InternationalPositioning

Dr Robert Coelen

21 Apr 2023

International Positioning

Dr Robert Coelen

This presentation- Positioning- Quality perception local &

international- Price – Quality link- Internationalisation- Academic vs. Commercial Approach- The Leiden Model

De wereld als podium

De Rijksuniversiteit Groningen kiest voor de wereld. Uit ambitie, maar ook uit noodzaak.

De RUG neemt maatregelen om zich versneld te ontwikkelen tot een werkelijk internationale

gemeenschap. Tot een universiteit die een prominente positie inneemt op de wetenschappelijke

wereldkaart, niet alleen op onderzoek- maar zeker ook op onderwijsgebied.

Positioning, what for ?

- Must be clear about the motives- Are you well positioned ?- Most European universities are

currently positioned not as the result of deliberate action in relation to international attention

- Must have a clearly defined and realistic goal

Strategic positioning: World Class

- Want to be world class• The region deserves it - Edinburgh• The country must have it – Australia• We’re building it – Virginia Tech• Must get there in the next decade:

– “The goal of strategic positioning is to make the University of Minnesota one of the top three public research universities in the world within a decade. “

- How many world class universities can there be ? (250 – T. van Raan at Leiden University)

- What is world class ?

Strategic Positioning:Regional Relevance

- Service the region• No aspirations to be world class• local issues to service the region• Provide opportunity for disadvantaged groups

- Specialist environment• Tropical environment

– Great Barrier Reef – can be world beater !

Strategic positioning: Specialisation

- University focussed on a few related disciplines

• Medical• Engineering• Economics

Positioning- How your target market sees you in

relation to your competition- It is about the students’ perception of you- The defining characteristics of your

university have placed you where you are now

- Mismatch (?) between how you see yourself and how your prospective students see you

Image and Reputation

- Reputation: result of past actions (academic)- Image: the portrayal over a short period:

snapshot (marketing communication)- Successful service business (high reputation)

characterised by high demand and high sales

- HE institution’s high reputation linked to high demand and ‘low sales’ (=selectivity)

- Reflect: unable to buy a service would deteriorate reputation – use pricing to control demand

- quality in service industry is coupled to price

Transactional vs Relationship Marketing

- Related to international student segment- TM = focuses on one-off interaction- RM = longer term relationships with a network of

stakeholders- Framing activities in the:

- TM model • uses 4Ps: price, place, promotion, product• Dependent on snapshot assessment• Significantly affected by ranking

- RM model• Development of relationships, beyond just exchange of education

for money• Network of stakeholders including, existing students, colleagues

abroad, alumni, captains of industry, etc• Less affected by ranking

Positioning – parameters (PQSDP)

- Pricing • luxury, quality, good value, low value, cheaper, cheapest

- Quality • what is the prospective student’s perception of your quality ?

- Service & Support• Important characteristics

- Distribution• transnational delivery, local consumption, e-delivery

- Packaging• your environment and your presentation

International Student Concerns

- Quality of the education- Prospects of a job

- Life style- Personal Security- Affordability

Quality and Cost- Undeniably a link- Higher Education:

• Staff student ratio• Infrastructural resources• Quality of academic staff in unregulated

remuneration system• Rewarding top academics with assistance

- Price - Quality- Quality Brands – Prestige, Exclusivity

What is QUALITY ?- Large number of

organisations/jurisdictions are attempting to define this:

• UK quality review• Professional organisation peer review• AUQA - Australia• CHE/DAAD - Germany• ENQA – European Association for Quality Assurance in

Higher Education• Visitation programme in the Netherlands

- Discipline based international benchmarking

- Output (graduate) – based

Good quality- Education is an experience good- If the quality is good- Education is a good experience

Quality Enhancement- Enhancement is an innate feature of

the academic process- Obligation towards alumni- Local/national community

expectation

Which quality counts ?- In the current context:

• Perceived quality (local & foreign)• If based on substance

- Recommendation by non-local academics- Successful alumni- Internationally successful staff- Big differences between local and foreign

perception may exist

Local versus International Perception

- Local: - historical, longitudinal perception,

slow to change, collective memory- International:

