. In student’s life, higher education plays a very
important role in achieving success (Quarchioni, Paternostro and Trovarelli, 2022).
Individuals who acquire tertiary education are better placed to get well paying jobs in the
job market and developing a distinctive career path. Such type of students is able to develop
depth reasoning and critical skills that will be considered to their main assets for personal
growth. In reference to University of Wales Trinity Saint David, the major customers and three
under consideration in particular are both the external and internal such as potential students,
students, suppliers of services and goods, parents, government agencies, tourist trade and other
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Universities. For the objective to analyse the industry in a better manner “PESTEL” will be
applied for the objective to cover and identify the issues in relation to technology, politics,
society, the economy, legal and business environment (de Wit and Altbach, 2021). A Pestle
analysis is basically a tool that helps in providing prompts to the staff, governors and
management involved in the analysis of the changes in the environment of the University which
could result in impacting the management, finance and planning decisions. The tool helps in
carrying out a more comprehensive analysis. Such type of tool is usually used in the commercial
companies as a part of the strategic development of the marketing and business plan. Also in
higher education, the analysis is used in order to identify the threat and opportunities for
operational planning within school and educational environments (Aljawarneh, 2020). In context
to University, there have been various problems that constantly affected the university strategy
such as the student loan scheme, student fees and the target of participation to be achieved.
Almost each and every higher education institution in the United Kingdom receives some kind of
funding from public. Through this public funding, the government is able to partially subsidize
the cost of education for the students. Presently, the government of UK is slowly but essentially
cutting down on the budget for the education which could result in creating serious issues and
problems for the Universities in the future.
Also the universities of UK have more strength of students who are from Abroad. There is
no question that the political disagreement might deduct the number of foreign students in the
UK and also the higher education system has been highly affected due to the Brexit
situation( Bischoff, Volkmann and Audretsch, 2018). There are various economic factors which
could affect the university in the UK. In case of students, a lot of them are forced to take a huge
amount of funding in order to pay the fees of universities which is considered to be a major issue.
Also a lot of students are not able to pay off their loans which eventually make the higher
education less attractive. When it comes to United Kingdom, it do not have the strongest job
market as compared to various different educational hubs such as Australia and United States. In
case of social factors it has a major influence on the University such as Acceptance of Debt. In
order to succeed in the modern world, higher education is considered to be very important. Due
to constant changes in the technology, the significance of higher education is decreasing day by
day. This type of social change is also reflected in the job requirements of various entry level
positions as they move from offering favour a higher education degree to a relevant experience.
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In case of Technological Factors, the online education and its quality is quickly improving. In
case of students, in order to acquire educational materials, there is a wide variety of sources
available both offline and online. Also the technological factors are not just taking away from
higher education but also the technologies are allowing us to improve the education experience
in different manner. In addition to that Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence could result in
changing the way of learning at higher education institutions (Fichter and Tiemann, 2018).
Technology is considered to be the key driving issue of distance and online learning in order to
help and support the Universities in order to provide a variety of learning and teaching options
and meeting the wider access targets.
In such case, the concept of virtual learning surroundings are most likely to be used in
Higher Education although the maintenance and development cost appears to indicate that only
commercially and popular exploitable courses will be developed fully with this option. In case of
Environmental Factors, the use of private vehicles, public transport and parking is considered to
be the major issue which are also dominated by the city-centre physical campuses that requires
large number of members to commute to travel and work as part of their duties. In case of Legal
Factors, the students are increasingly seen or categorised as consumers and are also encouraged
to use rights in order to challenge institutions which also comprises of the legal action. In
context to University of Wales Trinity Saint David, it is considered to be one of the biggest
universities and offers a high value quality of education to its students (Murillo-Zamorano,
Sánchez and Godoy-Caballero, 2019). The University is founded with a strong educational
environment which basically allows the individuals and students to get understanding and
knowledge in the business related studies. For the Universities, it is very essential to use the five
forces for the objective to ensure that they are strategically position themselves in a method for
the objective to become highly competitive in order to keep the business remain in profits. In
reference to Managers, it is very significant to ensure that do sufficient analysis for the objective
to employ strategies to make them the best out of the business that they do.
In case of University, it is very important for them to utilize the Michael Porter’s Five
Forces that helps in analysing the framework in order to guide them operating in the competitive
surroundings. In case of Universities, the forces which could impact and influence the university
are basically the close ones and it is very important to properly analyse since these affect their
abilities to effectively make profits and serving their consumers. When the University faces any
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kind of changes in the five forces, it is really significant and crucial for them to re examine the
market place and also carrying out effective decisions which will help in ensuring that they
remain a challenge and profitable for their competitors (Eringfeld, 2021). In case of substitutes,
these are generally the alternative options which basically have the ability to satisfy similar needs
and also offer variety of solutions. In case of education sector, the substitute generally reduces
the potential return since they place a ceiling on the costs offered for the services being offered
(Kumar and et.al, 2019). In case of University, they are facing major challenges and issues as
various new business schools are opening up on everyday basis with better supplies from the
substitute services which generally makes them appear to be cheaper as compared to others.
Since consumers will go to those universities with substitutes so that they may get a better and
affordable service which can meet their needs. In case of University, it is facing tough challenges
from other universities and therefore, it is very important for them to increase service, do
extensive advertising and also introducing new cheap services every time. With reference to
University, it has been facing a very competitive surroundings which has a big concentration of
rival competitors which makes it highly competitive venture.
