Strategic Business Analysis Report: BUS200 - University of Wollongong

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of the University of Wollongong (UOW), a public research university in Australia. It begins with an introduction to the university, followed by an assessment of its vision, mission, and goals. The analysis delves into internal factors, examining strengths and weaknesses, and external factors using PESTEL and Porter's Five Forces models. The report includes a detailed SWOT analysis, identifying strategies to leverage strengths and opportunities while mitigating weaknesses and threats. Furthermore, it explores the university's business-level and corporate-level strategies, along with functional-level strategies and organizational structure. Internal analysis is conducted through ratio analysis. The report concludes with recommendations and a summary of findings, offering a thorough understanding of UOW's strategic position and performance.

RUNNING HEAD: Business analysis 1
Name of the student-
Topic- Assessment 3
University Name-

Business analysis 2
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Present description of company...................................................................................................2
1. Identify and assess the vision, mission, and goals of the organization....................................3
2. Internal Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses................................................................................4
3. External analysis: External analysis includes PESTEL analysis that consists of various
features affecting an organization....................................................................................................5
Porter six force model analysis................................................................................................5
PESTEL Analysis....................................................................................................................6
4. SWOT ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................7
5. What is the Business level strategy? And detail your reasoning.............................................8
6. What is the corporate level strategy? And detail your reasoning................................................9
7. Identify and describe at least 3 Functional level strategies in operation in this firm in response
to its strategic mission...................................................................................................................10
8. Identify and describe the firm’s organisational structure, control systems and culture and
assess if and how they align to the firm’s organisational strategy................................................10
9. Internal analysis: Internal analysis will be done through ratio analysis....................................11
Recommendation:..........................................................................................................................14
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................15
References’....................................................................................................................................16

Business analysis 3

Business analysis 4
Introduction:
This report is formed to make strategic analysis of “University of Wollongong”. The
University of Wollongong informally known as Wollongong University is an Australian public
research university. It offers wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programme. It
include Faculties of Science, Law, Social Science, Engineering, Medical all at one together. The
strategic analysis will include analysis of vision, mission, objectives, internal analysis, external
analysis (PESTLE, Porter’s five forces), and financial analysis (done through ratio analysis). The
purpose of the analysis is to understand the purpose and financial performance of the
organisation.
Present description of company
The University of Wollongong is situated in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South
Wales, Australia. It is a famous Australia public research university. It has approximately 32000
students and a strong alumni base too. It ranks among the top 2% universities across the globe.
Every organization has a mission, vision and goals and it continuously put efforts towards the
same. It is important to set vision, mission and goal because when an organization give some
efforts for any particular purpose then that purpose should be known to them.

Business analysis 5
1. Identify and assess the vision, mission, and goals of the
organization.
The vision of the University of Wollongong is to explain the essential features regarding to
the belief that is generated by linking academic and clinical research on health and medical
issues common in the location. They believe that it is really easy to translate findings into
improved clinical practices and delivery of health services. It provides health benefits to the
society or local community. Vision, mission, goals of the organisation (Ye, et al. 2014).
Vision
The university has developed its vision to be one of the top nationally accredited
Universities. The company wants to achieve high quality of teaching and best research quality
with such an outcome that it result in regional development, innovative degree programme and
valuable international connection.
Mission
The mission of University of Wollongong is to build a centre of excellence and create
innovations in medical research and health in order to improve health through preventative
health care and preventative health care. It has a broad scope and that includes- discovering the
pathways that has come common clinical condition in any particular region, development and
evaluation of population in relation to health based interventions. It focuses on improving the
options for clinical treatment.
Goals
The goals of University of Wollongong is to convert students into graduates by providing
them high education so that they can become capable in managing environmental, social and
workplace change and the same has been achieved by providing high quality education to the
students, give them full support, creating a systematic benchmark and provide improvements in
the course.

Business analysis 6
 Offer relevant, innovative and relevant programme to the students.
 To engage in high quality research so as to developed region and to have effective
research training programme (Kelly, 2015).
2. Internal Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses
Internal Analysis-
Strengths
 The main strength of the university is its research field which result in the innovative
programme for the student and development of the region.
 Graduate of this university is considered to be one of most employable in the world
(Yamini, et al.2016).
Weaknesses
 The main weakness of this university is that there is less interaction between teacher and
student.
 Need to improve online interface so as to help student in their learning session.
If we do the internal analysis of The University of Wollongong, then we come to know about
its major strengths like it has it major research entities and they can easily partnership with other
entities so that they can provide the best facilities to the students. It has some lavish research
canters that are externally funded. It has partnership with external organizations that help them to
research in a number of key research domains. It has an amazing research faculty with proper
education and well- qualified I nature. They aimed to contribute at local level, national level as
well as international level. It has started a Global challenges program that is basically created to
community engaged inter disciplinary research that helps in making changes in the region and
that can has the power to affect globally. It has collaborations with universities institutes and
government organizations across Australia and around the world.

