1/1/2011

UNIVERSITY
OF WALES
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

An investigation into the impact of customer relationship management and its

effect on student recruitment from the Indian subcontinent; A case study of
Cavendish College London | Rishad D’Cruz
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My gratitude extends beyond the people mentioned here. As I see it, everyone who has

contributed in some way or another to help me do this MBA bears some responsibility to me

actually getting to this point. It was never my intention to study further however fate and

circumstances proved otherwise.

First and foremost I would like to thank Professor Bruce Sheppy, my supervisor who was a

source of encouragement especially when I was about to give up. In addition, I extend my

gratitude to my mother Philomena D‟Cruz and Cavendish College Director, Mr. Mohammed

Sadeghian who instructed me to do the MBA in the first place. Professor Alan Taylor who

taught me the importance of quality management and Professor Ambrey Scholtz who taught

me project management and gave me the opportunity to project manage the British

Accreditation Council inspection at Cavendish College in May 2010.

I realize that nowadays with so much going on in our lives with work pressures, studies and a

personal life to juggle, writing a twenty thousand word dissertation is quite a challenge.

Perhaps part of the glory of getting an MBA qualification is associated with this entire

balancing act. I found encouragement in the most unexpected places and although I reached a

point of giving up on many occasions the people around made me realize that giving up is not

an alternative I could consider anymore. Not for this dissertation and not for anything I set

my mind on.

One major lesson I have learned that would stay with me through life, it is probably the

quality of persistence and power of routine.

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 Dedication

I dedicate this dissertation to the stakeholders of Cavendish College.

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work which is been submitted is my own work, except otherwise
where it has been stated. The Harvard referencing system has been adopted in order to quote
the ideas of other authors.

This research is been submitted to the University of Wales for the requirement of the degree
of “Masters of Business Administration”. Also this piece of research has not been submitted
for any other degree in any other university.

Nemesio Rishad D’Cruz

Signed on.............................................Day of................................................2010

Mr. Bruce Sheppy

Signed on.............................................Day of.................,..............................2010

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Abstract

This study aims at examining the link between customer relationship management

and recruitment of quality students from the Indian sub continent.

The research carried out by the author focuses on the importance of managing inter

personal relations between internal as well as external customer and recommends a

strategy to create a system that can be executed by any college to improve its

recruitment strategy..

The study indentifies flaws and fundamental lapses and oversights in current

recruitment strategy with Cavendish College as a case study and indicates how the

various departments with the college can look upon each other as internal customers

and hereby improve their productivity and decrease the rate of errors, reduce the

response time of preparing documents as well as correct errors during the production

process thereby introducing lean management with a goal to adding to overall

customer value.

Customers are considered to be employees of the college, the agents, their staff, and

the students, the parents of the students and the United Kingdom Border Agency and

other stakeholders. Value is considered from six different points of view as depicted

by Paynes six market model. The major contribution of this research is that customer

relationship management taking into account internal as well as external customers

TPI‟s directly impacts the quality of students.

Two major assumptions are that all private colleges suffer from similar customer

relationship management deficits and the commission structure is not biased.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgement 1

Dedication 2

Declaration 3

Abstract 4

Table of contents 5

Chapter I: Introduction and background

1.1 Industry background 7

1.2 Purpose of study 9

1.3 Summary of each chapter 10

1.4 Research question and objective 11

1.5 Limitations 12

Chapter II: Literature review

2.1 Introduction to services 14

2.2 What is a service and who is a customer 15

2.3 Who is a customer 16

2.3.1 Internal customers 18

2.3.2 External customer 18

2.3.2 Figure based on the service marketing triangle depicting 19

. Internal and External customers.
2.4 Service and quality 20

2.5 Marketing the service 25

2.6 Paynes six market model 29

2.7 Customer relationship management 32

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 Chapter I

Introduction and Industry background

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1.1 Industry Background

With an estimated 8.5 Billion pounds per year generated by International students‟ course

fees (Guardian, 2009) the United Kingdom ranks second after the United States of America

as an education destination. The British council advertises a number of independent and

Government quality assurance bodies such as Ofsted (Office for standards in Education),

BAC (British Accreditation Council) and ISC (Independent Schools Council) that assure

international students that their investment into their career is secure.

Cavendish College was established in 1985 by the David Game group of colleges and

subsequently took on board, current directors Mr Mohammed Sadeghian, Siamak Taslimi and

Dr. John Sanders. Cavendish College has expanded internationally and currently has

branches in India, Zambia, Iran, Russia, Bishkek, Sri Lanka and Armenia. With a student

population of approximately seven hundred comprising of a majority of International students

Cavendish College relies on the revenue earned from fees generated by overseas students.

There are over 2000 listed education providers that are registered under the Tier 4 UKBA

(United Kingdom Border Agency) sponsor list today. (UKBA website). On the 18th of

January 2010 Cavendish College lost its sponsorship licence as part of a Government

crackdown on an immigration loophole. The reason given to the college was “that it failed to

assess the intentions of the students pre-arrival”. Just like Cavendish College more than sixty

private colleges within the same sector lost their licences. Almost all education providers that

target business through recruitment of International students must undergo a thorough

investigation by the UKBA and gain accreditation from the BAC or British Accreditation

Council. The author of this paper was commissioned to project manage the BAC Inspection

for Cavendish College. Although exhaustive, the quality management very clearly states the

range of documents needed in order to get the accreditation, (See Appendix 1). Topics range

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from health and safety matters to academic, staff and human resource management. Having

been granted their sponsorship licence back as well as successfully extending their BAC

membership Cavendish College is keen to maintain their status and not suffer any future

blows to its reputation or business. The author seeks to identify fundamental weaknesses in

the management process and outline a series of measures to boost International sales and

increase profitability with a view to create sustainability in this extremely competitive

industry.

Although trends constantly change and recruitment markets vary, India has remained a strong

contender in providing students to Cavendish. With a network of more than twenty

operational agents in India, excluding their sub-agents the management seeks new ways to

manage the recruitment process more effectively in order to meet the new UKBA legislations

and well as keep numbers up. Over the next several months Cavendish College seeks to

revamp its marketing strategy and internal management system to adopt and assimilate pre

defined control mechanisms set by the quality management authorities such as the BAC as

well as to incorporate a clear structure in order to effectively manage existing students and

foster stronger relationships with business intermediaries such as the educational agents who

operate as the face of Cavendish in their respective countries.

Business generated through recruitment of international students follows a standard process

of students approaching agents in their home country (In this case India). The agents are

allocated an advertising budget to generate an interest in the college and fairly represent the

college. Once the student is recruited the agent usually gets a commission of between ten to

twenty percent depending upon the number of students he recruits. The current structure for

new agents is ten percent for the first five per year and fifteen percent for each student sent

over the fifth. Existing agents enjoy a commission of twenty percent and often share this with

subagents they appoint with or without express permission from the college.

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Although some of the major market leaders in education such as the United States of America

and Australia have clamped down on recruitment through agents, England has very little

control on this vast under regulated market as reflected by the suspension of over sixty

colleges by the UKBA and indicated by the UKBA suspending recruitment from the entire

North India region in February 2010. Across the globe, the United States of America is

slowly releasing its grip on recruitment and is now working on a quality management system

to attract good agents to operate in the market. A seminar conducted by Mitch Levintha Vice

Chairman of the American International Recruitment Council (AIRC) has indicated several

areas where recruitment could be regulated, monitored and quality controlled. Measures

included by the Australian authorities involve allowing licences to recruit to only 22 out of

the 121 companies that expressed an interest, (Indian Express, 2010).

A major concern the college faces is how to manage the unethical recruitment practices of the

many agents and sub agents and agents who operate purely on a financial basis with no

regard to the student‟s ability and intention to study. Having worked out loopholes in the

UKBA controls many agents recruit students who eventually drop out of the system in order

to seek illegal employment in the UK. This trend has become increasingly worrying and

affects the general health of the college including its reputation.

1.2 Purpose of study

The main purpose behind this study is to target „effective‟ recruitment in India. By „effective‟

the author means students who have a clear intention to study in the UK, who can afford

living expenses and course fees, who do not necessarily rely on gaining employment in order

to attend classes as well as having the ability to successfully complete the course applied for.

This will be done through managing weak agents and creating a structure in order to identify

a student‟s intention pre-arrival. The measures include checking financial records, previous

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educational qualifications, creative potential in the case of creative courses, English

proficiency and other checks incorporated from the UKBA regulations. This management

system will however primarily rely upon fostering a strong relationship between the College

and the agents and establishing a character and system based trust between the two supported

by a rigorous framework or recruitment policies that force the agent to recruit effectively.

The repercussions of repeated bad recruitment would be a cancellation of the agreement, and

the benefits of good recruitment would cover various incentives financial and non-monetary.

1.3 Summary of each chapter

This chapter focuses on establishing the reason for conducting the research. This is done

through explanation of the research question and identifying the objectives. The reader is

introduced to the educational sector and given a background of the organization upon which

the research is based. This chapter further serves as a foundation to understanding the

development of the study and facilitates the introduction customer relationship management

elaborated in the literature review.

The literature review is an in depth analysis of the nature of service, quality, values from the

point of view or an organization and a customer, it also looks at the history of services and its

evolution. It studies the application of service marketing principles against models and

develops new models. The backbone of this review however is the analysis of customer

relationship management and its impact on the sales of service, namely courses at Cavendish

College. The chapter gives readers an insight into agency theory and contemporary

approaches to segmenting markets and their customers through Paynes six market model. The

researcher eventually draws certain conclusions and develops a model to incorporate the

service marketing triangle philosophy into Paynes six market model as a recommendation to

Cavendish College‟ current management system.

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1.4 Research question and objective

The research carried out is an investigation into Relationship management and whether

employing relationship management strategies can directly influence sales. In the event of the

research positively indicating that relationship management does influence sales the objective

is to employ a new strategy to improve the quality and quantity of students as well as

improve the morale of staff and third party intermediaries as a subsequent benefit.

Objectives summarized:

1. Investigate the relationship between CRM and sales

2. Introduce a CRM strategy

3. Improve sales

4. Improve quality and quantity of students

5. Improve staff morale

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1.5 Limitations

Customer perception- Students who factor as a major target group for the questionnaires have

a wide range of perceptions on service quality. Many come from different backgrounds,

cultures and their exposure to western education is minimal if not non-existent until they

arrive. Therefore what may be an acceptable level of service to one student may be

unacceptable to the next. The researcher has tried to circumvent this hurdle by targeting a rich

mix of students from multi cultural backgrounds. Employing phenomenological research as

well as quantitative research methodologies information was gathered which seeks to

represent the opinions of the larger majority of students.

Internal customers- Research carried out investigating the morale of employees within the

organization faced the problem of personal bias. Many admission staff are unsure about their

future plans due to the lack of job security affected by their immigration status and reliance

on work permit and ever changing VISA regulations. This uncertainty affects their decision

to see themselves in the organization over the next five years. In addition, admissions staff

that have chosen agents to work are biased to a certain degree on the way the agents operate

and do not allow and transparency into their relationships. This may be due to cultural or

linguistic reasons (Agent being unable to speak English). This may also be due to the fact that

many officers plan on becoming agents themselves.

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 Chapter II

Literature Review

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2.1 Introduction to services:

“A service is an activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially

intangible and does not result in the ownership on anything. Its production may or may not be

tied to a physical product” (Kotler and Armstrong, 1991). The service sector play an ever

increasing and important role from an economic perspective contributing to almost three

quarters of the United Kingdom‟s GDP, (Financial Times, 2010). (Wirtz and Lovelock,

2007) trace the evolution of services from the classical view of the creation and possession of

wealth over goods and commodities which held that ownership rights should be asserted

upon the good or commodity which raises the question how can one assert ownership over

something that has value and that perished at the time of production? In his book the (Wealth

of Nations, 1776) Adam Smith distinguished between productive and unproductive labour.

He classified the former, as „goods that could be stored and later sold‟ whereas unproductive

were those „services‟ that perished straight after production. Jean Baptiste the French

economist and businessman later coined the term “immaterial products” which essentially

meant that production and consumption are inseparable in services.

