World University: Comprehensive Management Issues Report

This report examines the management issues of World University, a global online educational platform. The university's business model involves online lectures, student referrals, and non-refundable fees. The report highlights decisions such as mandatory laptop and e-book purchases, extra certification courses, and scholarship programs. It identifies potential problems like fraudulent referrals, payment limitations, and the lack of opt-out options for required items. Recommendations include improved authentication for referrals, expanded payment options, and flexibility in product purchases. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of social media marketing and cybersecurity, concluding that the university's online structure presents unique challenges that necessitate careful management to ensure the success and integrity of its business model. The report stresses the need for a balance between business objectives and student needs within the online educational environment.

Running head: MANAGEMENT ISSUES
MANAGEMENT ISSUES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary:
The following report is about of the university known as World University. In this
report the main focus will be on the business side of the university not on the teaching side of
the university. All the activities of the university held online there will be no option of offline
interaction between the individuals. The management takes some decisions regarding the
university and the decisions comes up with several issues. For the betterment of the business
these issues needs to be resolved by the management.

2MANAGEMENT ISSUES
Introduction:
The report is about the world university which will be made by the all the private
institutions of the world coming together in a single place. All the work procedure of the
university is going to be fully online 1. The students affiliate themselves under the world
university will get several facilities. As the whole system is online the students can take
lectures from anywhere in the world. The lectures are uploaded in the website so that the
students can view the lecture to learn at any time of the day. The students just need to sign in
to the university website to avail all the lectures that has been uploaded by the tutor around
the globe 2. The interaction between staffs are also online there is no option of face to face
interactions. The choice is given to the students that from which country they want to
graduate from. The student can choose any country to graduate by the help of World
University. For the benefit of the students the senior management of the institution has taken
some decisions. The business of the education can get affected by the decisions that are taken
by the higher management. The business will get the better focus by the management rather
than the educational side 3. The management taken a decision of using their students as the
medium of promotion. There is also agents that are hired by the university to sell the offering
to the employees outside. The main objective of the world university is to provide a common
education platform online where all the students around the world can learn online and the
university will also generate a good amount of revenue. This model of the business will
provide equal opportunity to the students as well as the business both will get benefitted from
this module4. As the business will consist various private institutions around the world and
1 Jordan, Katy. "Initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online courses." The
International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 15.1 (2014).
2 Glassman, Elena L., et al. "Mudslide: A spatially anchored census of student confusion for online
lecture videos." Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems. ACM, 2015.
3 Sallis, Edward. Total quality management in education. Routledge, 2014.
4 Korn, Melissa, and Jennifer Levitz. "Online courses look for a business model." The Wall Street
Journal (2013): B8.

3MANAGEMENT ISSUES
the platform is online so the chances are high of getting issues. To resolve the issues several
recommendation will be given as per the issues.
The University Idea and Objectives:
The main objective of the World University is to have all the institutions that are
private to have under a single place to form World University. The idea is to provide the
students all over the world provide an opportunity to graduate online. 5The students will get
the opportunity to study online from anywhere in the globe sitting at home. The lectures
uploads the lectures online to the portal for the students so that the students can learn. As the
whole system of the university is operated online so that the so the whole process gets easier
for the students as well as for the staffs of the university. There is no physical interaction
between the staffs or the students, they also need to communicate online 6. There is an option
by which the student can choose a country from where he desired to do graduate. For
example if a students is from England and studied his entire education there and wants to do
the graduate from New Zealand, he can do this with ease from sitting at home as the
university operates online. In every country there will be a website of the world country is
available by that the students over the world can do the graduation. Multiple opportunities
will be given to the student who are affiliate themselves under the world university 7. The
students will also benefited with the fee credit, job opportunity and many more exposure
regarding the marketing and regarding the course.
Higher management Decisions:
The higher management provide the student with a scheme that is called
StudyTogether scheme by which the student will be provided with a fee credit. This fee credit
5 Holzweiss, Peggy C., et al. "Online graduate students’ perceptions of best learning
experiences." Distance education35.3 (2014): 311-323.
6 Simpson, Ormond. Supporting students in online open and distance learning. Routledge, 2013.
7 Kuo, Yu-Chun, et al. "Interaction, Internet self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning as predictors of
student satisfaction in online education courses." The Internet and Higher Education20 (2014): 35-50.