Business analysis 7
If we talk about weaknesses, then as per the reviews of the students, it has been noticed that
the organization is poor in communication and technology and internet signals do not come
properly into the campus and due to that half of the recorded lectures doesn’t work. Some
students think that they are really expensive as compared to other educational universities but at
the same time it has a brand name and it is charging for its brands (Minakshi, et al., 2016).
3. External analysis: External analysis includes PESTEL analysis that
consists of various features affecting an organization.
Porter six force model analysis
1. Determinant of supplier power: University employ about 4,000 staff and pays high salary
package and the infrastructure of the campus is attractive thus the university is at more strong
position (Babic, et al. 2016).
2. Determinant of buyer power: Number of facilities as good infrastructure, labs for research,
experienced and skilled professor all these facilities attract students not only regional but all over
the globe to get enrolled in the university.
3. Determinant of rivalry: Western Sydeny University is considered to be the tough rival in this
sector thus there is always a pressure for the university to provide excellent education with
reasonable fees.
4. Threat of substitution: Since the university is offering innovative and new programme for the
students thus the university is always on the brighter side and also the university is engaged in
the research in each faculty to improve the education level.
5. Threat of new entry: Since new entrant are being entered in this sector at very fast pace it
becomes difficult for the university to maintain good education level with optimum chargeable
fees (McCauley, et al. 2016).
6. Technology: This is the today’s scenario which affects the education level. Now a day’s new
programme are being introduced by the university to provide easy and much improved
way of teaching students.

Business analysis 8
PESTEL Analysis
Political: Since the university is public research university but the decision regarding the
education is taken by the university which means that there is much less interface at government
level. An organization operates in a country and there are some government rules and regulations
for the country so same applies to the University of Wollongong (Shaw, 2015).
Economic: The university is seeking fund for expansion of its campus from New South Wales
Government so there are chances that there will be change in the university with the change in
the government. Economic factors like exchange rates, deflation, and inflation creates an
important impact on the business of the organization as economic factors affect the Budget of the
universities. There are many things apart from studies for which an organization is responsible
for. It also affects the income of the people (Irimia, et al. 2017).
Technological: The university is providing online education to students since the technology
keeps on changing so the organisation needs to update with change in the technology. Around
30, 00 students are getting education in this university for their graduation and post-graduation
studies not only locally but also from international level thus the university is at their best level...
Economic Factors- Environmental factors are not as much important in this case as educational
institutions do not affect with the change in environment as studies and education does not have
any season
Legislative: Since the university is getting fund by the government for the campus expansion so
there are chances with the change in the government there are chances there will be change in the
funding system. University of Wollongong has collaboration with many government entities so it
is really easy for the same to follow the government policies and procedures (Koll, Parameshwar
and Shankarappa, 2016).
Technological factors- The technology that University of Wollongong is one of the best
technologies. It has proper research centres that enable students to work with latest technology.
Social factors are basically related to the society so in the case of University of Wollongong, the
society in which it operates should be financially strong according to its fee structure.

Business analysis 9
4. SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength- University of Wollongong has so many strengths as it is the reason behind its t=rank
and a renowned university. It has a well-qualified and intelligent faculty to provide education to
the students. It provides research in many areas and has collaboration with many private and
government entities so it can easily get advantage of such strengths over the weakness
(Chadwick, et al 2015).
Weakness- It only provides research education and it is situated in Australia only. It can open its
educational centres on other locations to compete with other universities. T should start
providing education related to other courses (Leung, 2015).
Opportunities- If we talk about the opportunities for University of Wollongong, there are many
opportunities at is doing a good job and it has a rank among the universities in the world. It
basically involves in research, so it can start education related to other fields too. People will
attract towards the organization as each and every student does not want to do research. It has a
good reputation and rand image; if it starts a new course then people can easily take admission in
the same. So, to expand the operations is one of the biggest opportunities (Sudaryanti, et al.
2015).
Threats- There is a threat of rivalries for the University of Wollongong as there are many new
educational institutions with latest educational courses and faculty. So, it is a big threat and to
defeat other educational institutions, it is mandatory to come up with new ideas (Najafi,
Fernando, Mand Pomering., 2015).
. Strategies to use our strengths to pursue the opportunities
Since the university is engaged in excellent research field so the university always comes up with
new and innovative programme which help it to attract more students to get admission but
locally but also at international level.
2. Strategies to overcome our weaknesses that stop us pursuing opportunities