Today however, we can argue the semantic dis-proportionality of these statements. Perhaps

Baptistes views were only a reflection of his mentor Adam Smith, as it became quite clear in

his edits of the „La Decade philosophique, litteraire, et politique’. Contemporary writers such

as (Wirtz and Lovelock, 2007) present an entirely post modern view of services such as

education which creates durable value and do not necessarily perish at the time of production;

in fact it creates value that lasts a lifetime. “When someone says that an article posses value,

it is meant that one or more individuals are disposed to give a certain quantity of the labour of

man, or a certain quantity of some other article or product obtainable only by means of that

labour in exchange for it”, (Smith, 2009). Value can also be described from an economic

perspective as the monetary worth of something, (Webster, 2010). (Cheng, 2009),

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differentiates value in terms of absolute value and relative value. He gives readers the

analogy of one menu charging fifteen pounds for a plate of fish and chips and six pounds for

a roast chicken and compares it with another menu offering the fish and chips for fifteen

pounds and a roast chicken for twenty nine pounds. He points that the fish and chips on the

second menu is considered having less value even though the absolute value stayed the same

at fifteen pounds. It was what the meal cost in relative terms that affects the perception of the

good or service. It is quite apparent through looking at a variety of service sectors how

Smiths classical view could not apply to the current nature of a service. This raises a

question, are services also evolving? Is our understanding of a service not absolute, but

perhaps only relevant to our time? (Wirtz and Lovelock, 2007) elaborate on the evolution of

services as “being constantly shaped by government policies, social changes, business trends,

advances in technology, and internalization”. When we look at the travel sector and

companies such as Travelocity, Southall travels, and others we realize that a service is not

necessarily perishable right after production, nor joined to the producer. On an economic

perspective, the service sector alone contributes to 48% of India‟s GDP. (CIA, 2010). Let us

now examine a service and how it has evolved. We may then be in a better position to create

a definition based on what we think is relative to its purpose in a current marketing

perspective.

What is a service and who is a customer?

The simplest definition of a service is “deeds, processes and performances provided or co-

produced by one entity or person for another entity or person” (Zeithaml, Bitner, Gremler,

2009). Services can also be defined as “Economic activities offered by one person to another,

most commonly employing time-based performances to bring about desired results in

recipients themselves or in objects or other assets for which purchasers have responsibility”

(Wirtz and Lovelock, 2007). This reflects the idea that there is an exchange of value.

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Assuming we adopt the classical view of the four characteristics of services, (Palmer and

Adrian, 2000) to be Intangibility, Perishability, Inseparability, and Heterogeneity the author

has come across a very interesting analogy proposed by (Yagill, 2008). Yagill conceptualizes

the service encounter as a theatrical experience. He fantasizes that “the theatrical elements

coalesce in the duration of the service act to eventually create a performance”. Wirtz and

(Wirtz and Lovelock, 2007) challenge the classical view of services through the example of a

doctors surgery appointment. There was no transferring of ownership to you, neither did the

doctor lose his ability to perform the surgery on another person after he worked on you

(inseparability), you derive the value of the surgery far after you have been to his clinic

(perishability). Many a time services attach themselves to a product as in the case of a

telephone/broadband company such as British Telecom (BT). This makes the service tangible

to a certain extent. One pattern that emerges through the evolution of services and its

understanding is that it seeks to create value to the customer. Even though the purchasers may

not necessarily have something to show for the money he spent i.e. a parachute jump or an

evening in a night club, it is very clear that much has changed in the world of services.

Hence building upon these arguments the author proposes this definition for a service

A service is a process or a series of activities carried out by one or more individuals or an

entity such as an organization that seeks to create or leverage value perceiving relative

benefit and less perceived sacrifice to the consumer either immediately or over a sustained

period of time.

2.3 Who is a customer?

“A customer as defined by (Kincaid, 2003) is „‟a human being involved in the production

process of a good or a service from the decision maker to the decision influencer to the end

user”. This definition raises a question. „In the case of pet food, who is the customer? Is it the

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pet owner or the pet itself as „it‟ is the ultimate consumer and if it doesn‟t consume the

product, the owner will resort to alternative products‟

A more reassuring definition of a customer put forth by the ISO 9000 is „an organization or

person that receives a product or service‟. (Kincaid, 2003) indicates business as a set of

relationships and points out that the moment people become aware of one another a

relationship starts. “In many service industries firms are valued on the basis of their customer

base”. “The current customer relation represents value”, (Dominick and Georgi, 2006).

Therefore the implication of relationship management between organizations and customers

must be enormous. “Emotions are at the core of every action we take and yet for years

businesses have ignored them” (Shaw, 2007). Shaw elaborates, “Focus on the customer, not

the organization, and by doing so we will give you a differentiation through increased profits

and higher shareholder value”. He points out that a transition from an organizational focus to

a customer focus will be “painful, resource hungry and very costly”. (Sexton, 2009), in

apparent contradiction however says that “In the long run an organizations value depends on

two things, how it manages value and how it manages costs”, clearly reflecting value from

the view point of the organization. (Gilligan and Wilson, 2009) presents a more neutral view

“If companies knew how much it really costs to lose a customer they would be able to

accurately evaluate investments to retain customers”. (Kincaid, 2003) reminds us that a

customer centred company makes plans and strategies based on the anticipated impact it will

have on its customers.

(Deming, 1986) said “Just to have the customer satisfied is not enough.....you have to do

better than that!” Sower (2010) elaborates to explain the importance of establishing who a

customer is. He says “If we sell our products to a wholesaler, is he our only customer?”,

“Internal customers are often forgotten and taken for granted”. Understanding a customer, his

needs, what he values, who he is and where he is a useful tool in developing a quality

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management system. After examining the above interpretations of a customer the author

identifies a customer as „those working within the organization in the chain of production, as

well as the third party intermediaries or educational agents and the students, their parents and

other stakeholders, including society as a whole‟ (See figure below). The idea that business

organisations have a range of stakeholders other than shareholders is obvious. Yet

stakeholder theory has not guided mainstream marketing practice to any great extent,

(Polonsky, 1995). Polonsky draws our attention to the importance and responsibility of every

individual associated with the production and delivery of the service. Paynes six market

model discussed in detail further in this chapter identifies the various stakeholders of an

organization and distinguishes them into six major customer markets. The figure below is an

adaptation of the service marketing triangle explained under the role of intermediaries and

educational agents.

1. Internal customers: Inter-departmental college staff. An example scenario of a

service provided to an internal customer is as follows. A request comes into the

college from a potential student to apply for a course. The request is processed by

admissions and forwarded to academics that check the qualifications and prepare the

offer letter. The letter then goes back to the admissions team who acts as the customer

and scans the document for any errors or imperfections. He then forwards the

document to the agent who acts as an intermediary who further scrutinizes the

document and finally passes to the student who is the final customer.

2. External customers- Are the agents, the students, legal advisers, the students‟

parents, and the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) who have set certain

standards in order to filter bogus students from entering the U.K. An application that

bears a mistake will cost the student and the college hundreds of pounds to reapply

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 hence a clear stage gate process must be enforced through defining who customers are

and where responsibility lies

Agents

External customers
Making promises

Staff Dept 1 Staff Dept 2 Students

I.e. Admissions I.e.
Parents
Academics
UKBA
Others

Internal customer
Enabling promises

The current working culture of Cavendish College has already adapted internalization of

departmental customers to certain extent. Transforming current relationships and ideologies

must be incremental and anchored through short term gains that management should display

to employees. Understanding the motivation behind relationships will give us a key insight

into how to develop a strategy to implement relationship management between all customers.

Research indicated in the staff questionnaire inquires what motivates the staff and what

barriers exist.

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The transformation of relationships coincides with the emergence of the concept of agency

theory, (Verheijde, 2006). Traditionally, agency theory represented a financial perspective

however upon closer examination Verheijde underlines that Agency theory assumes that

psychological self interest is the sole responsibility of all the stakeholders. He elaborates that

cost effectiveness and responsibility are the cornerstones of the theory. In plain English,

Agency theory can be described as the method that seeks to get the best deal for both parties

through each one obtaining certain degree of relative value through the transaction.

2.4 Service and Quality:

(Sower, 2010) traced the roots of the term „quality‟ back to Plato. He proceeds to say that

although the first quality movement started in America in the early 1920‟s it took flight

during the Second World War. Eventually though, it was the Japanese in the 1950‟s who

gave it a completely new focus and as a result rose to become a formidable economic player

in the world.

The classical definition of quality defined by (Juran, 1933) is “fitness for use”. (Fegenbaum,

1951) defined it as “Best for certain customer conditions”.

Quality is defined by the ISO 9000 as „meeting the requirements‟. Quality defined by Kodak

is „those products and services that are perceived to meet or exceed the needs and

expectations of a customer at a cost that represents outstanding value‟. Analyzing both these

definitions we draw a conclusion that the former is extremely vague and allows room for

itself to emerge as a quality management company through setting these “requirements”. The

latter adopts the Japanese kaizen or continuous improvement ideology where companies need

to constantly aim at exceeding customer satisfaction. Both these definitions clearly indicate

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that quality is relative and can be looked at from the point of view of the company and the

point of view of the customer. Is quality dependant on what the relative value of the

commodity is? And from whose perspective? If we look at this from economic perspective of

supply and demand we may be able to answer this question. Demand refers to how much

quantity of a product or service is desired by buyers and supply refers to how much the

market can offer, (Investopedia, 2010). If the demand for a commodity or service is

indicative of the price we pay for something and vice versa then in a market of many

suppliers and relatively stable demand perhaps the motivation to purchase a product now

relies on something else, i.e. Quality. In the educational arena there are many basic quality

standards such as the British Accreditation Council, Ofsted etc, however the willingness of a

student to pay over and above a certain price i.e. paying a fee of £17,000 at UCL for a

foundation course as opposed to paying £6000 to Cavendish for a foundation course now

depends on what the customers perception of the value of the qualification. What services are

attached to the course? Both have passed the quality standards and yet one course costs

nearly thrice as much. Therefore quality is relative and depends on a customer‟s perception of

its relative value. In the case of education it is related to the job market, educational

experience, work experience and many other factors used by marketers to attract business.

Quality management in the service sector has suffered historically from an apparent diversity

of unrelated approaches. Whilst the founder of the service quality or „servqual‟ model

Parasuraman argued with Boulding and Sasser who went back and forth over the proper

interpretation of „desire‟, „should‟ and „can‟ the instability of service quality grew. It was

eventually established (by Parasuraman) that there were five major dimensions of

SERVQUAL (Kanji, 2005).

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 Dimension Description

1. Tangibles Physical facilities, equipment and appearance

of personnel

2. Reliability Ability to perform the promised service

dependably and accurately

3. Responsiveness Willingness to help customers and provide

prompt service

4. Assurance Knowledge and courtesy of employees and

their ability to inspire trust and confidence

5. Empathy Caring and individualized attention the firm

provides its customers

A pattern finally emerged from the confusion through findings of Parasuraman, John and

Tyas and Boulding which informed that “service perceptions influences service quality,

of which reliability emerged as the most important of all dimensions” Parasuraman,

1999. An example of how service perceptions influence service quality can be explained

through a study done by Yan Lu in 2008. His study involved how quality perceptions of

elder generation Americans affected the sales in a supermarket. The study showed that as

people grow older, their habits change and the research indicated that “shopping is a

major part of grey consumers' lifestyle and a source of pleasure rather than a necessary

utilitarian chore”. It also revealed that elderly customers pay far more attention to the

service aspects of delivery and the buying experience than younger people indicating that

service perceptions influence service quality. (Gronroos, 2000) defined perceived service

quality as “the outcome of a comparison between perceived service and expected

service”. There was still some confusion as to which attribute would be considered most

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 important to customers bearing in mind that every customer was different. (Driver, 1999)

presented a view that seemed to sit well with his contemporaries, which essentially

proposed that the attributes would lie on a continuum ranging from the least interpersonal

to the most interpersonal as depicted below.

1. Availability
Least interpersonal
2. Access
Providing the service and
3. Security environment

4. Comfort

5. Aesthetics

6. Cleanliness

7. Competence

8. Functionality
Getting the service right
9. Responsiveness

10. Reliability

11. Integrity

12. Communication
Adapting to the individual
13. Attentiveness

14. Flexibility

15. Care

16. Courtesy

17. Commitment Committing to the individual

Most interpersonal
18. Friendliness

Applying this continuum to the quality management system of Cavendish College can be key

to understanding customer expectations in this industry. The first six dimensions can be

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managed through an external and internal marketing perspective where the department will

ensure information is available to all customers as a priority over the rest. This will be

followed by access to the information through pre set channels. For example: In the event of

Cavendish marketing it Masters of Business Administration course in a state such as Goa,

India. It is essential to channel information of the availability, eligibility and course structure,

fees etc to the potential market. I.e. Potential students who reside in Goa, India and have

finished their Bachelors degree. Access to this information is through the agents and via the

website.