- often no history, must resort to ‘snapshot’ assessment

- Country profile very relevant• Underpins importance of country strategy

Snapshot assessment- Local knowledgeable and trusted sources:

• Academic community• Successful alumni• Agencies

- Third party ‘independent’ and accessible assessment

• Repetitive occurrence strengthens this type• Government issued• Ranking lists

Q.U.A.L.I.T.Y- Quasi- Universal- Agreement on a - Litany of- Interesting- Tests to promote- Your university

Methods- Ranking groups (SJTU):

• Top 20, Top 100, >400, not ranked- Countries:

• USA, UK, Australia, Netherlands- Bachelor level disciplines:

• Business, Sciences, Law, Literature, Medicine, Engineering, Computer Science

- Master level disciplines:• Business, Sciences, Literature, Computer Science

- Annual tuition fees expressed in EUR (exchange value)

Undergraduate average tuition fees

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

USA UK AUS NL

Sciences

Medicine

Literature

Law

Postgraduate average tuition fees

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

20000

USA UK AUS NL

Comp Sci

Lit

Science

Business

Bachelor and Master level by rank

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

top 20 top 100 >400 no rank

Bachelor

Master

Ranking…..- Public/accessible Global rankings are

relatively new:• THES – Malaysian issue• Berlin Principles• Universities are also responding:

– Leiden University Symposium on ranking 16/2/06– International Ranking Symposium in Leiden, 2-3

February 2007: Institutional, National, and International Response to University Ranking

- Like it or hate it, we have to deal with it

IREG Meeting Berlin- Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher

Education Institutes- International Experts Ranking Group

(IREG)- http://www.ihep.org/Organization/Press/Berlin_Principles_Release.pdf

- Those who producing rankings and league tables should hold themselves accountable for quality of their own data collection, methodology, and dissemination

Internationalisation of:- Teaching and learning- Admission, Credit, and support- Graduate outcomes- Governance and Administration- Staff- Foreign operations- Collaboration- Culture and environment- Student recruitment

Motives for Internationalisation

- Academic:• Utilisation of non-local academic content, principles, or teaching

methods to enhance learning;- Cultural:

• Enhance the accessibility or applicability of the academic process, expand the skill set of our graduates to include cultural acumen;

- Political:• Position the university or the nation to enhance influence within and

beyond the nation state;- Economical:

• Enhance the financial well-being of the university to add value, not to support core activities (risk).

The mix of motives

- Strong determinant in how the university

carries out internationalisation;

- Influenced by external factors that impinge on

the university;

- Determines how the university measures

progress

Leiden University’s motives

- Internationalisation as a quality enhancement:

• Attract excellent students• Added dimension of intercultural adaptability of

our graduates• Attract excellent staff• Added dimension of intercultural adaptability of

our staff- Better graduates- Better academic environment

Internationalisation – means to an end

- Must lead to improvement in quality and the perception of quality (image/brand) of the university

- It must therefore be woven into the processes that enhance the quality of our university and not become an end by itself;

- Internationalisation through existing international relationships

Components of a foreign academic relationship

driven strategy

- Primarily mobility driven, both staff en students

- Normal academic activities- Inward and Outgoing mobility- ‘Organically’ grown, but strategic

choice of partners

Outcomes of Inter-university Relationships

- Students and staff have the opportunity to gain international experience;

- Collaboration in teaching:• Recognition of useful mutuality in teaching programs and exclusive

specialisations (allowing coordinated exchange and expansion of study options);

• Synchronised curriculum to allow free-flow of students;

• Jointly taught programs;- Collaboration in research;- Increased availability of resources.

