Strutledge is a small private liberal arts school located within 50 miles of a m
ID: 405735 • Letter: S
Question
Strutledge is a small private liberal arts school located within 50 miles of a major urban area in the southeast United States. As with most institutions of higher education, Strutledge's costs are rising and its enrollments are decreasing. In an effort to expand its student base, build valuable ties with area businesses, and simply survive, the Board of Regents is considering establishing an MBA program.
Currently no undergraduate degree is given in business, although business courses are taught. The dean of the school visualizes the MBA as an interdisciplinary program emphasizing problem solving, communication, and global awareness. Faculty expertise would be supplemented by instructors from local industry. The use of local faculty would better connect the university with the business community and provide opportunities for employment of the program's graduates.
In terms of competition, a major state-funded university that offers an MBA is located in the adjacent urban area. Strutledge hopes that state budget cutbacks and perceptions of overcrowded classrooms and overworked professors at public institutions will open the door for a new entrant into the market. The Board of Regents also feels that the school's small size will allow Strutledge to tailor the MBA program more closely to area business needs.
Several members of the Board are concerned about recent reports of the dwindling value of an MBA and are wondering if a better niche could be found with another graduate degree, perhaps a master of science in business analytics or something in the education or healthcare field.
1. Recommend an action for the Board of Regents.
2. Propose a course of action plan that includes quantitative analysis methodologies to assist the Board of Regents with making this decision.
Explanation / Answer
1. According to my analysis the board of regents should offer business program to their students. First of all college doesn’t have any business program although they are teaching some business courses to their students in graduation only. So it will be easy and cost effective for them to teach the existing business courses, they don’t need to hire any new faculty for that subject. As given in case there is only one competitor in MBA program so the competition will be low. Addition of course like business analytics or healthcare field will give uniqueness (niche market segment) in their ideas & it will attract more students as there are good employment opportunities in analytics & healthcare sector.
2. As Quantitative analysis methodologies are factual and data based research their accuracy is on better side so there is very less chance of error so it will be best method to make decision & assist the Board of Regents in taking decision.
The most common sources of quantitative data includes:-
Surveys:- conducted online, by phone or in person. In these same questions being asked in the same way to a large number of people & a data base is created by those surveys for further statistical research.
Observations:- By telling student about MBA program which is going to be introduced and by making taking down their response about their views. Or by observing how many people are interested in such program when they come to ask query about this program or web clicks about program.
Secondary data- it can be obtained from some consultancy firm that what is average number of students looking for MBA program.
After collecting these data we can use statistical tools to find the out of the data collected.
By using such tools we can get the mean, variance, range and standard deviation of the data. The standard deviation measures the average spread around the mean, and therefore gives a sense of the ‘typical’ distance from the mean.
We can also use these data to make histogram or pie charts from the data and the feasibility .so that decision making can be made easy.
Eg – if there is positive relation between the numbers of students looking for MBA course in city and the subject offerings or college preference one can easily make decision.