When it comes to getting the service right, in the same example we need to display our

competence in terms of delivery. This is pre and current sales. In the pre sales stage it refers

to that marketing aspect which communicates the success of alumni, the general grades

awarded to the previous batch, the career opportunities and the wealth of information

available to students once they enrol. The main idea which should be communicated is the

value that will be generated to the student once he completes his Masters of Business

Administration. Reliability will emerge as the most important as the customer gap will try to

emerge at the point when students perceptions will not meet the actual delivery. Hence in the

pre sales stage, the relationship managers‟ duties must be to ensure that there is no

misinformation given to the student by the agent or no false promises made. I.e. Service

marketing triangle; promises made = enabling promises.

Dimensions twelve to eighteen see the emergence of the day to day running of the

organization and response to the students or current sales. From applying for college letters to

getting results to welfare issues and cultural adaptation, students will have a multitude of

requirements that must be addressed by the college effectively and in a manner that is

professional and seeks to solve the problems of the students.

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2.5 Marketing the service:

To apply and create a marketing strategy it is important for us to know that marketing itself is

composed of a symphony of activities. Neil Borden in his publication (The concept of the

marketing mix, 1964) coined the term „marketing mix‟ after James Culliton compared the job

of a marketing manager as a chef who mixes ingredients. These ingredients according to

Borden are product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling,

advertising, promotion, packaging, service, display, physical handling, fact finding and

analysis.

In the 1950‟s however the term marketing, in its understanding was restricted to be product,

price, place and promotion. (Boom and Bitner, 1981) add to it from a service point of view,

process, physical environment, people and productivity as depicted in the table below.

1. Product: Is what seeks to create value for customers and is competitive

2. Place and time: Involves the delivery of the service to the consumer.

I.e. classroom based lectures, handouts, training etc...

3. Price: Correct and competitive cost that reflects value created on the

customer‟s point of view.

4. Promotion: Is the marketing and communication of the value devised in the

marketing strategy.

5. Process: Includes all those activities that are part of the delivery process.

Remember the example of the theatrical performance.

6. Physical Is the branding of the service through physical attributes

environment: attached to it, i.e. the building, the logos, the prospectus, the

T shirts, DVDs and other promotional material. “At the heart of

communication is branding, (Sexton 2009)”.

26 | P a g e
 7. People: Are those individuals who perform in front and backstage. These

are the people that Sir Richard Branson defines as the „Virgin

type‟ of person. He says that he bumps into them everywhere,

bars, coffee shops, hotels, and libraries and so on. “These people

don‟t know they‟re special, but they are; they‟re out there and

you can spot them” (Branson 2009).) Jack Welch CEO of GE

says “finding great people is what GE‟s all about”. “I‟m on top

of a lot of issues but none comes as close to the passion I have

for making people GE‟s core competency”. (Welch, 2007)

8. Productivity (Lovelock, 2007) elaborates that an organization must consider

productivity and quality as symbiotic. His opinion is that an

organization must look at improving quality from the customer‟s

point of view and be very careful in making cuts that may be

resented by customers.

Although traditional economists accepted the 4 P characteristics of marketing, Professor Bob

Lauterborn, at the University of North Carolina identified that 80% of new industries fail. He

attributed the failure due to an imbalance in the tradionalist view. His introduction of the 4

Cs (Consumer, Cost, Convenience, and Communication) gave businesses a new insight into

marketing strategy that the author proposes as an intended strategy.

27 | P a g e
Product Vs Consumer- Bob Lauterborn was of the opinion that there was no point in

developing a product and then marketing it. He proposed businesses do it the other way

around. Find out what customers wanted and build a product or service around their wants

and desires.

Price Vs Cost: He took into a very important consideration that cost may be reflected in the

customers view, not only in monetary terms but for example in the case of a cinema, driving

to the cinema, the mental debate of whether or not to watch a horror film and its impact on

the persons dreams and so on. He factored many other considerations into the cost of a

purchase decision rather that merely taking into account the cost of production from the

organizations point of view.

Place Vs Convenience: He examined the component of convenience against place of

delivery. In the service sector location is key, however it may be more suitable to study in a

college of less repute in an area that more convenient.

Promotion Vs Communication: He argued that promotion was manipulative whilst

communication was interactive and personal and that a shift in focus from the four Ps to the

four Cs would change customer‟s perceptions and make business more successful.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers 2000 classified communication into four main categories.

1. Mass communication

2. Communication per market segment

3. Direct marketing

4. Person specific communication.

28 | P a g e
(Wilson, 2008) pointed out that much of the difference between customer perceptions and

their expectations could be called the customer gap. He attributed four factors that influence a

customer gap namely

1. Not knowing what customers expect

2. Not selecting the right service designs and standards

3. Not delivering to service design and standards

4. Not matching performance to promises

Reflecting on (Gummessons, 2002) view of four impacts on relationship marketing the author

has compared the customer gap to apparent solutions provided by Gummesson.

Wilsons 4 attributes of the customer gap Gummessons 4 steps to total

relationship marketing

Not knowing what customers expect Differentiate customers by their values

and needs

Not selecting the right service designs and Identify customers and establish how they

standards can be reached.

Not delivering to service design and standards Customize, treat every customer as an

individual through personal contact

Not matching performance to promises Make the relationship a learning

relationship and set in place SERVQUAL

standards.

While considering relationship marketing one must not ignore the importance of

stakeholders, (Polonsky, 2005). The author depicts the different customer markets through

Paynes Six markets model as depicted below. Each market represents stakeholders who have

29 | P a g e
their own perceptions of service or financial value which is relative to industry standards,

cultural beliefs and personal ideas.

Paynes Six Market model 2.6

1. “customer markets” (including existing and prospective students as well as

agents)

2. “referral markets” (these include two main categories – existing students who

recommend the college to others, and referral sources, or “multipliers”, such

as an accommodation agency in London who may refer students to study with

us)

3. “influencer markets” (which included shareholders, the business press, the

government, and consumer groups)

4. “employee markets” (concerned with attracting the right employees to the

organisation);

30 | P a g e
 5. “supplier markets” (these include traditional suppliers as well as organisations

with which the firms has some form of strategic alliance)

6. “internal markets” (the organisation including internal departments and staff)

The author recommends a synthesis of Paynes six market as well as Gummessons views

confirmed by the research carried out through the questionnaire inviting answers on who the

college staff considered as the customers of Cavendish College. This would lay a foundation

into making recommendations.

Gummessons Payne Recommended model

Differentiate customers by Identify the customers Once we have identified the

their values and needs (Internal and external) customers and divided them

into internal or external we

need to establish their values.

Identify customers and Once we have divided the Each category (6) will have a

establish how they can be markets into the 6 categories designed person to manage

reached. we establish a the relation and a structure

communication channel created in order to ensure that

the role is not person specific

i.e. If the employee who

manages agents leaves the

company, then the

relationship shouldn‟t

terminate or move with him.

31 | P a g e
Customize, treat every - This will be executed

customer as an individual through the designated

through personal contact person above

Make the relationship a - This will be executed

learning relationship and set through the designated

in place SERVQUAL person above

standards.

Understanding the customers mind is imperative when formulating any marketing strategy or

quality management system. (Denton and Brown, 2010), point of seven factors that influence

a student‟s choice when applying to colleges.

1. Credibility and reputation

2. Assessment, learning and teaching approach

3. Holistic student experience

4. Corporate culture

5. Portfolio expertise

6. Location

7. Their culture, customs tradition and country of origin. Please see customer

relationship marketing and International relationship marketing for an

understanding of the importance of taking into account the employees cultural

background when formulating a customer relationship management strategy.

8. Others

They elaborated to include that the 1990‟s saw sustainability as a key value to an institutions

profile, “today it is the brand facet”. (Scott, Lasker and Burtscher, 2007) foresee a similar

32 | P a g e
trend as American universities now in England, which is “most universities and colleges will

attract and seek support staff who are capable of fulfilling the profile raising role of

stimulating and developing public debate”.

2.7 Customer relationship management:

Customer relationship management is a discipline that covers all the elements needed to

build successful relationships with customers, (Kincaid, 2003). “Customer relationship

management is now critical to managing long term cyclical marketing activity in higher

education” (Denton and Brown, 2010).

Relationship marketing refers to all marketing activities directed toward establishing,

developing and maintaining successful relational exchanges, (Morgan and Hunt, 1994).

The above definitions speak of a discipline or process that seeks to manage the stakeholders

depicted in Paynes six market model. One major benefit of managing relationships between

internal and external customer is gathering useful information into the perceptions insights

and requirements of a stakeholder. In this way the College can constantly adapt to external

influences and keep abreast of the constantly changing customer behaviour, thereby being

able to anticipate needs and act upon failures and weaknesses in order to ensure its

sustainability and ensure customer delight. Research carried out through the questionnaire

seeks to find out what facets of services currently provided by the college do the students

hold important. Drawing upon the description of value one can perhaps understand better

how what a student values in terms of services can affect his service experience. This

experience will ultimately result in him being a satisfied customer, a delighted customer or an

unsatisfied one.

33 | P a g e
2.8 Origin and theories of customer relationship management: Traditional markets grew

out of the inset of mass produced consumer goods, (Godson, 2009). (Gronroos, 2007) pointed

out and criticized the „four P‟ approach to marketing saying “What worked in 1960‟s

America is not necessarily going to work in markets today”. Further development of the 4 P‟s

were the „seven P‟s‟ by Boom and Bitner. “A majority of the new approaches included the

element of human relationships which the tradionalist view overlooked (Godson, 2009).

(Gummesson, 1987) concluded that traditional marketing has not evolved and indicated nine

issues to challenge traditional marketing (see table below). Thus, the weaknesses of

traditional marketing models heralded a new area marketing. Organizations started looking at

marketing through a different lens and applied new relationship drivers to boost sales,

sustainability and profits through customer relationship management

2.9 Customer relationship management and International relationship marketing:

In an expanding market base which has a range of internal and external customers‟

worldwide customer relationship management must look at the holistic view of customer

relationship marketing which manages relationships cross culturally. “To enable relations to

develop successfully, it is necessary to understand the values, expectations and motivations of

all executives involved. Thus, successful inter-cultural business relationships are heavily

dependent on understanding cultural backgrounds”, (Morosini, 1998).

Culture is defined as “a universal orientation system typical for a society, organization or

group. This orientation system is created from specific symbols relevant to the society or

group in question and is handed down from generation to generation. It influences the way in

which its members perceive, think, value and act and thus defines their membership within

that society” (Thomas, 1996)

34 | P a g e
Organizational culture is defined as “the shared values and meanings its members hold in

common, which are articulated and practiced by an organizations leaders” (Weiss, 2009).

Every country and every civilization is subject to its own set of beliefs, languages, customs

and traditions. Understanding each cultural background is imperative in the process of

relationship management especially in an International environment. Often organizations do

not take into account cultural differentiations when applying merger and acquisitions

strategies or expansion. (Ford, 1987) indicated that companies do differ culturally and this

plays a significant role in managing people. Empirical studies carried on by (Johanson and

Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975) shortlisted culture, politics and levels of education as key

determinants in a phenomenon called psychic distance. Although originally coined by

Beckerman in 1956 they defined it as 'factors preventing or disturbing the flow of

information between firm and [foreign] market'. The implication on managing relations

between Cavendish College and its international agents involves taking into account cultural

differences and maximizing trust (character based and process based trust) as well as

reducing the psychic distance through customer relationship management.

The nine issues presented by (Gummesson, 1987) challenge traditional marketing and its

relevance in 2010 because of the evolutionary nature of customer perceptions, relative value

and other factors explained in the table overleaf.

35 | P a g e
1. The many headed customer and the many headed seller – Indicating that marketing

today involved complex networks of relationships between customers, some present,

some overseas, some within an organization, others external. Each one having their

own perceptions experiences, expectations and demands.

2. The real customer does not always appear in the market place – Sometimes the

approval of an external party is required in order to conduct a sale. I.e. UKBA new

rules TIER 4 Sponsor.

3. The customer as co-producer – There is a two way relation between the customer and

the producer wherein customer‟s participation is sometimes required, i.e. students who

have the capacity and intention to study a course.

4. Market mechanisms are controlled mechanically – He pointed out that traditional

marketing can be undone by webs of friendships, networks and memberships of clubs

and so on. This indicates the referral markets spoken of in Paynes six market model.

5. Market mechanisms are brought inside the company – Raises the issue of internal

buyers and sellers.

