The University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus is an excellent 151 academic institution - perceptions according to the school. The University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus is an excellent 152 academic institution - perceptions according to racial group. Social life at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg is what 153 University is all about - Perceptions According to the Race Group.
Introduction
Literature Review
Steps in Positioning
A failure in the implementation of the positioning plan will lead to expensive, unnecessary and unwanted problems. Part of the success of the strategy will be plotting the competitors and their offers in relation to the business itself. The underlying concept of positioning is perceptions - the image created in the customer's mind.
Positioning of The University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) as a Service
Positioning by Adding Value to the Customer
Payne (1993:96) found that positioning is highly dependent on the company's ability to effectively differentiate itself from its competitors. He suggested that positioning a service also includes establishing a value for the service in the customer's mind. By adopting this slogan, the university has also tried to facilitate the visualization of the “Power to Succeed”.
In the interview with the University of the Free State (UFS) chancellor, Professor Stef Coetzee, the professor said that the university should be a business that deals with higher education - this also includes treating the students as customers. It is important for any educational institution to identify where it is in relation to the evolution of marketing. 34;perceptions of the inferiority of the university's programmes, declining government grants and a shrinking pool of university-exempt matriculants".
Something worth noting is that Rhodes University and the University of the North West were last on the list of 36 institutions. Most of the mentioned institutions are concentrated in the Gauteng province - it must therefore be concluded that the research was limited to one geographical area and it is believed that this is a bias in this research. Management tutorials were used as Management students were considered to be representative of the different faculties of Arts, Commerce, Science, as well as Social Sciences.
The sample was therefore collected for a week based on convenience by the researcher and the lecturer.
Demographic Results
It is understandable that there would be a bias towards the university as the best institution as they chose to study there, but the findings still provide valuable information about the competition facing UN P. The research looked at what factors students emphasized when have decided to study at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. The factors that influenced students to choose the University of Natal over another university are briefly summarized: in order of importance as rated by students.
Identifying the university's strengths and opportunities is crucial to discovering what they do right in the eyes of customers. This strength creates many opportunities for the university as the reputation it has is something that other tertiary institutions will take many years to develop. Opportunities arising from this reputation are things like market development: if the university enters its own market, those who follow it will fight against the formidable weapon of reputation.
The courses offered by the University are a great strength to compete against other universities in the country - perhaps the world. Location has played a major role in the choice of university students - it has been one of the biggest draw cards for the University. The University has been slow to grasp the importance of advertising and marketing - evidenced by the employment of a PRO only in early 1999 for the Faculty of Humanities.
It was a mistake to believe that a university (or any university for that matter) did not need to advertise because of its great reputation.
Student Perceptions Of The University Of Natal, Pietermaritzburg
When asked whether the university has good library facilities, 66.8% of the sample agreed (both freshmen and seniors), while only 5.3% disagreed with the statement. A large proportion of the sample saw the university as an excellent academic institution with 62.8% of the sample agreeing with the statement. It is believed that the social life at the university had a strong influence, but it was not an influential factor in the decision to study at the university (as mentioned earlier).
Instead, it is concluded that students value the social side of university more as a by-product than as an influencing factor in the decision to attend university (as previously discussed). I feel like I am nothing more than a student number for the University of Natal (PMB) staff. The missing link must therefore be related to the rest of the university: the other employees.
The fact that the University only refers to you by your first name when it has your student number. I repeat - the university must pay attention to the marketing orientation, because in all its activities it must act as a company. A slightly higher percentage, 32.3% of respondents, believed that the university does not only allow large classes.
Most students (43.8%) said the university has not really addressed many political issues; 23.9% of the sample disagreed with the statement.
Friends 12%
In the decision-making process, students responded that they played the largest role during the decision-making process – followed by parents (see graph 13).
Parents 220/0
However, it can be said that the students viewed the University as a top university with a strong academic reputation. It is also recommended that the University actively decide to become strongly competitive in the field of tertiary education. One of the ways in which the University must become competitive is in their ability to adapt quickly to changes in the business environment.
It was discussed how the university should treat staff as key figures in the organization. This is a very viable option as the university's image is its greatest strength. The repositioning would come into effect as a repositioning of the image of the university in the eyes of the students/customers.
Perhaps one of the things the university can look into is reducing class sizes. As a prestigious tertiary institution, the university offers students unique, specialized courses (in addition, lectures are held in English). One of the objectives of the study was to determine whether the university's positioning strategy was reaching their target market.
It can be concluded that the University is positioned according to what students see as important.
Research Methodology
Research Methodology
The objective of this research was to identify the perceptions held by potential customers of the University based on the assumption that behavior is determined by perceptions. Due to the nature of the research (Le. no previous research has been conducted in this specific area) exploratory research was undertaken. Sample size affects sample precision, which is a measure of how closely it reports the true values of the population it represents.
This would give some data on the size of the potential customer market. By looking at the perceptions of scholars on various issues, we could assess the university's positioning strategy. In other words, by identifying potential group influences, the university could become more aware of the need to target other groups.
In the first test, question 5 offered the option to answer '6', which meant that the participants had no opinion from the institution about this characteristic. It was found in this test that the majority of the question was filled with '6's'. The debate about what sample size is representative of the population is always widespread.
Although there are many UNP students not from Pietermaritzburg, of the top ten feeder schools for the University, all are located in Pietermaritzburg.
Findings and Discussion
By combining this with Irons elements of services the nature of the University will be seen as a service. They attempted to inform the student of the potential success they could experience if they studied at the University (see Appendix H & I). This campaign sought to highlight the benefits offered to the students attending the University of Natal, Le.
A vital perception is also revealed here when the tuition fees at the University of Natal (Pmb) are compared with its local competitors, especially the Varsity College (Pmb). This in turn can be considered a real threat to the university and has several implications. However, according to the university's website (http://www.nu.ac.za), these courses offer This misconception is indicative of the university's poor communication regarding their product offerings.
This section essentially looks at the university's strengths and weaknesses, as seen by scholars in the Pietermaritzburg region. One fact to consider is the level of security provided by the University's Risk Management Services. When asked whether the university has good library facilities, 50.8% of the sample agreed, while 30.9% said Sometimes.
Most of the respondents answered that they feel the University sometimes only facilitates large classes. Which racial group do you think represents the majority of students at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. From these results, it is clear that the majority of respondents heard about the University via an interactive medium (School visits, teachers, family, past/current students).
Conclusions and Recommendations
It is recommended that the University make more use of testimonials in its advertisements (as was used in the University's advertisements for "Become Someone") cinemas. For example, highlighting the university's strong academic aspects during school visits (eg the university's strong accountancy department) at Raisethorpe High School. However, scientists are not aware that the degrees offered by the university are internationally recognized.
The reputation of the university (a perceived strength according to students - Garden, 2000) must therefore be aggressively emphasized. In addition to this, word of mouth played a major role in the university's 'advertising' (Table 5.10). The above-mentioned factors played a big role in the life of students already at university.
These features include (as mentioned above): Location, courses offered (including the fact that they are in English), the fact that the University of Natal is one of the top institutions, and international recognition. The university should then emphasize this factor in all communications to specific customers (both external and internal). The university must communicate that personal attention is available for students.
This next section attempts to relate the university's position to the perceptions that were identified.