Other Outcomes……….- Expands influence of the university- Expands knowledge about the university in other

countries- Can build on the reputation of the university, but:

• Need to brand activities that are carried out;• Ensure home players have an ambassadorial role;• Selection of partners is important;

We’re doing this already………

- Much of the mobility and collaboration activities have been occurring for a long time

- We’re internationalised already

We’re doing this already………

- Much of the mobility and collaboration activities have been occurring for a long time

- We’re internationalised already- Professionalisation and addition of structure and

systems to:• Streamline existing systems

• enhance the reputational yield from existing activities

- Increasing the extent of internationalisation (depth and breadth)

Full Fee-paying International students (a ‘traditional’ view)

- Australia:• 80 – 85% of foreign students are Asian• Business, IT, Engineering, Law – 80%

- Market segmentation:• Power, wealth, status, and prestige: Asia – South

America - Africa• Academic opportunity: North America (degree

seeking) – Europe - Scholarship Students• Life style/study opportunity – North America,

Europe (study abroad)

Academic vs. Commercial approach

- Academic approach: overriding foreign activities

(to increase awareness) are academic in nature

- Commercial approach: overriding foreign

activities (to increase awareness) are

commercial in nature

- Why not recruit full fee paying students on the

basis of commercial marketing techniques ?

How does a commercial approach address the issues

of concern ?- To a lay audience or a less well informed market

an education exhibition approach can impart significant apparent markers of quality (augmented by input from alumni, agents);

- Successful alumni can send a message about job prospects;

- Issues of lifestyle, personal safety, and affordability can be very well addressed.

Academic approach- Carry out such activities as to enhance

the reputation of the university:• Increase success research funding, multilateral

programs• Increase success in commercialisation of IP;• Recruit highly talented academics• Partner with like-minded institutes to become

locally (and more globally) recognised as having excellent academic qualities: Produce excellent graduates who become successful alumni.

- Communicate these successes

What approach ?

- Begin to build a relationship with the environment of the prospective target

• Academic approach- Support academic approach to create

greater visibility- Building the image with the right

values- Must choose target countries over

time (limited resources)- National or supra-national (e.g. EU,

consortia) support

Make your programs accessible

- Leiden teaches almost all of its Master level programs in English (about 80)

- Leiden teaches about 200 undergraduate subjects in English

- Research supervision has been possible in English for a long time

Primary method- Leiden aims to increase its

internationalisation efforts through the use of existing academic relationships:

• Not to 280 or so agreements in IO• Based on working academic relationships

- Carry out increased internationally visible academic activities

Leiden University’s Academic Links

We place a high value our programs

- Place a realistic value on the cost of tuition

- Relate the cost to the quality- Opportunity to provide valuable

scholarships- High quality = High value = High

selectivity• Stringent admission procedures

Environment: Funding & Perception

University USD/Student

Leiden U$ 26,500

Sydney U$ 14,900

UBC U$ 23,200

UMD U$ 23,800

Warwick U$ 24,000

York U$ 22,600

What are we doing ?- Improve our processes involved in

mobility of staff and students (scalability):• Fine tuned IT support for logistics in mobility

– e-decision facility for visa processes– Make process visible to all stakeholders from one database

(Oracle/PHP)– Include visa, housing, communication

• Housing, housing, housing- Realise that if you charge fees, you must

provide service & support• Students are consumers/customers

The Battle for Attention- Leiden wants to decide where this

battle will be won- Not on a level playing field:

• Web, education exhibitions- On a field where we have a ‘natural’

advantage:• Colleagues who value Leiden University• Institutes who are linked with Leiden

Synergy between discipline-specific knowledge and

International Office

- International Office: models/mechanisms of approach and communication

- Academics have discipline specific knowledge:

• Potential sources of students• Good locations to send students• Funding opportunities

- Combine for synergistic effects

Create Country Approach Plans

- Know what your programs want- Allow faculties to bring their strategy to

bear on program wishes- Know your real academic links

• Contacts• Academics with extensive in country experience

- Combine links knowledge with needs and ambitions, adjusted with country knowledge

USP- Globally unique features of the program- European, nationally unique- The academics involved

- Who ?• Local • Structurally invited

- What ?• Honours, prizes, grants, etc

- Alumni

Communication- Difficult to combine local and

international- Do not create vastly different

perceptions/expectations- Need one image with different

expressions – suitability for situation- Web - Print

Non-Anglophone EU- Let people know (where it is true)

that English outside the classroom is OK !!