6. Inter-functional dependency – The idea that everyone in the organization plays a role

in customer satisfaction

7. Process management and the internal customer – He said that internal customers must

play a significant role. Every department is a customer of another department. For

example a college that has a sales team who makes commitments to prospective

students about a CAS (Confirmation of acceptance of studies) letter being issued to

them in three working days must liaise with the admissions and academics to fulfil

that commitment. Hence the responsibility of the academics and admissions is to their

customer who is the sales, as well as the final customer.

36 | P a g e
 8. Internal marketing – Organizations marketing efforts should not only be directed

externally but internally too.

9. Relationship quality – Reflects how skilled handling of the buyer and seller changes

customer perception of quality.

Adaptations of Gummessons nine issues into a Relationship model indicated four main areas

where exchanges took place. “These exchanges/ relationships affect the organizations

customer orientation”, (Godson, 2009), see figure below. What is even more interesting is

that Gummessons views are reflected by Paynes six market model and clearly now, identifies

the importance of the following

1. The importance of Internal marketing

2. The importance of adopting a culture or attitude of service

3. The internalization of customers and responsibility resting with every department

acting as a whole

4. The importance of relationship marketing through the organization, internal and

external.

37 | P a g e
 Supplier Partnership
Goods
Service

Internal Partnerships External Partnerships

Employees FIRM Competition
Functional departments Government
Internal business units Alliances

Customer Partnership
Intermediate customer
Final customer

Relational exchanges that affect an organizations customer orientation, (Godson, 2009)

2.10 Impact of relationship management on sales: (Raab, Ajami, Gargeya and Goddard,

2008).

1. Every satisfied customer brings in at least three new customers

2. Unhappy customers express their feelings to ten potential customers

3. The rate of repeat sales increases when improved reliance and satisfaction increases

4. Regular customers exhibit less price sensitivity than new customers

5. Customer oriented companies can charge higher than competition

6. Marketing and sales costs for maintaining customer relationships drops

7. Reducing the level of dropouts can raise profits by as much as 85% (Topfer, 1996)

38 | P a g e
(Levitt, 1983) and (Dwyer, 1987) see five stages of customer relationship management whilst

(Scanzoni, 1971) amalgamates them into three stages. (Georgi, 2006) however illustrates the

lifecycle in a concise easy to understand growth phase much life that of a product. The

customer relationship lifecycle below shows the phases of growth from acquisition to

recovery or dissolution. (Georgi, 2006)

Intensity of customer
relationship

Customer recovery

Customer retention

Customer acquisition Duration of customer relation

Customer relationship lifecycle- (Georgi , 2006)

The customer acquisitions stage seeks to reduce any uncertainties associated with the

product, processes and perceptions. Here the importance of communication such as the web,

and other tools plays a key role especially when it comes to international customers who

cannot be physically present during the time of purchase. The internet or World Wide Web

can be a powerful ally or dangerous threat when it comes to bridging the customer gap and

disseminating information. George Masters a user of the Apple IPod created a short animated

39 | P a g e
advert at home to the tune of „Tiny Machine‟, by the Darling Buds an 80‟s pop band. The ad

was a series of colours, visual animated imagery and kaleidoscope colours. For several weeks

the ad went unnoticed until it was picked up by a blog and the ratings went viral. With more

than half a million views in a span of six months the video created more buzz in the online

community than any of Apples mainstream commercials. Thus, indicating that the internet

can be a powerful tool when considering a marketing campaign. Sites such as Facebook and

twitter can be employed to keep students and agents posted on recent events, updates and

future plans.

Customer retention- focuses on alignment and emotional connections. This may be between

the college and the agent or the college and the student or the agent and the student. (Denton

and Brown, 2010) speak about the phenomenon of Disintermediation which is when

“stakeholders become so remote from the organization that positive and mutually beneficial

relationships are compromised”. He elaborates, “Stakeholders crave person to person

communication”. In fact one interesting point made by Brown is that stakeholders may not

necessarily be concerned with the competition, in quite contrast they may be looking for

attention and motivation from within the organization. The issue of student retention in the

UK is gaining increasing importance with upto 17% increase in drop outs, (Christie, 2004).

The reason why students drop out relate to experiences in social and academic integration,

(Tinto, 1994).

40 | P a g e
2.11 CRM drivers: (Kincaid, 2003)

1. Market drivers- Competition, standardization, pricing strategy, saturation

and maturity of markets

2. Customer drivers-End of mass customization and growing importance of

one to one relationships

3. Business drivers-The acquisition of new customers is far more costly that

maintaining existing ones. The profitability of loyal customers can be

gauged through the revenue earned from referrals and recommendations.

4. Technological drivers-New offices, outsourcing recruitment, new IT

systems, the Internet etc...

2.12 Internal marketing: The notion that internal relationships are every bit as important to

the organisations external customer relations is intuitively sound and is recognised widely

within the relationship marketing literature, (Morgan & Hunt, 1994). The major premise of

internal marketing according to (Ahmed and Rafiq, 2002) is that “to have satisfied customers

the firm must have satisfied employees”. Gummesson draws on the Process focused internal

marketing approach which says that internal marketing is concerned with the internal

customer where every member is both a supplier and customer of other employees,

(Gummesson, 1987). The current approach of Cavendish College is traditional which

separates all the departments furthermore there is a tendency to alienate marketing from the

core values of company. (Denison and McDonald, 1995) proposed that organizations can no

longer afford to isolate marketing from the rest of the firm. They say that customer centricity

should be a philosophy running through the veins of all departments, reflecting on a common

thread that connects the whole organization, much like a human body performing all the

functions required to achieve an instruction set by the brain. Using the similar analogy, the

41 | P a g e
author would like to shed some light on a study carried out by Professor Bruce Lipton. Dr

Lipton a cellular biologist noticed that human cells responded more to environmental stimuli

rather that DNA programming as conventional sciences propounds. His study indicated that

similarly pupils in his medical class had better test scores when they worked as a team i.e. the

strong helping the weak etc... His conclusion was that human beings tend to perform better

when connected by a common purpose and goal. This perhaps is another indicator of the

importance of the entire organization working towards a common objective keeping the tenet

of customer service in mind. See customer relationship marketing and Paynes six markets

model to verify the importance of identifying an internal customer, internal marketing and

relationship management as a system in order to manage these stakeholders.

2.13 The role of third party intermediaries and educational agents: A third party is “a

company that provides multiple logistics services for its customers, whereby the Third-party

logistics provider is external to the customer company and is compensated for its services”.

(Langley, 1999) where Logistics as defined by the Council of Logistics Management is “that

part of the supply chain process that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective

forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services, and related information between the

point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers' requirements”. In the

case of an educational institution in the UK such as Cavendish College, there is an ever

increasing reliance on third party intermediaries or educational agents to recruit students from

overseas. A course that normally costs £3900 for a European student at Cavendish College

costs £6000 for an international student indicating the revenue earned through marketing the

college to overseas students. Research carried out by the independent (Morris and Russel,

2007) estimated that overseas students boost the UK economy by £8 billion a year. Much of

the foreign applications come via educational agents. Many of these agents work in tandem

42 | P a g e
with the British council as „trusted partners‟ in their home country offering valuable advice

and guidance to students intending to pursue higher education in the United Kingdom. In

exchange for the business Universities and colleges offer the agents upto 20% of fees by way

of a commission and incentive to generate more business. Over 70% of Cavendish College

students are international of which a vast majority are from outside the EU from countries

such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Russia, Nigeria,

Mauritius and others. Without its network of agents in these countries Cavendish College

would find it impossible to compete with other private colleges in the same sector. The

importance of relationship management with agents is depicted by the diagram below.

The importance of relationship management and coordination between agents, employees of

Cavendish College and management can be depicted with the help of the services marketing

triangle.

2.14 The services marketing triangle

Cavendish College (Company management)

Internal marketing External marketing

Enabling promises Making promises

Agents
Staff

Interactive marketing
Keeping promises

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 “The services marketing triangle identifies three key players that are essential to ensure the

success of a service offering”, (Strydom, 1998).

2.15 Diagramatic representation of Relationship manager, agent and Cavendish

students.

Relationship manager

Flow of
Information

Feedback

Flow of
Information

Prospective and current

students Agent or third party intermediary
Feedback

44 | P a g e
The BRIC Markets

Brazil Russia India and China are markets that represent the forefront of economic recovery.

(Reuters). Dubbed BRIC by analysts at Goldman Sachs, it is estimated that by 2011 BRICS

will account for 13% of global sales (Reuters). The countries are emerging and promise great

value. Although different in landscape, infrastructure, regulation and consumer taste, the key

driver to economic promise which is a common similarity is what classical economists refer

to as „flexible labour laws’, which in effect means that the lack of mature labour unions, high

population and therefore a larger workforce would decrease the cost of production inviting

manufacture and Industry.

Russia

The Glasnost political idealism of Gorbachaev remained a fantasy that never was realized.

(Herspring, 2007) With the collapse of the USSR a huge void of economic and political

power opened up a Pandora‟s Box in post soviet Russia. Young entrepreneurs welcomed the

shift of power from the state to key wealthy individuals who formed informal networks of

power and control. These relationships that were forged post communism echoed across the

globe and made their presence felt in many developed countries through investment in real

estate and crime. The effect on the country however was more devastating. A recent study by

OECD (Organization for Economic Development) into Russia‟s investment policies indicated

that there were 42 sectors which hampered foreign direct investment. “Obstacles to investing

in Russia are the highest in the World”, (Yergin and Gustafson, 2010). With Putin‟ brave

display of an open FDI policy to the world slamming foreign Oligarchs for not investing

enough in the Russian power infrastructure (which is privatized); it is apparent though that he

is playing with a weak hand. (Le Houerou, 1996), says that investment policy in Russian

capital markets are underdeveloped and characterized by low volume of security transactions,

45 | P a g e
low commercial long term credit and lack of private long term finance. Research carried out

by the Wilson centre conveys a gloomy picture of the Russian education system as well,

claiming that Russia spends less, percentage-wise of its GDP on education than any other

industrialized nation and that the current education system serves only the top 20% of

society, (Koehn, 2010). Russia has four types of educational institutions.

1. Universities

2. Academies

3. Institutes

4. Private Institutes

There are currently around 1000 Higher education institutions in Russia of which 655 are

state owned. (Russian higher education school of economics, 2010) Damning information

obtained from US consensus bureau (Nationmaster 2010) gives us the following demographic

statistics of the current target market of youth in Russia.

Current Population: 141.9 Million of which in the year 2010 there are 17 million youth aged

between the years of 15 and 30, however by the year 2020 the numbers between the same age

group will fall to 11 million.

46 | P a g e
Brazil

Brazil is one of the last countries to enter the recession and one of the first to emerge thank to

a robust macroeconomic strategy and strong fiscal policies.(Economic Times, April 2009)

Finance minister Guido Mantega says that he forecasts and expansion of the GDP by 4% by

the year end 2010. (Reuters, April 2010).

Although this very large country offers promise to foreign investors the hint of post

colonialism and a struggling nation still makes its presence noticeable through careful

analysis of overall development. Many economists argue that the very nature of development

is characterized by pockets of under and over development (Kreinin and Plummer, 2002)

however Brazil still has 26% who live below the poverty line, (CIA 2009). The government

encourages industrial development and foreign investment yet in the educational sector the

lack of student loans, financial instruments and incentives make Brazil a difficult market for a

short term investment. The macroeconomic policies are designed for foreign investors not to

have any exit strategies and therefore look at long term gains. According to (Schwartzmann,

1997) no private educational institution has declared itself as profit making. Perhaps this is

due to four major instruments that interfere with foreign accreditation. The bodies are:-

1. Exame Nacional de’ Cursos

2. Expert evaluation committee

3. Provao, or the National consensus of higher education

4. The Brazil council of education which controls initial approval to operate as a

university or college, course and study programmes and even puts a ceiling on course

fees. This may be seen as a good thing as then students may look overseas for

education; however the lack of financial instruments hampers this.

47 | P a g e
A study by the Language travel magazine, October 2008 issue indicated that the UK came

seventh in a choice to study abroad with Canada and the United States of America coming

first and second respectively. Research carried out by the same body indicated that 54% of

recruitment of students was through word of mouth which reinforces the long term approach

to establishing a brand and creating brand awareness for Cavendish College or any foreign

investor.