4MANAGEMENT ISSUES
will be provide to the students for their loyalty for the university 8. When a student give
referral to someone and the person takes admission in the university then the existing student
will be rewarded with the credit of fee. This will encourage more students to promote the
university, as the student and the university both gets benefited from the scheme. This
process will help the business to generate a good amount of revenue. Beside the promotion by
the students, the university also hires some outside agents to sell the offerings of the business
to the employees 9. The management work very efficiently, if any request is submitted to the
management for any kind of approval then the application will approve in less than 5minutes
that is very fast response in terms of the size of the business. The management also taken the
decision that once the fees is paid in any circumstances it won’t be get refunded so the fees is
non-refundable. To submit the fee online the students have to pay using PayPal or credit card
10. The students will be provided with E-books and Laptops, these two are the part of the
course. The students must have to purchase these two items from the university website.
There is no opt out option available for e-book and laptop purchase. The laptops will be pre-
configured with the required software according to the course and will be send to the all
students. The senior management can introduce a scholarship program for the student. That
the students have to pass a certain minimum criteria to be eligible for the scholarship11. This
scholarship programme will encourage more students towards the university and the business
will get profited by that. Apart from the courses offered the management can also introduce
some extra curriculum certification course for the students. The students those are interested
in doing the extra certification course have to pay a certain fees for the course. This will
8 Kuester, Madlen, and Martin Benkenstein. "Turning dissatisfied into satisfied customers: How referral
reward programs affect the referrer׳ s attitude and loyalty toward the recommended service
provider." Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21.6 (2014): 897-904.
9 Chalfin, Robert J. Selling your IT business: Valuation, finding the right buyer, and negotiating the
deal. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
10 Niranjanamurthy, M., and DR Dharmendra Chahar. "The study of e-commerce security issues and
solutions." International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication
Engineering 2.7 (2013).
11 Barrow, Lisa, et al. "Paying for performance: The education impacts of a community college
scholarship program for low-income adults." Journal of Labor Economics 32.3 (2014): 563-599.

5MANAGEMENT ISSUES
benefit both the student and the business as the business will generate a certain amount from
that and the students will have to learn an extra course and get certified for that. In the recent
time the social media becomes the game changing aspect for the marketing of the business12.
Many businesses are opting to promote their business in the social media as the platform is
large and the scope is high. As the platform of the social media is broader so the connectivity
gets higher, billions of people are using social media in daily basis. The company recruited
some offline agents too, the work of the agents is to sell the offerings of the business to the
employees outside 13. By recruiting the agents the business can save money because they do
not have to compromise the student fee.
Generating Issues:
For every business there is a chance for issues to arise. This business is not an
exception as this business also have some certain issue regarding the decisions of the higher
management. The management introduce a beneficial scheme for the students that if a student
refer any other student to get admission then the student will be rewarded with fee credit.
This process also have some loop holes in it, and the loop holed needs to be resolved. Like
the students can give fake kind of referral to get reward 14 As there is no way of physical
interaction so the chance of getting fraud is very high. The management approves the
application very fast but have to aware of that all tasks are not there for approval if a task
which is not approvable is approved by the management anyhow then certain issues can be
generated by that. The management says that the fees are non-refundable and have to pay
online as the whole system is online. The students have to pay the fee via credit card or by the
12 Arquero, José L., and Esteban Romero-Frías. "Using social network sites in higher education: An
experience in business studies." Innovations in Education and Teaching International50.3 (2013):
238-249.
13 Lieder, Michael, Farazee MA Asif, and Amir Rashid. "Towards Circular Economy implementation:
an agent-based simulation approach for business model changes." Autonomous Agents and Multi-
Agent Systems 31.6 (2017): 1377-1402.
14 Lachar, David, et al. "Student behavior survey." Forensic Uses of Clinical Assessment
Instruments (2013): 263.

6MANAGEMENT ISSUES
PayPal only. The students not having the PayPal or the credit card can face issues regarding
the fee submission. The management includes laptop and e-book price in the course price and
the student have to buy these two items from the university. This make no sense as there is no
option of opting out. This will arise issue for the students who already have their own laptop.
The management introduced a certification course for the students who are interested to do
the course by paying extra fee 15. The management also introduced a scholarship programme
for the eligible student. For the last two decisions there are some certain criteria which the
student needs to clear to be able to avail the schemes. Social media promotion is effective but
it can also effect the system as there are so many spammers using the social Medias. The
university is standalone online so the protection needs to be better from affecting by any kind
of cyber-attack transactions also made online so by this certain issues can be generated 16.
Conclusion:
Concluding the report it can be stated that, the initiative of bringing all the private
institutions around the world to form a world university is good. The world university will
serve all its services online and no face to face interaction will be present there. The student
from around the globe will get benefited from the world university. As the whole thought is
of online so the students can learn online from anywhere and anytime of the day. The option
provided to the student to choose the country from where wants to do the graduate. E-books
and laptops are also provided to the students with the course. Purchase of these two items are
must. Several loyalty schemes are there for the students when a student refer another student
to take admission on the university and if the student takes admission then the student will be
rewarded with a certain amount of fee credit. Online promotion is also used by the business
15 Farhi, Emmanuel, Josh Lerner, and Jean Tirole. "Fear of rejection? Tiered certification and
transparency." The RAND Journal of Economics 44.4 (2013): 610-631.
16 Gillman, David, et al. "Protecting websites from attack with secure delivery
networks." Computer 48.4 (2015): 2F6-34.