Business analysis 10
The university can focus more on the development of the online interface so that the students can
easily get study material and easily interact online with the professor for their problem and can
provide feedback accordingly (Harvie and Van Hoa, 2016).
3. Strategies to use our strengths to minimize or counter threats
The main strength of the university is the research field which it can use to introduced new and
innovative programme for the students and help the university to take one step ahead against
their rivals. The campus of the university provides students with number of facilities which
attract students to get enrolled themselves in this campus (McDermott, et al. 2016).
4. Strategies to overcome our weaknesses that leave us vulnerable to threats
The university needs to excel in the field of online interface. In today’s world the universities
are entering in this field with new and equipped technology so as to provide innovative and
excellent education system for foreign students (Schreck, 2013).
5. What is the Business level strategy? And detail your reasoning
Business level strategy are those action which are taken by the organization to satisfy the
customer and gain competitive advantage and its position at industry level, relative to their
competitor and five force of competition . The main aim of the organization is to satisfy the
customers with who need to be served with how they will be served and what needs are to be met
to serve the customer. Organization must find out the resources and how these resources can be
utilized to satisfy the customer in the best possible way. Business level strategy for University of
Wollongong is basically related to expand the business operations. As discussed above it should
start providing courses related to some other stream too except research. There is a lot of
competition in the market so in order to compete them, it should open its branches in other cities
too to provide convenience to students and maintain the same level of education in those canters
too (Kavaratzis, et al., 2014).

Business analysis 11
The university is engaged in number of those activities which satisfied the students and
encourage them to get admission in this university. The University of Wollongong offers
comprehensive range of Programme for graduate and for post graduate level thus the find it easy
to choose the subject of their own choices and apart from teaching the campus also provide
number of facilities such as student accommodation, canteen, conference facilities, indoor games
facilities, standard swimming pool, sports field and restaurant and bar facilities is available
within the campus. The university is also seeking fund from the government to innovate their
campus area so that it can attract more and more student to get enroll in the universities (Gibson,
2017).
6. What is the corporate level strategy? And detail your reasoning
Corporate level strategy is those strategies which affect the entire organization. it include many
decision such as financial matter, merger , human resource management and allocation of
resources all these matter are considered to be the part of corporate strategy. It defines the
organization as a whole. Corporation among many small units so as to achieve corporate level of
strategy. The main aim of the organization is to achieve the goals on the long term basis. In
today’s world it is necessary for the organization to adapt according to the environment which
means to adopt such a strategy which changes according to the environment. University of
Wollongong has installed new cyber computing system to beat the rivals in market and increase
the overall effectiveness of the functioning of University of Wollongong. The main focus of
University of Wollongong is to expand the teaching activities and indulged in sport curricular
activities for the satisfaction and better career of students (Alghazi, et al. 2017).
The university has done many partnership and collaboration in the field of research and teaching
so as to expand in the field of education which will affect the entire university as well as the
student. The university is doing research in the field of education so as to introduce new and
innovative Programme for the students which will help the student to get excel in education field
and will also the benefit the organization on long term basis (Sharma, Mithras,. and Kankanhalli,
2014).

Business analysis 12
7. Identify and describe at least 3 Functional level strategies in operation in
this firm in response to its strategic mission
The strategic mission of the organization is to provide quality education for all. The functional
level strategies are created at lower level to achieve the strategic level of objective. the university
can improve the teaching level at the level which in itself can improve the education level of the
students and which in turn help the organization to improve its standard and can attract more
students to get admission. Third the university can improve the campus facilities and bring out
the new and innovative campus for the students by this strategy the student can avail more and
more benefits and in this way the university can achieve its strategic mission.
8. Identify and describe the firm’s organisational structure, control systems
and culture and assess if and how they align to the firm’s organisational
strategy
With the valuable b teaching activities of University of Wollongong has been installing new
process system to bring international experts and teaching process to make student learning
better and effective.
Organization culture: the company is following functional structure. In this structure, groups
are segregated on the basis of functions. The different functions applied in the university are
academics, research and innovation, finance, global strategy and administration.
Control system: the control system lies with the vice chancellor and the senior executive and
there is application of software’s through which the university is controlled.
Culture: the culture of the university is quite diversified. it encourages multi linguistics and
multi discipline. It has place for all kinds of students and their beliefs and traditions are followed
in the university (Burns, and Chopra, 2017).
Align firm to organizational structure: Organization strategy is to excel in the research and
development and also wants to function at global level. The organization structure is quite apt for
its organization structure.