China

With a population of over 1.3 billion (World Development Agency 2010), China ranks the

highest amongst overseas students coming to the UK to pursue higher education, (Mackie,

2009). The Telegraph in September 2009 published that there are over 75,000 Chinese

students in the UK with over 3,500 coming in every year, (Telegraph; Beckford, 2009). With

its large geographical area and immense market capacity investors are eagerly looking at

China as a serious contender in overseas BRIC investment, (Reuters, 2008).

It comes as no surprise to curious investors though that China has always maintained its own

set of autonomous rules when it comes to foreigners. Rules that may be swayed in favour of

Chinese companies in the guise of protectionist policies. A recent example of this was the

row with internet giant Google over a censorship issue which eventually forced the American

giant to introduce a new search engine www.google.cn. A move that was described by

Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counsel at Google as “a hard compromise”.

There is a saying among economic circles that the Great Wall of China now bears a different

significance. Not one of keeping invaders out, but rather containing their own citizens. The

OECD (organization for economic development) states that amongst a hoard of obstacles in

foreign investment the lack of transparency for state owned or localized business coupled

with foreign ownership restriction makes life very difficult for anyone looking at China as an

48 | P a g e
investment playground. Far from the ethical considerations of prison labour and the lack of

freedom of speech, more relevant to the education sector it is important to address the law

that dictates that foreign universities and colleges may only set up non profit operations. In

addition to this stipulation, the company must be a joint venture with a Chinese university

and that all courses, content must be localized and all information regulated by an external

authority and the state, (National state estimate on foreign barriers, 2006). The recent points

based system required students to have an English proficiency before they come to England

will seriously affect Chinese students more than their Indian counterparts due to

a) The lack of access to western media.

b) The use of Mandarin as a language medium in all schools

c) The absences of western schools or colleges

In contrast it can be argued that there are a large number of institutions providing English

language training in China however as compared to India which was a British Colony for

over 400 years, an average of 80% of higher education (A level) and graduate schools

employ English as a teaching language medium (Venkatraman, 2009) which puts the latter in

a far better position to respond to the legal stipulation.

India

It is important to note that education plays a very significant cultural role in India. Early

records followed by (Sharma and Sharma, 2000) infer that an education system in India can

be traced back to the Vedic period (1500-600 BC). The presence of Gurukulas or teachers

domain where students learned religion, hunting, music and other life skills give us an insight

into the importance of education in the fabric of the Indian psychology. It was many years

later with the arrival of the East India Company that Sir Warren Hastings laid a foundation

for the first British educational institution in Calcutta in 1780.

49 | P a g e
An economic analysis of the GDP (Gross domestic product) of India by (Mozoomdar, 2002)

indicates a growth rate of India at an average 5.5% however the World Bank and the Indian

economics and statistics bureau (ISB, 2009) indicates an average GDP of 7%. These figures

along with several other indicators point towards significant growth potential in the

subcontinent. India accounts for one fourth of the global portfolio flows to emerging market

economies apart from being the world‟s largest outsourcing destination. India is poised for an

economic takeoff. (Purfield and Schiff, 2006). In spite all the positive signs and deregulation

and economic reforms post 1990‟s India still has a long way to go to offer investors a secure

Investment. A study carried out by KPMG published in the trade and investment

opportunities journal with India by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Trade and

Industry Committee reflects that many UK companies are averse to investing in developing

countries in spite of the opportunity and the British Chamber of Commerce told us “that firms

were more likely to focus on markets closer to home”. An example of an investment

opportunity in India was the telecommunication licences that were open to International and

UK investors who restrained from doing so and recently found out that the corruption scandal

that estimated 15 billion dollars was a result of Indian politicians undervaluing the licences

and pre-selling them to local buyers. (expressindia.com). Hence we see any scepticism is

justifiable, however... India has replaced the United States of America as the second largest

investment destination for FDI, (Chaze, 2006).

Statistics revealed by the Times of India in February 2010 revealed that 30% of the migrants

that come to Britain do so on student VISAS of which over 50,000 are Indian. In the view of

the upcoming elections there has been a clampdown by the UKBA on student VISAS. Indian

and Chinese students will be amongst those who will be hit hard as part of the new points

based system introduced in February 2010 requiring students to have a preset English

proficiency depending on which course they apply for. Apart from restrictions on spouse and

50 | P a g e
dependant VISAS it will restrict what the home office calls „bogus students‟ from entering

the UK and put restrictions on part time work. As many as 60 colleges have been recently

suspended by the UKBA on different grounds. However, with a population of over 1.1 billion

(world development agency), a rapidly increasing middle class, growing population, low

barriers to Foreign direct investment(as compared to other BRIC countries), availability of

long and short term credit instruments to individuals and organizations makes India a serious

contender in the global market.

A critical analysis of relationship drivers with existing and new agents as well current

relational strategies including high customer acquisition costs, high exit barriers, sustainable

competitive advantage, trust and commitment, risks, perceived need for closeness and

customer satisfaction as relationship drivers (Egan, 2001) will form a skeleton for the

analysis of our existing strategy and intended strategy to improve recruitment of quality

students from India.

51 | P a g e
2.17 The CRUZ Model is an Right Person for the right job
amalgamation of Paynes six
It is the role and responsibility of the
market model which identifies the
Director and Principal and management to
stakeholders of Cavendish ensure employee motivation is high,
College and incorporates the recruitment and promotion procedures are
service marketing triangle fair and monetary and non monetary
philosophy of commitment to incentives are introduced.
service running throughout the
organization.

Employee
Markets

Current students
Their parents and relatives
Multipliers: Accommodation agencies, travel
agencies, Gyms etc...

UKBA Referral Markets

BAC Influencer Markets
Study UK

Customer Markets
Students

Internal Markets Supplier Markets

Departments

Finance
Academics
Admissions Interactive Marketing
IT
Marketing and Sales Agents
Maintenance
52 | P a g e
 Chapter III
Research Methodology

53 | P a g e
3.1 Introduction

The purpose behind this chapter is the following:

1. Provide a rationale behind his choice of research philosophy in contrast with other
approaches
2. Introduce his sampling instrument
3. Elaborate on rationale behind the survey questions
4. Deliver the findings

3.2 Selection of research philosophy

1. Positivist

2. Interpretive

3. Action

4. Phenomenological

5. Qualitative

6. Quantitative

(Levin, 1988) believes that reality is stable and can only be observed from an objective

viewpoint. Postivists believe in the replication of results which can infer that the results are

accurate. The positivist approach is ingrained in our academic circle and often work which is

not follow positivist referencing is not taken seriously. This is indicated by (Hirschheim,

1985) who says, "Positivism has a long and rich historical tradition. It is so embedded in our

society that knowledge claims not grounded in positivist thought are simply dismissed as

ascientific and therefore invalid". The Interpretivist research as explain by (Cryer, 2006) is

similar to an observer point of view of a crime. There are many criticisms of this approach

and yet circumstantial evidence may in many cases point towards an accurate representation

of reality. Reality again according to interpretivists is often descriptive according to Cryer

and spoken from a particular point of view through experience. (See table below).

54 | P a g e
The rationale behind using either method often depends on the research question and topic.

The author employs both approaches given the fact that strengths from either can be applied

to his research question. (Silverman 1993) suggests that it is next to impossible to rely on

empirical data alone as concerns are raised into the authenticity of the observer, the situation

and the methods of recording the information at the time of it occurring. On the other hand

criticisms raised by (Kuhn, 1992) reflected by (Monarch, 2006) sheds light on the ephemeral

nature of scientific findings and how what may be considered truth or reality at a certain point

in time may as well be fiction. Having said this, one must consider various weaknesses of

both approaches in order to make a conclusive decision on which is more accurate and yet

(Benbasat, 1987) has observed that no research is better than the other. In order to measure

the level of employee morale of Cavendish College the researcher as relied on anonymous

quantitative survey questions one of which is the length of tenure the staff see themselves

working for the company and to add to this he also reflects on his personal experience and

informal conversations with the staff over the past five years. Research methodology also

includes the Action research approach where the author seeks to reinforce theoretical data

reviewed in the literature review by a practical application. An example of this is creating an

online Facebook group for students to socialize, network and build a Cavendish community.

He believes that only an interprevist philosophy can correctly gauge the way the target group

reacts to the idea of a social online platform stemming from a physical reality i.e. Cavendish

College. In other words Facebook being an informal community student are perceived to be

more honest with their opinions and the fact that the one hundred and sixty three members

have joined the group signifies that they have a desire to be part of a special Cavendish

society. The researcher then used the social networking site Facebook as a platform to

advertise his survey and invite responses. Having been a student at the college the researcher

55 | P a g e
also employs phenomenological research techniques in order to understand the views of the

staff and students to answer his research question.

The difference between the two research approaches is highlighted by Jorgen Sandberg in

this table below.

Metatheoretical Positivism Interpretivism

Assumptions
About
Ontology Person (researcher) and Person (researcher) and
reality are separate. reality are inseparable
(life-world).
Epistemology Objective reality exists Knowledge of the world is
beyond the human mind. intentionally constituted
through a person’s lived
experience.
Research Object Research object has Research object is
inherent qualities that exist interpreted in
independently of the light of meaning structure
researcher. of person’s (researcher’s)
lived experience.
Method Statistics, content Hermeneutics,
analysis. phenomenology, etc.
Theory of Truth Correspondence theory of Truth as intentional
truth: fulfilment:
one-to-one mapping interpretations of research
between research object match lived
statements and reality. experience of object.
Validity Certainty: data truly Defensible knowledge
measures reality. claims.
Reliability Reliability: research Interpretive awareness:
results can be reproduced. researchers recognize and
address implications of
their subjectivity.
.

56 | P a g e
3.3 Re statement of research question and objective

The research carried out is an investigation into Relationship management and whether

employing relationship management strategies can directly influence sales. In the event of the

research positively indicating that relationship management does influence sales the objective

is to employ a new strategy to improve the quality and quantity of students as well as

improve the morale of staff and third party intermediaries as a subsequent benefit.

3.4 Data Analysis

The research requires that a wide range of students both past and present, be targeted. The

researcher found out after initial pilot research that students gave a biased view when being in

the presence of the researcher. Perhaps this was due to the fact that he was employed by the

organization and many respondents felt that he would perhaps read the questionnaire soon

after they had filled it up even though there was no name column on it. Many students who

were approached are currently waiting for their results and had a perception that negative

views expressed may affect their grade. In the light of these concerns it was decided to

approach the students in a more informal environment. Facebook was the ideal platform as

the researcher used it to also gather phenomenological research conclusions through

observations of group behaviour over the last academic year. The researcher posted the

survey link on the Cavendish College group page as well as messaged each of the one

hundred and sixty three members personally. Thirty filled out the survey. These thirty are

from a diverse range of courses from creative to more popular business courses. Below each

table you will find a rationale behind the question.

57 | P a g e
1. What course have you completed? STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE

answered question 30

skipped question 0

Response
Count 30

Rationale: the question was raised in order to get opinions of students from a cross section of

departments.

2. How did you hear about Cavendish College London?

answered question 30

skipped question 0

Response Response
Percent Count

Agent 40.0% 12

Friend 20.0% 6

Internet 30.0% 9

Other 10.0% 3

58 | P a g e
2. How did you hear about Cavendish College London?

Other (please specify) 3

1. TV

2. Moroccan fair

3. Family

Rationale: The question was raised in order to ascertain which the highest source for

recruitment was. As agents emerge as the highest source of students the college needs to pay

special attention in order to furnish them with the correct information. The next question

indicates areas in which students were briefed pre-arrival. Pre-arrival information is a pre

requisite for any college seeking to recruit international students enforced by the British

Accreditation Council (BAC). This is also an indicator of which channels of marketing are

successful.

3. Were you briefed on the following subject areas by your agents?

Yes No Brief overview

Rating Response
Average Count

Fees
76.7% (23) 13.3% (4) 10.0% (3) 1.33 30
(transparency)

Accommodation
and living 53.3% (16) 36.7% (11) 10.0% (3) 1.57 30
expenses

Facilities 36.7% (11) 46.7% (14) 16.7% (5) 1.80 30

Course content 50.0% (15) 26.7% (8) 23.3% (7) 1.73 30

Location 73.3% (22) 16.7% (5) 10.0% (3) 1.37 30

59 | P a g e
3. Were you briefed on the following subject areas by your agents?