It is very important for them to compete with rivals and implement effective strategies for
the objective to ensure that they beat their rivals and also to focus on innovation and extensive
marketing for the objective to attract more and more customers on everyday basis (de Wit and
Altbach, 2021). When it comes to customers, they will be always pulled to go to the established
schools and avail best services possible but when it comes to UWSTD they also have a faith that
the services and products that are offered in the established schools always offer the best services
which can effectively take care of their needs. The university is highly challenged and therefore
it is very important for them to position itself in a strategic manner through ensuring that they
price their services and also focus on extensive advertising for the aim to market their services
and products and have new prospects and customers that will be consumers in the future. In case
of Education Sector, the competitors in the Universities have diversities and which makes them
unequalled and unique and it becomes very hard to compete with them in a challenging
surroundings due to high concentration of players who are involved in same type of business. In
context to suppliers, they take better advantage and benefit of their unique supplies in order to
bargain and ask for what they want and also charging expensively and enjoying monopoly power
for the services and products that they offers (Aljawarneh, 2020). In relation to customers, they
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are very sensitive to any type of changes which may affect them as it is caused by the bargaining
power of the suppliers. In relation to UWSTD, the suppliers may cost the university a lot of
financial constrain if they fail and switch to supply their services as it comprises of getting
reliable and new suppliers that can offer time and quality. It is the responsibility of the university
management to recommend their clients to use substitute as per their financial capabilities and
also trying to bargain in a better manner with their suppliers so that they may get quality products
at right prices. The new competitors who enter in the business comes with an intention to bring
up new capacities which never basically existed before they offer competition to the current
organizations (Al-Rahmi and et.al, 2018).
In context to Higher Education, Every Business entering in the industry is considered to be
a big challenge or threat to the current organizations since they may pose a big threat with better
and attractive services. In UWSTD, the university faces a lot of competition from the new
entrants who basically comes up with new and better satisfying services for the customers which
are highly attractive to their consumers and thus they take the consumers of universities. In
reference to Higher education system, there are various threats and barriers which might affect
the operations of the Universities such as economies of scale, schools and their government
policies, requirements of capital which are required in order to start a university and brand image
from the organizations in the education sector. When it comes to Bargaining Power of Buyers,
the consumers involved in the education sector put a lot pressure on the UWSTD as they are
highly sensitive to any changes in the prices and also they are always ready to move around in
order to find out the prices which are considered to be relatively less. In case of UWSTD, it is
very important for the University to pull all the customers and also reduce the consumers from
moving to their competitors who basically offers a lot of services. In case of UWSTD, the
universities faces tough competition from University of Oxford, University of Cambridge,
University of London and much more.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it can be concluded that it is very important for UWSTD to use
PESTEL and Porter’s analysis in order to deal with the various factors which could affect the
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operations of the company. It is highly crucial for the university to assess the market in a better
manner and also to ensure that it learns its customers in a very well manner and also to position
itself for the objective to compete in a more effective manner in order to remain in the business
and also to establish a good relationship with the customers so that the competitors may not take
away their customers.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Quarchioni, S., Paternostro, S. and Trovarelli, F., 2022. Knowledge management in higher
education: A literature review and further research avenues. Knowledge Management Research
& Practice, 20(2), pp.304-319.
de Wit, H. and Altbach, P.G., 2021. Internationalization in higher education: global trends and
recommendations for its future. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 5(1), pp.28-46.
Aljawarneh, S.A., 2020. Reviewing and exploring innovative ubiquitous learning tools in higher
education. Journal of computing in higher education, 32(1), pp.57-73.
Bischoff, K., Volkmann, C.K. and Audretsch, D.B., 2018. Stakeholder collaboration in
entrepreneurship education: an analysis of the entrepreneurial ecosystems of European higher
educational institutions. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 43(1), pp.20-46.
Fichter, K. and Tiemann, I., 2018. Factors influencing university support for sustainable
entrepreneurship: Insights from explorative case studies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 175,
pp.512-524.
Murillo-Zamorano, L.R., Sánchez, J.Á.L. and Godoy-Caballero, A.L., 2019. How the flipped
classroom affects knowledge, skills, and engagement in higher education: Effects on students'
satisfaction. Computers & Education, 141, p.103608.
Eringfeld, S., 2021. Higher education and its post-coronial future: utopian hopes and dystopian
fears at Cambridge University during Covid-19. Studies in Higher Education, 46(1), pp.146-157.
Kumar, V., Sezersan, I., Garza-Reyes, J.A., Gonzalez, E.D. and Moh’d Anwer, A.S., 2019.
Circular economy in the manufacturing sector: benefits, opportunities and barriers. Management
Decision.
de Wit, H. and Altbach, P.G., 2021. Internationalization in higher education: global trends and
recommendations for its future. Policy Reviews in Higher Education, 5(1), pp.28-46.
Aljawarneh, S.A., 2020. Reviewing and exploring innovative ubiquitous learning tools in higher
education. Journal of computing in higher education, 32(1), pp.57-73.
Al-Rahmi, W.M., Alias, N., Othman, M.S., Marin, V.I. and Tur, G., 2018. A model of factors
affecting learning performance through the use of social media in Malaysian higher
education. Computers & Education, 121, pp.59-72.
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