Evaluation of LSST: SWOT Analysis and Marketing Plan

This report provides a comprehensive SWOT analysis of the London School of Science and Technology (LSST), evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within the context of current trends in the UK higher education sector. The analysis highlights LSST's brand image and diverse course offerings as strengths, while identifying ineffective expansion and improper student recruitment as weaknesses. Opportunities include digitalization and global expansion, while Brexit and variant fee structures pose threats. The report recommends policy reforms focusing on student attendance and practical knowledge. Furthermore, it proposes a new service idea: a Masters' Degree for global innovators, incorporating an incubator environment. A digital marketing communication plan is developed to reach the target market, focusing on students aged 18-25 with graduate degrees. The report concludes that LSST must adapt to industry requirements and market gaps, and that the SWOT analysis framework is crucial for developing new services and ensuring future growth and sustainability.

THE APRENTICE CHALLENGE
(LSST)
Group Members:
1. Xx
2. Yy

AN EVALUATION OF LONDON
SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
SWOT Analysis of an organisation or institution is a framework which allows a detailed and
effective evaluation of the current state of its performance, which helps in determining its
competencies and capabilities along with a scope of improvement. Hence, in this context, the
presentation follows SWOT Analysis of London School of Science and Technology.

CURRENT TRENDS IN THE UK
HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR
Currently within the United Kingdom, there are several trends which are quite prevailing
within the country’s higher education sector. Some of these trends are stated below:
•Employability: One of the major trends within the Higher Education sector of the UK is that
students not only look for universities that merely provide them a degree, rather
employability is voted as one of the most imperative factors for higher education by receiving
almost 56% votes as per undergraduate trackers.
•Branding: Branding is another trend, which requires higher education universities to market
and promote themselves as per the course. For instance, reputation must be a key factor for
universities for Law.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF LSST
London School of Science & Technology is a well reputed institution which is inclusive of
courses in Business, Health and Social Care, Hospitality as well as Computing. Hence, the
SWOT analysis of this university is elaborated below:

STRENGTHS
•Brand Image: One of the key strengths associated with LSST is that it has an effective
goodwill, as well as brand image within the United Kingdom, which allows the firm to provide
effective education to local as well as international students.
•Diversity: Another strength associated with the institution is that it provides diverse courses
as well as different approaches for students through proper integration of different courses as
per the long-term academic and corporate plans of the pupils.

WEAKNESSES
•Ineffective Expansion: The organisation has a serious flaw in its planned expansion, wherein
the students believe that loans could easily and effectively be obtained by them and could
easily bypass the education provided at the university. Such huge grants and inappropriate
infrastructure have caused certain damages to its authenticity in recent years.
•Improper Student Recruitment: Students within LSST have been recruited upon basic
knowledge of concepts, along with evident computing and writing skills, which was quite
improper for a higher education institution. Moreover, as a result of such ineffective
recruitment, where practical knowledge is not valued, it resulted in empty classrooms and
improper conduction of education.

OPPORTUNITIES
•Digitalisation: With current advancements in technology, the higher education sector of the
UK as well as institutions like LSST have opportunities to reform their educational
infrastructures in a way which encourages students to attend the classes and acquire high
end and exclusive education.
•Global Expansion: In the current business environment, trade and commerce have
connected ends in all over the world. Hence, LSST could also expand its services outside UK,
to areas where there is actual need of education, to fill a gap and gain maximum outcome
from students effectively

THREATS
•Brexit: Due to the likelihood of Brexit, the institution faced threats in its current recruitment
of the students from European nations, which present several challenges for the firm in its
current practices.
•Variant Fee Structures: Different structures for variant courses could be a complication for
LSST as this would be very inconvenient for students who wish to study a particular
combination of courses from the university.

GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
There are several growth opportunities for London School of Science & Technology, some
of which are presented below:
•The UK has competent individuals with effective knowledge and teaching skills which could
provide a proper pathway to students enrolling within the University.
•There is still a vast gap within the education services of the UK, which is another growth
opportunity for the institution to track and work upon.

RECOMMENDATION
•LSST must reform its policies to ensure strict infrastructure which makes it mandatory for
students to be present during the classes to acquire respectable degrees from the institution.
•Practical knowledge must be focused upon by the recruitment teams to ensure that
competent and deserving students get enrolled in the university, hence, enhancing the
goodwill.

New product or service for LSST
The new service idea for LSST could be “Masters’ Degree for global innovators”, which would
be based upon constant creations and modifications of incubator environment for students
that would be depicting the current condition of the business world. Such simulation would
help students in getting a real time experience and education that would be contributing for
their professional careers in the future.

Develop A Marketing Communication Plan
for Any Products Or Service Developed For
LSST
Identify Target market
The target market for the new service of LSST would be students from urban areas of the UK,
belonging to age group 18-25, who have at least a graduate degree and are willing to obtain
practical knowledge of the professional environment.
Communication strategy on how to reach their target market.
The communication strategy for the new service of LSST would be Digital Marketing, i.e.,
through active use of analytics, trends, as well as social media as a marketing and
communication tools to get to the target market. The reason for choosing this is due to the
fact that access to digitalisation would make it effective and convenient for LSST to attract its
target market prominently through websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and so forth.

Cont…
Price and promotion
Price Penetration is one appropriate strategy used by the company to ensure that more
students with need of high quality professional studies could acquire the same without
stressing much upon the loans, which would ensure mental progress towards the career. As
for promotion, Social Media, along with Televisions would be used by LSST to promote its
new services.

CONCLUSION
Hence, this could be concluded from the presentation below that UK higher education sector
is progressing effectively and requires organisations to ensure that education provided by
them is up to the industrial requirements as well as the market gap. Lastly, SWOT analysis
helps in determining the probable competencies and key growth requirements for
institutions which help in development of new products and services for their future growth
and sustainability.

REFERENCES
•Douglas, J.A., and et, al., 2015. Understanding student satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an
interpretive study in the UK higher education context. Studies in Higher Education. 40(2).
pp.329-349.
•Universities UK, 2014. International students in higher education: The UK and its competition.
•Universities UK, 2015. Patterns and trends in UK higher education 2015.