Teaching staff 30.0% (9) 50.0% (15) 20.0% (6) 1.90 30

Academic
40.0% (12) 46.7% (14) 13.3% (4) 1.73 30
progression

Nationality of
23.3% (7) 63.3% (19) 13.3% (4) 1.90 30
other students

Employment
16.7% (5) 63.3% (19) 20.0% (6) 2.03 30
opportunities

Student
26.7% (8) 60.0% (18) 13.3% (4) 1.87 30
services

Rationale: The purpose of this question was to identify areas of information lapse. With a

view to shortening the customer gap this information will eventually contribute to helping

them obtain a realistic perception of student life in the United Kingdom as well as have a

clear career plan. The survey indicated that upto sixty percent of students did not receive vital

information on employment opportunities, student services, nationality of other students and

academic progressions. All these factors play an important role in the career planning and

60 | P a g e
development of an individual‟s life and yet they have been ignored. For example, seeking

employment as a student is important as it is a source of income to sustain oneself whilst

studying. Without this many students will have to rely on loans or grants which often weigh

down heavily on the decision to complete their studies.

In addition, the college provides very limited extracurricular activities and rely on the

students to organize events amongst themselves. Many students found that the high

percentage of certain nationalities would factor into their decision if they had to recommend

the college to another friend or relative. Lapse in information or incorrect information affects

the process based trust element of a customer client relationship thereby raising questions in

the customers mind about the entire purchase experience. The fundamental principle behind

the service marketing triangle is to enable the promises that are made to the customer by the

intermediaries. The indications from the results above are that there is a massive shortfall in

correct information resulting in the college being unable to deliver on the commitments made

by the agents.

4. Was the information provided to you pre-arrival accurate?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 40.0% 12

No 20.0% 6

Some
40.0% 12
of it

Please explain further 3

61 | P a g e
4. Was the information provided to you pre-arrival accurate?

1. This question is a bit tough. The answer is somewhat, but there are no other options then I am going to choose yes

2. I did start late though. Plus maybe just can't remember.

Some information was fine but some of it like the nationality of students was not. I did not come to study in London only to
3. be with Indian and Pakistanis and Nigerians. There are no European students in my foundation class and I feel tricked.
Also, Facilities etc could have been elaborated.

Rationale: Service quality dimensions mentioned in the literature indicated that Reliability

emerged as the most important dimension. The purpose of this question was to indicate the

accuracy of the information provided to the students thereby assuring them that they can rely

on the information given to them in order to plan ahead. However, much of the information is

either outdated or irrelevant thereby negating reliability. Upon arrival when the student

realizes the difference between what was told to them and what the reality is, their

impressions of the college and its intermediaries will be negative. This will in turn affect their
62 | P a g e
relationship with the college. A combined average of sixty percent (No and some of it)

indicate that the college must train agents on these matters.

5. Did the experience match your expectations?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 56.7% 17

No 43.3% 13

Rationale: To estimate the customer gap.

63 | P a g e
6. Please rate in order of importance which facet needs to improve?

Critical Average Low

Important N/A
Importance Importance Importance
Rating Response
Average Count

Image and
16.7% (5) 63.3% (19) 10.0% (3) 10.0% (3) 0.0% (0) 2.13 30
appearance

Teaching
16.7% (5) 46.7% (14) 16.7% (5) 13.3% (4) 6.7% (2) 2.29 30
Quality

Administration 30.0% (9) 36.7% (11) 23.3% (7) 6.7% (2) 3.3% (1) 2.07 30

Student
43.3% (13) 36.7% (11) 16.7% (5) 3.3% (1) 0.0% (0) 1.80 30
services

VISA advice 46.7% (14) 30.0% (9) 6.7% (2) 3.3% (1) 13.3% (4) 1.62 30

Nationality of
26.7% (8) 20.0% (6) 20.0% (6) 13.3% (4) 20.0% (6) 2.25 30
other students

Information on
Jobs and 40.0% (12) 50.0% (15) 3.3% (1) 6.7% (2) 0.0% (0) 1.77 30
accommodation

64 | P a g e
Rationale: In order to establish areas which students felt needed improving. Of the seven

areas students‟ selected VISA advice as the highest followed by student services and job and

accommodation information. By providing these services the college can help the students

settle in comfortably into their educational life. This will have a positive effect on their

performance as they understand the structure of job hunting, resume preparation, and other

important facets that will contribute to their overall well-being. The lack of information on

VISAS costs students thousands of pounds in re-application fees and some waste valuable

time having to go back to their country as they lose appeal rights due to basic errors made in

their application.

7. How do you feel when you need to approach a staff member for a document or information?

Response Response
Percent Count

Confidant 50.0% 15

Hesitant 30.0% 9

Negative 20.0% 6

Extract chart from staff Questionnaire

65 | P a g e
Rationale: This question seeks to understand the emotion of the student before approaching

a member of staff for information. A positive indicator reflects on general atmosphere of the

college however as fifty percent indicate that they were either hesitant or felt negative the

relationship management strategy must encourage staff to be more helpful and receptive to

students. Cross referencing this result with the staff indicates that the reason staff is

unapproachable and develop a somewhat hostile appearance to students is due to the fact that

they feel students expect more than they can deliver. This negative atmosphere will affect the

students‟ impression of the college over a sustained period of time.

8. Would you recommend Cavendish to your friends and family?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 33.3% 10

No 20.0% 6

Depends
on the 46.7% 14
course

66 | P a g e
Rationale: Research by (Raab, Ajami, Gargeya and Goddard, 2008) depicted earlier in the

Impact of relationship management table in the literature review indicate two main points

1. Every satisfied customer brings in at least three new customers

2. Unhappy customers express their feelings to at least ten potential customers

The researcher raised the question in order to ascertain what the colleges stand point was in

relation to the above statements. This clearly indicates that twenty percent were unsatisfied

and forty six percent would only recommend some courses. The aim of relationship

management strategy recommended is to improve this ratio considerably.

9. How important in building a good relationship with the College staff for you?

Response Response
Percent Count

Very
66.7% 20
Important

Important 30.0% 9

Average 0.0% 0

Not
3.3% 1
Important

67 | P a g e
Rationale: The question was asked in order to find out the opinion of the students whether

they felt the need for establishing good relations between themselves and staff. As ninety six

percent indicated that it is, the college must consider developing staff student relationships

through customer relationship management methods.

10. ONLY FOR EX-STUDENTS: If you had the opportunity to re-live the experience in Cavendish
would you do so?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 37.5% 9

No 29.2% 7

Depends 33.3% 8

68 | P a g e
10. ONLY FOR EX-STUDENTS: If you had the opportunity to re-live the experience in Cavendish
would you do so?

Please explain 4

1. Do you u have any PHD courses?

It was perfect for me because I had no idea what I wanted to do. The best thing after Cavendish is to transfer to university
2. and make it a proper degree because for me to get a good job I needed a BA. I loved it at Cavendish it was a great start to
my London experience.

3. Because there is nothing left to get more.

4. Only if the administration improves

69 | P a g e
Rationale: to build upon the argument that a large percentage of students are not necessarily

happy with many aspects of the college and others with the courses. Changing course content,

delivery is as difficult task and the findings mostly indicate that the issues students have are

due to the gap between the perceptions and what was delivered. Students also complained

about the lack of many essential student services which adversely affected their experience.

Staff indicated that there is a high reliance on the administrative department and over the

years numbers of students have grown and currently stand at an approximate 600 students.

The ratio of admin staff to students is 1:100 creating an extremely high pressure environment

at the reception. This in turn creates a bottleneck of anxiety on both sides which affects the

morale of staff and adversely affects the education experience of the students. The presence

of only two academic staff for the whole college also means results are delayed; staff is over

worked, frustrated and this transfer onto the students who rely on this information to apply to

other colleges, university, VISA extensions and so on. The researchers experience talking to

quality students over the last three years indicates that they are extremely unhappy with the

following factors:

1. The lack of the feeling of being in a British institution. The presence of a majority of

Indian, Pakistani and Nigerian students is negative.

2. The staff is unfriendly and inefficient.

3. The atmosphere and image of the college is not upto international standards, and the

presence of posters demanding students pay their fees and warnings on implications

of non payment make them feel that there is no customer centricity in the

organization.

4. There is no guidance/welfare officer who can help the students with job applications

and other student services such as VISA advice. (VISA advice emerged as the most

important factor that was lacking).

70 | P a g e
 5. The college lacked a student culture environment. There were little or no student

activities organized and the only emphasis they felt was on financial matters. I.e.

Have I paid my fees? And am I attending lectures?

3.6 Staff Questionnaire

The basic premise which the author based in questionnaire for staff is to understand the level

of employee morale. Employee morale directly affects staff performance (Davies, 2008) and

in a service organization where customer contact is unavoidable high staff morale is

extremely important. Low morale as indicated by Davies causes employee to make mistakes,

not meet targets and make poor decisions. Identifying key indicators of low morale as well

as what restricts staff performance may help management re evaluate internal policies to help

boost employee morale and thereby improve customer relations. Adapting the service triangle

theory management must now look at staff as the internal customers.

1. Which department do you work in?

Response Response
Percent Count

Admissions 46.2% 6

Academics 15.4% 2

Administration/Reception 46.2% 6

Finance 7.7% 1

Library 7.7% 1

IT 0.0% 0

Marketing 7.7% 1

Accommodation 7.7% 1

71 | P a g e
Rationale: The question seeks to indicate the number of staff in each department. When

cross referenced with question 5 (which department do you rely on to get your job done

efficiently) as well as mapping it with student questionnaire in which sixty percent of student

find that administrative services must improve, it seeks to draw attention to the fact that an

administration of six people (1:100) is not enough to manage the current work load.

Academics staff currently stands at 2 (1:300) another indicator of overloading work resulting

in stressed out staff and unhappy students.

72 | P a g e
2. How long have you been working at Cavendish College?

Response Response
Percent Count

Less
than
7.7% 1
a
year

1-2
61.5% 8
Years

2-3
15.4% 2
Years

3-5
15.4% 2
Years

Rationale: The question was to raise awareness into the fact that many staff does not stay

longer than two years. Only two full time staff has stayed with the company over three years.

High staff turnover is an indicator of low employee morale (Patti, 2000)

73 | P a g e
3. Do you see yourself working here in the next 5 years?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 15.4% 2

No 15.4% 2

Not
69.2% 9
certain

Rationale: To build upon the previous question the researcher wanted to understand whether

employees saw a future for themselves in the organization. Seventy percent were unsure and

fifteen percent were sure to leave whilst fifteen percent said they would stay. (Davies and

Hurtig, 2008) comment that indicators of low employee morale are the following

74 | P a g e
 1. Poor working conditions (Indicated by 93% of staff response in the next question)

2. Poor equipment

3. Lack of communication (Indicated by seventy six percent of staff who responded to

question thirteen saying that lack of communication critically affected their

performance)

4. Hypocrisy

5. Redundancy

4. Please rate in order of importance what you would feel will help you improve your efficiency

Medium
Most Important Important Low importance
importance
Rating Response
Average Count

Incentives
(Monetary and 53.8% (7) 38.5% (5) 0.0% (0) 7.7% (1) 1.62 13
non-monetary)

Flexible working
7.7% (1) 61.5% (8) 23.1% (3) 7.7% (1) 2.31 13
hours

Less
responsibility/Job 15.4% (2) 46.2% (6) 7.7% (1) 30.8% (4) 2.54 13
rotation

Recruitment of
better quality 46.2% (6) 38.5% (5) 7.7% (1) 7.7% (1) 1.77 13
students

Better working
69.2% (9) 23.1% (3) 7.7% (1) 0.0% (0) 1.38 13
conditions

75 | P a g e
Rationale: To indicate what areas management needs to improve in order to boost staff

morale.

5. Which department do you mainly rely on in order to get your job done well?

Response Response
Percent Count

Admissions 30.8% 4

Sales 0.0% 0

Finance 0.0% 0

Academics 23.1% 3

Administration 38.5% 5

Marketing 7.7% 1

76 | P a g e
Rationale: Mapping this reliance chart was fundamental as the researcher sought to highlight

which were the main departments that had most of the workload. Administration came first

followed by admissions. Both are clearly understaffed and lacking resource personnel.

6. Do you find students expect more than you can deliver?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 84.6% 11

No 15.4% 2

77 | P a g e
Rationale: Eighty four percent of the staff believed that the students expected more and

drawing from the results of the next question (are agents to blame) where seventy seven

percent agreed it is apparent that much of the workload and pressure can be reduced by

training agents on certain information thereby equipping students with the knowledge pre

arrival. Reflecting on the customer gap problem the college needs to control exaggerated

claims made by the agents. Once measures are adopted to assure students are given the

correct information the service triangle principle of making a promise and delivering promise

can be met.

