Macquarie University is one of the leading Public research universities of Australia established in 1964 by New South Wales Government. The university is located in Sydney and acquires 126-hectare. It consists of four faculties i.e. Social sciences, Management, Natural Sciences & Medicines and Arts and Humanities. Presently, it has 35,000 enrolled students including 12,000 international students. According to the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Rankings of World Universities 2011, the university ranked among top two percent of the universities in the world. While it ranked number one in Australia and 14th worldwide for environmental sciences research by Times Higher Education in 2011. Moreover, Times Higher Education has placed Macquarie University as Australia’s best young university under 50 years of age.
The University has also maintained international exchange programs in the educational institutions of more than 40 countries. These Programs allow students to study in more than 120 universities. Presently, Macquarie is offering Postgraduate and Undergraduate degrees in different disciplines (Macquarie University, 2012).
Macquarie’s USP
The unique selling preposition of Macquarie is its high research quality. ERA 2010 program found that 80 percent of the Macquarie’s research activity is at world standard or higher. Excellence in research (ERA) is a research quality assessment program for Australian universities. This result was produced by analyzing the research quality of 41 Australian universities.
China Education industry and Market Potential for Macquaire University
China’s strong economic growth coupled with increasing population and buying power of its citizen has increased the demand of education institutions in China. Therefore most of the western universities are now interested to expand their education system in China. According to the figures presented by China Ministry of Education, 157 foreign institutes and 1138 foreign universities affiliated joint programs were operating in China by 2010. However, it has been noticed that tuition fees of foreign universities in China are more expensive than local Chinese educational institutions.
According to China National Institute for Education Research, foreign institutions are alternative form of the current local Chinese education system but this new system is better for education reformation of China to international standard. Furthermore, Asian students find difficulties to study in western countries as most of them are not able to bear tuition fee due to currency value. Therefore, by expanding foot steps towards China, Macquarie University can attract more Asian students.
It has also been observed that over the last few years many western universities have expand their set up to China. Some of these universities are University of Nottingham in Zhejiang province which came in China through alliance with Wanli education group. The University of Liverpool in Suzhou in Jiangsu province also entered into China by creating partnership with china’s Xi’an Jiaotong University.
In 2011, Chinese ministry received 161 applications to start joint programs in 2011. Chinese government has changed its policy regarding entry of foreign institutions in China. The policies have now become soft for foreign universities.
SWOT Analysis of Macquarie University
Strength
The university is known by its extensive research in various fields and has vast experience in the industry. Furthermore, the university is already popular in china as 30 percent of its international students belong to china. So it won’t be difficult for Macquarie to enter into china. Along with this the University is popular all over the world and has best international exchange program in 40 countries. The university can provide high international quality facilities for students 24/7 technical support to students.
Weaknesses
The university has heavy course outline which results in increasing the workload for students. Apart from this the University has less educational programs to offer to the students in China and has high fee structure.
Opportunities
Increasing number of literacy rate across the globe and more specifically in China presents great opportunity for the University to expand its operations. The private education sector in China is growing and the government of China is welcoming international Universities (Yeo, 2011). Also more and more students are choosing China for higher education. The government of China is also spending lots of money for the development and growth of the education industry of China.
Threats
There is growing competition in the education industry of China and more new players coming in the market. Along with this Advance technology such as online lectures reduce student interest from attending campus and there is increase in the online education statistics in China. Another threat is the language and culture barriers.
VRIO Analysis
Some of the internal capabilities of the Macquarie University are:
Extensive research abilities
Trained and Professional faculty
Vast experience in the education industry
Popularity in China
Hence, it can said with the help of the VRIO analysis that Macquarie University should enter into Chinese Education Market as it has required internal capabilities and can come up with effective competitive advantage.