7MANAGEMENT ISSUES
as they are using the social media to promote their business. Certain issues can generated
from the decisions that the senior management has taken.
Recommendations:
Every business in the market faces some issues this business is not an exception in
case of generating issues. The issues that are arises are discussed earlier. The issues are
mainly generated from the decisions of the higher management. The higher managements
says that the students will get reward for referral. As the referral and admission both the
process are online do the chances of fraud is very high as the student can give fake references
to get the fee credited. So the proper authentication method must be used by the business.
And the university must modify the rule like that is the referred student completed the course
then only in the last month the fee will be credited unless there would be no such reward will
be given. The university seta a rule for the fee that the fee have to be paid online via credit
card and pay pal but they have to introduce some more online payment gate way for the
student to pay the fee because there is a possibility of students not having any of the credit
card or PayPal. Providing the student with a pre-configured laptops and e-books are good
initiative but there must be an option of opting out. In many cases the students are already
have a laptop in their home so it is not necessary for the students to buy the product so opting
out option must be included. The university offers a extra certification course but the issue is
the university is charging a fee for that. If a student is interested to do the certification course
and do not want to pay any extra money for the certification then the management can face
some issue regarding those students. The university also provided a scholarship option and
set a certain criteria to be able to do the scholarship. If a student needs such kind of
scholarship and do not pass the criteria to be eligible to have the scholarship for them the
university should arrange a scholarship exam and set a certain cut-off. The students pass the
cut-off will be eligible for the scholarship programme. As the whole system is online so the

8MANAGEMENT ISSUES
security measurement have to be taken carefully as in the recent time the amount of cyber-
attack is very high. In the university the transactions also made online so the payment
gateway must be secure and the data must be encrypted so the third party cannot get the data
access. The university must be aware of the spammers like fake admission or one man having
more than one id for the reward.

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Bibliography:
Arquero, José L., and Esteban Romero-Frías. "Using social network sites in higher education:
An experience in business studies." Innovations in Education and Teaching International50.3
(2013): 238-249.
Arquero, José L., and Esteban Romero-Frías. "Using social network sites in higher education:
An experience in business studies." Innovations in Education and Teaching International50.3
(2013): 238-249.
Barrow, Lisa, et al. "Paying for performance: The education impacts of a community college
scholarship program for low-income adults." Journal of Labor Economics 32.3 (2014): 563-
599.
Chalfin, Robert J. Selling your IT business: Valuation, finding the right buyer, and
negotiating the deal. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Glassman, Elena L., et al. "Mudslide: A spatially anchored census of student confusion for
online lecture videos." Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors
in Computing Systems. ACM, 2015.
Holzweiss, Peggy C., et al. "Online graduate students’ perceptions of best learning
experiences." Distance education35.3 (2014): 311-323.
Jordan, Katy. "Initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online
courses." The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 15.1
(2014).
Korn, Melissa, and Jennifer Levitz. "Online courses look for a business model." The Wall
Street Journal (2013): B8.

10MANAGEMENT ISSUES
Kuester, Madlen, and Martin Benkenstein. "Turning dissatisfied into satisfied customers:
How referral reward programs affect the referrer׳ s attitude and loyalty toward the
recommended service provider." Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 21.6 (2014):
897-904.
Kuo, Yu-Chun, et al. "Interaction, Internet self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning as
predictors of student satisfaction in online education courses." The Internet and Higher
Education20 (2014): 35-50.
Lachar, David, et al. "Student behavior survey." Forensic Uses of Clinical Assessment
Instruments (2013): 263.
Lieder, Michael, Farazee MA Asif, and Amir Rashid. "Towards Circular Economy
implementation: an agent-based simulation approach for business model
changes." Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 31.6 (2017): 1377-1402.
Niranjanamurthy, M., and DR Dharmendra Chahar. "The study of e-commerce security
issues and solutions." International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and
Communication Engineering 2.7 (2013).
Sallis, Edward. Total quality management in education. Routledge, 2014.
Simpson, Ormond. Supporting students in online open and distance learning. Routledge,
2013.
Lieder, Michael, Farazee MA Asif, and Amir Rashid. "Towards Circular Economy
implementation: an agent-based simulation approach for business model
changes." Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 31.6 (2017): 1377-1402.

11MANAGEMENT ISSUES
Lachar, David, et al. "Student behavior survey." Forensic Uses of Clinical Assessment
Instruments (2013): 263.