Cross referencing these results with Question seven of the student questionnaire (How do you

feel when you need to approach a staff member for a document or information?), we draw the

78 | P a g e
link that staff feel that the students are asking for too much and hence naturally adopt a

negative attitude to questions which students perceive as a lack of customer care.

7. Do you find that students expect far more due to false hopes given by agents when they are overseas?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 76.9% 10

No 23.1% 3

Rationale: To link it to question six.

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8. If you have worked at Cavendish for more than three intakes, has the work load increased?

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 92.3% 12

No 7.7% 1

Rationale: To show management that although the staff numbers have remained the same,

the workload has increased. (See question 9)

80 | P a g e
9. If you have answered YES to question 8, please indicate the reason you think best
explains the increase in work load

Secondary Contributes to
Main reason Not an issue
reason workload
Rating Response
Average Count

Higher
number of 70.0% (7) 20.0% (2) 10.0% (1) 0.0% (0) 1.40 10
students

UKBA
regulations
getting 50.0% (5) 30.0% (3) 0.0% (0) 20.0% (2) 1.90 10
more
complex

Decrease
in the
12.5% (1) 37.5% (3) 25.0% (2) 25.0% (2) 2.63 8
quality of
students

Other
22.2% (2) 11.1% (1) 33.3% (3) 33.3% (3) 2.78 9
issues

Rationale: To build on the argument that the college is understaffed and therefore

overworked.

81 | P a g e
10. Who according to you are the customers of Cavendish College?

1. Students, General Public

2. students

3. Overseas students

4. The students

5. Students

6. Students and agents

7. Students

Students
8.
Agents

9. international students

Students
10. Agents
Universities/ Awarding Bodies

11. Students

12. Anybody that has intention or is already studying at Cavendish.

Students
Agents
13.
UKBA
Other stakeholders

Rationale: The focus of Paynes six market model described in the literature review is to

bring to attention that the notion of customer extends far beyond just the consumer. The

researcher sought to investigate who the staff believed were the customers and thereby lay a

foundation to introduce the idea that each department is a customer and that customers extend

82 | P a g e
beyond the four walls to the stakeholders, the parents, the universities, the awarding bodies

and so on. This was done with a view of creating an atmosphere of customer centricity within

the departments and in effect create a stage gate process where each department treats the

other department as a customer and therefore documents passed between departments are

double checked in order to ensure customer satisfaction.

11. ADMISSIONS TEAM - Would you agree that your agents would respond better and send Cavendish
good quality students if you were encouraged to get to know them on a personal level? I.e. sending them
Cavendish season’s greetings cards, visiting their office etc...

Response Response
Percent Count

Yes 80.0% 8

No 0.0% 0

Not
20.0% 2
certain

83 | P a g e
Rationale: To lay the foundation of relationship management between staff and agents and

encourage communication between the two. Secondly, trying to achieve the principles of the

service marketing triangle. I.e. enabling promises.

12. ADMISSIONS TEAM- Given a scenario of two colleges, College A and College B
College A employs a Relationship Manager between the college and the agent to keep
track of the agents concerns, student quality etc. College B relies on the admissions
officer to manage the agent and has very little concern of matters that do not concern
direct recruitment Which college would the agents prefer sending quality students to.
College A or B?

Response Response
Percent Count

College
80.0% 8
A

College
20.0% 2
B

84 | P a g e
Rationale: In order to raise awareness for the necessity for a relationship manager mentioned

in the literature review. (See diagrammatic representation of relationship manager, agents and

Cavendish College on page 43)

13. Which of the following hinders your efficiency the most?

Critical Medium Low

Rating Response
Average Count

Inter
departmental 23.1% (3) 53.8% (7) 23.1% (3) 2.00 13
reliance

Lack of
information
76.9% (10) 23.1% (3) 0.0% (0) 1.23 13
and
communication

Extreme multi-
30.8% (4) 53.8% (7) 15.4% (2) 1.85 13
tasking

Rationale: To link to question 3 where (Davies and Hurti, 2008) pointed out that lack of

communication is a key factor is influencing low employee morale.

85 | P a g e
Ethical framework

„Ethics is the science of conduct‟. „It considers the actions of human beings in connection

with their rightness or wrongness and their tendency to do good or evil‟. (Mackenzie, 2008).

Often we confuse ethics with the element of human emotion however if one observes

behavioural patterns of human beings, over centuries much of how we feel stems from social

and religious conditioning. Information obtained from the Santa Clara University indicates

that there are five sources of ethics. It is the researchers‟ opinion that Cavendish College

adopts an ethical framework based on the five approaches.

1. The utilitarian approach- Which believes that ethical action is concerned with doing

more good and less harm.

2. The moral rights approach-Which believes that ethical action, must protect the moral

right of individuals. Morality being a relative issue is fairly difficult to gauge and

therefore what may be considered immoral in one culture may be acceptable by

another. Morality is also dependant on ones religious beliefs and the time period in

which we exist.

3. The fairness of justice approach - This approach considers all humans are treat

equally and in the event of unequal treatment such as remuneration etc then the action

should be defensible against set standards. Cavendish College must consider all

internal customers or employees as equals and not allow favouritism and extra

benefits to certain members. In addition, agents must only be allowed marketing

benefits based on their necessity and potential and not on their relations with the

admissions officer.

4. The common good approach – This is based on the idea that life in itself is good.

Fostering relationships and building networks in society with a view to advance is the

86 | P a g e
 purpose of action. Cavendish College serves as an education provider which seeks to

advance an individual‟s knowledge on certain subjects with a view the students

finding employment and improving their standard of living. Let us not lose sight of

this purpose and although there is an existing focus on financial gains, we must

emphasize on the need to also focus on improving the employment opportunities of

students through networking and fostering relationships.

5. The virtue approach-Stems from an ancient idea that actions should coincide with the

very development of humankind on the following areas, honesty, courage,

compassion, generosity, tolerance, love, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and

prudence.

87 | P a g e
 Chapter IV

Findings and discussion

88 | P a g e
4.1 Business Planning and recommendations

This chapter seeks to offer marketing and management solutions based on the research

carried out by the author. Much of recommendations focus on improving internal

management processes and offers viable solutions to shortfalls that have been identified in

the current structure. These business processes are aligned to the relationship management

sphere and as a result revolve around managing the human element within the organization

within certain pre defined limitations. As management needs to adopt strategies to

incorporate changes it is important that we first recommend a leadership model.

Use of Authority by the manager

Leadership continuum

Area of freedom for subordinates

Manager Manager sells Manager Manager Manager Manager Manager

makes decision presents presents presents defines limits allows
decision and ideas and tentative problems, and asks subordinates
announces it invites decisions gets group to to make
questions subject to suggestions make decisions
change and makes decisions within limits
decisions set by
supervisor

Cavendish College Leadership

position

89 | P a g e
Once the management has incorporated the culture of responsible decision making they can

focus on the two elements that contribute toward the service marketing triangle.

1. Making promises

2. Delivering promises

The author has therefore divided the implementation of the business strategy into two main

areas:

1. What we deliver i.e. Academics, Student services and Agent services

2. What we say we deliver i.e. Marketing and publicity.

What Cavendish Business strategy What Cavendish says

actually delivers it delivers?

-Academics -Marketing and

publicity
-Students services

-Services provided to
agents

90 | P a g e
4.2 What we deliver: Student Services

1. Legal Advice- Information on application of VISAS, extending passports, and

immigration advice must be provided to students either by appointing a person

qualified for the role or outsourcing the service to a legal firm. The author has

identified one such individual who works represents a law firm willing to take on the

responsibility for a subsidised or discounted rate to students.

2. Jobs and Internships – This research indicated that students at Cavendish College find

the lack of support in finding employment in the UK a major concern. The author

proposes the following measures:

2.1 Careers cell/link on the website: Informing students how to apply for a

National Insurance number as well as providing a list of recruitment/open days

fast food restaurants such as Mc Donald‟s, Burger King hold their selection

process. A role needs to be created for this task. This information will be made

to students‟ pre arrival. Students must also be guided on preparation of CVs

for jobs.

2.2 The appointed person will also actively seek employment ads and classifieds

and post the information on the employment section on the college website as

well as establish links with managers of local restaurants, pubs in order to give

the students a wider choice. Recommendations will be at the discretion of the

college and be based on an assessment of the student‟s capability to work in

that job profile. This information will also be made available to student pre

arrival

3. Accommodation wing – Students must be provided pre-arrival advice as well as post

arrival advice on matters relating to accommodation as well as employment near their

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 accommodation. This is to ensure that they make allowances for the expenses in their

budget.

4. Student activities- A student activity organizer must be appointed to plan and

coordinate activities such as inter collegiate sports matches, parties, games night,

quizzes etc in order to make student life exciting. There are numerous student clubs

and bars organizing such events. The profile of the appointed person will have to

include actively looking for events held in and out of London and organizing trips /

extracurricular events on a regular basis. A special link on the site as well as notice

board will be dedicated to this service.

Agents services- The author recommends a point based system from 1 – 10 covering the

following aspects of recruitment.

1. Academic information (1 point)

2. Employment information (1 point)

3. Accommodation information (1 point)

4. VISAS and immigration information (2 points)

5. Extra curricula information ( 1 point)

6. Basic travel information and general information on living in London ( 1 point)

7. Reliability in recruiting students who have an intention to study (historically) (3

points)

This point system will factor into the colleges decision to provide additional marketing

benefits, forward enquiries and recommend improved benefits and prizes to those who meet

them.

Services provided to agents must include as follows

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1. Tracking service- Each agent must be appointed one admissions officer who is

responsible for preparing letters, offers etc. A standard of seven working days must be

assigned to students who meet all entry criteria. For those students who do not meet

the specified recruitment specifications mentioned on the website, it will take upto

fourteen working days for a turnaround. The agent must be explained the admissions

process as the figure below depicts. In this way the agent can track the progress of his

offer letter.

Admissions officer Admissions officer

For an acceptance 14 working days for

for students an acceptance for
meeting all students not
admission criteria meeting all
admission criteria

3 working days for 3 working days for

the officer to hold the officer to hold
and review the case and review the case

4 working days for
the academics
department to
review the case and
reply to the
admissions officer
11 working days to assess the case in the presence of
senior management and in the case of external
verification such as the University of Wales for MBA
programmes or seek advice from create department
heads in case of recruitment for creative students not
meeting academic criteria and possessing relevant
work experience.

93 | P a g e
 Agents will not be encouraged to write to other members of staff or come into the

college to pressurize the college for a quick response regardless of their relationship

with the admissions officer. The college will follow this strict protocol in order to

ensure fair treatment towards all agents.

2. Commission and payment structure – As mentioned in the contract the agent will be

paid his commission within ten working days of the student paying the course fee.

Students who do not pay their course fee in full before admission will have an

implication on the agent‟s commission being delayed. The college will only pay a

percentage of what has been received and the finance department will be allowed

fourteen working days to effect this transfer. Agents must speak directly to the

recruitment officer who will in turn manage the transfer with the finance department.

3. Agents will be given free promotional material and as decided by the marketing

manager technical equipment in order to broadcast videos etc of the college within

their premises. This is at the discretion solely of the marketing manager and not the

admissions officer liaising with the agent in order to avoid personal judgement and

future problems between the two in future.

4. Agents will be allowed a marketing budget based on the potential, history of

recruitment assessed by the marketing manager the director of finance and the

admissions officer. This is at the discretion of the college.

94 | P a g e
 5. Agents will have access to a grievance email i.e. grievance@cavendish.ac.uk which

allows them the liberty of writing their concerns to the college. Access to this is only

given to senior management.

6. Agent‟s staff will be trained by Cavendish admissions officers on matters relating to

student services, recruitment and other pre arrival information in order to ensure that

students are properly advised on the decision to come to the UK. A post arrival

questionnaire will be given to the students who will write down the name of the

recruiting officer/agent and cover all aspects from information given on

accommodation to employment to academics. Those agents that fail to comply with

training standards or falsify claims of student life will be addressed formally by the

admissions officer and will lose marketing benefits and will come under more

scrutiny when applying for admission of new students.

3.8.1 What Cavendish says it delivers

1. Marketing and promotion –

1.1 publicity material such as fliers, posters, videos, prospectuses clothing and

apparel shall adhere to strict uniformity and agents will have to request a design

from the college to advertise in the local newspaper or get the designed agreed by

the marketing director. See images of proposed publicity material.

1.2 Images and videos need to be uploaded on a regular basis on the college website

and YouTube. Agents must display college posters and publicity material in

prominent places in their offices and will be subject to spot checks.

1.3 DVDs of the college videos will be broadcasted on local cable channels through a

network of cable operators.

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 1.4 Career seminars will be held in Government and private colleges in India by

Cavendish College

1.5 Publicity material must be kept in student frequented places such as coffee shops,

bars, restaurants etc...

2. New market entry – in order to recruit more European students and maintain the

balance of a culturally diverse community Cavendish College will venture into

markets such as Romania, Poland, Italy and Bulgaria as these markets reflect high

potential based on research carried out through participation in education fairs. A

budget will be created and maintained for agent expansion activity in the European

market.

96 | P a g e
 4.4 Administrative recommendations

Introducing new ideas and adopting new habits may be easier said than done. In order to

incorporate new behavioural ideas into the organization staff, the management must take the

following steps based on Kotters change model

Anchor change

Build on change

Create short term wins

Empower Action

Communicate the vision

Develop a vision

Create a guiding coalition

Establish a sense of urgency

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1. Creating a sense of urgency - Management will address staff on internal and

external customer focus. Having been made aware that responsibility lies within each

department in regards to quality management staff will now be addressed on the

reasons for change.

i. Industry trends changing

ii. UKBA rules restricting certain courses resulting in cancellation of some

courses all together

iii. The problem of redundancies in the art department due to lack of students

2. Create a guiding coalition – Identify employee and invite them into personal

meetings with the director on a one to one basis and explain the idea of responsibility

to each other and the importance of teamwork. Management will need to encourage

team building exercises such as dinners, staff lunch etc... At this point management

also needs to listen to the employees and improve conditions based on the feedback

provided through the questionnaire.

Changes needed to be adopted by management

1. Improved working conditions

2. New administration staff at reception (Full time). Any rotation must be informed to

other administration staff prior to changes.

3. New academic staff to handle the workload currently dealt with by Meranda and

Lale'.

4. Agents training must commence immediately in order to filter bogus students.

5. Induction days must cover all matters from job hunting to bank accounts.

6. Office timings must be strictly adhered to by staff, management and students.

7. Office timings must be advertised on the SharePoint.

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 8. Pay rise must take effect from October as usual.

Having displayed their loyalty to the employees‟ management can now expect the employees

to cooperate on the changes required of them.

3. Develop a vision – „Cavendish strives to broaden educational opportunity and widen

participation on a global scale in order to develop and enhance the future prosperity of

individuals, corporations, governments and the peoples of countries throughout the

world. Where the delivery of courses in the United Kingdom cannot fully meet this

goal we will continuously seek to develop collaborative ventures overseas and partner

with like-minded educationalists to bring internationally renowned programmes to the

local market and work toward the establishment of standards and quality principles

that will bring long term benefits to all‟.

4. Communicate that vision- The vision must be explain to staff members by the

director during the staff meeting as well as advertised on the website for students and

all stake holders to see. In addition it must be communicated on the agents‟ contract

and explained to each agent thereby building a foundation of trust, responsibility and

order.

5. Empower action and remove obstacles – Once management has reviewed it pay

structure and employed new staff it needs to identify barriers to progress. Human

barriers will be addressed and interviewed on the reason of their non involvement and

management must take into account any reasonable explanations they have.

Recognition of key drivers and identifying individuals who adapt quickly must be

rewarded. Job descriptions must be in line with remuneration otherwise staff will soon

realize that false job profiles with more responsibility and a small salary margin is not

worth the effort and they will either resist change or pretend to adopt it and slowly

slip back into complacency.

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6. Short term wins-Management will identify sure shot targets such as preparation of

letters stag gate system and after several weeks will congratulate staff on their

competency on this matter. Through social recognition of staff effort motivation and

moral will rise.

7. Build on change - Adopt the kaizen approach of continuous change and consider

opinions from bottom up. Staff meetings will take place once a month through formal

or informal basis and ideas and feedback must be considered. For example: the

current letter posting system costs the college money through post charges as well as

bears a high level of uncertainty of delivery. This costs the students‟ valuable time if

they are applying for council tax, jobs or bank letters. Letters should be prepared and

handed out at reception once again and the minimum waiting period is one week.

Letter pick up can only take place between the hours of 9 and 11am or between 4 and

6pm. Requests can be made all through the day.

8. Anchor change – through recognition of employees who suggested the ideas and

incorporated the process. Eliminate change barriers. Talk about the benefits of the

new system and constantly encourage the employees to give feedback and ideas.

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 Stage gate process for documents preparation

1 2 3

Students Administration Preparation Administration Management

Request staff check for of staff checks the checks for
Documents errors in the documents system and the irregularities
application students file for and signs
after reading
form and attendance, fees document
procedure
documents paid and other
on
attached as inconsistencies
requirement and then delivers
on the well as system
requirements if letters to
request form management for
time permits
signature

Stage gate process for admissions

1 2 3

Application stage Application Gate Admission Stage Admission Gate Offer stage
Students The agent The admissions He passes documents The college mails
Apply for screens initial officer in London after carefully reviewing the offer to the
admission to application based reviews it to the academics student.
agent on training we documents of office. Once they are
have provided conditional offer satisfied they proceed
him with preparing the
conditional offer and
then hands it to the
directors for signature.

101 | P a g e
4.6 Marketing campaign for the state of Goa, India

Aim: To make a Cavendish MBA the first choice for students graduating from all Goan

colleges.

Target students: Graduates and final year students who are looking at an overseas education.

Recruitment workshops: June and November (Twice a year)

Location: Major colleges in Goa

St Xavier‟s College Mapusa

Dempo College of arts, science, commerce

Other colleges in South Goa

Advertising and marketing:

Radio: Radio Mirchi adverts and radio indigo (sponsor a show)

TV: Cavendish show reel on Goa 365 Channel (See DVD in appendix 3; directed,

shot and edited by Richard Cruz.

Press: Newspapers (Navhind Times | O Heraldo)

Fliers and prospectus: To be placed on the till counter of Cafe Coffee Day Mapusa,

Baga, Panaji, Miramar and Margao as well as colleges mentioned above. (see

appendix 4)

Billboard: Cavendish College testimonial in Porvorim

Apparel: T-Shirts (See appendix 2 for images of the T shirt designed by Richard Cruz

102 | P a g e
4.7 Facebook Marketing strategy

Facebook is a social networking site that boasts 250 million active users. With the largest

demographic of 26 to 35 year olds and growing the site is an ideal hotspot for interactive

marketing. Advertising on Facebook has two main pathways

1. Text advert - plain text link

2. Text and Image advert – text and image link

Payment options:

1. Pay by click-(CPC-Cost per click), Where advertisers pay Facebook per click. The

current minimum bid is $0.01 however it is unrealistic that the site would consider an

advert that doesn‟t include a daily budget of at least $5.00 per day. The main problem

with pay by click is that users are on Facebook for social purposes and do not like

being dragged away from the networking experience. Leading them to an external

website may not necessarily be the best strategy. The solution is to lead them to a

Facebook internal page of Cavendish College, or the Cavendish College group where

videos, comments and pictures display the Cavendish experience and should they

want to visit the site, then they have the choice to do so on their own

2. Pay per impression – (CPM-Cost per thousand, where M stands for the Roman

character). This refers to the number of time your ad appears on the side of a page.

Setting a bid would be at a minimum of $5.00 per day. The same applies to external

links as the CPC method).

Groups: Creating a group of Facebook is very straightforward. Once you have the text and

images all that the creator needs to do is manage the wall comments and provide continuous

updates to members. Just like maintaining a website, only much easier. The researcher has

103 | P a g e
already created the Cavendish College group and observed members behaviour, monitored

their comments and gained vital feedback into the importance of informal communication.

Topics range from exam results, to football matches to students academic concerns. Some

internal college staff uses the platform to contact students and give them last minute updates.

The researcher recommends that the Cavendish takes advantage of the website and formally

introduces a page with a link to Facebook on the college website. The group will have three

administrations on the payroll of Cavendish who will maintain the site, update images and

videos and provide students with academic admissions and other information and treat it like

they would a formal enquiry on the college system. The chat function allows you to interact

with the students and answer any of his questions.

Competitions and events: the group administrators will organize virtual competitions i.e.

photography, film making where other students vote through the „like‟ feature and the one

that gets the most „likes‟ wins and is recognized socially on the site as well as given a real

prize. All planned events should also be uploaded on the site. Events should be organized at

least once a month in order to ensure a community feeling and allow the members to keep

logging on to see their pictures and comment thereby creating an interest in the college.

How the information spreads: Every member‟s activity appears in a „newsfeed‟ on a

common „home‟ page which is visible to friends of that member. This includes pictures if he

has uploaded and videos. This recent activity attracts interest from friends to click on his

images and they are then drawn into the Cavendish Facebook experience. Essentially much of

it can be done for free only through networking.

104 | P a g e
4.8 Conclusion

The main conclusion drawn from this research is the relationship that customer relationship

management has with sales. As we are all a part of a giant circuit every action from one part

has a counter effect on the other. Human beings are very complex creatures and at the core of

our complexity lye‟s the element of emotions. Emotions which drive us to make decisions on

a wide range of subjects from what we buy to whom we marry and what we do with the most

limited resource available to us, time!

To understand the importance of value from the relative and absolute perspective and to be

able to create a management system around people is one of the foundations of creating a

business with delighted customers. The research has also drawn upon the vast network of

customers, internal and external who play an important role in the fabric of business

sustainability.

We must recognize the fact that the world is truly getting smaller with the internet and social

online networking tools and that interactive marketing is the next step in reaching new

markets. Websites such as Facebook cannot be ignored and must be used not simply as a

marketing tool but also as a relationship management portal. The postmodernism philosophy

of objective truth and global cultural narrative makes its presence felt through rapidly

changing cultural and social beliefs and perceptions on what to expect from goods and

services.

The researcher also found several weaknesses in the current management system due to the

lack of relationship management strategies which resulted in low staff morale and a high

percentage of unhappy students. He suggested new models of management and marketing

strategies to be introduced into the current management structure.

105 | P a g e
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Main Websites
BBC Chinese students drawn to the UK >http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ed
Nick Mackie ucation/4219026.stm< 7
September 2005 Visited 17th
May 2010
CIA Statistics >https://www.cia.gov/library/
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factbook/< visited: multiple
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ducation/2006/apr/18/
highereducation.internationals
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visited (12th January 2010)
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UKBA Register of tier 4 sponsors (PDF link) Tuesday 18 April 2006

>http://www.ukba.homeoffice
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sors/<
visited (12th January 2010)

109 | P a g e
Appendix

110 | P a g e
Appendix 1: List of BAC quality standard requirements.

Current lease agreement

1.

2. Floor plan of each site being inspected

3. Up-to-date fire risk assessment

4. Up-to-date general risk assessment

5. Records of fire drills for last 12 months

Safety rules applicable to areas of hazards

6.
Completed health and safety posters on display
7.
Certification of first aiders
8.
Incident/accident book
9.
Up-to-date organogram
10.
Minutes of relevant committee or board meetings
11.
Minutes of staff meetings
12.
Detailed CVs for all academic staff, including evidence of academic
13. qualifications

Timetables for all courses offered in the institution

14.
Class registers for each course/programme
15.
Correspondence with students and UKBA
16.
concerning attendance

Up-to-date, signed contracts of employment for senior, academic and non-

17. academic staff

Valid, displayed Employers’ Liability Insurance certificate

18.

Completed student application forms

19.

20. Course descriptions

21. Briefing materials for agents

22. Up-to-date prospectus and marketing material

23. Valid CLA licence

Data protection registration

24.
Student induction packs
25.
Disability policy and strategy
26.

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 Child protection policy
27.
CRB disclosure records
28.

29. Ofsted/CCSCI report on residential accommodation

30. Rules relating to residential accommodation

Advice to home-stay students and providers

31.
Records of home-stay inspections
32.

Whole course/academic year plans (schemes of work)

33.

Completed lesson plans

34.

35. Samples of marked student work

36. Internal quality assurance documentation

Copies of any policies developed by the

37.
institution as a means of quality management

External quality assurance documentation (ISO, IIP, etc.)

38.

Student files with details of registration, enrolment, attendance and

39. qualifications

40. Sample placement tests

Records of student progress

41.
Samples and summaries of any student
42.
feedback questionnaires

Summaries of results/grades awarded for

previous three years for each academic

43.
programme (or from start date, if the course has not been available for that
time)

In the case of degree programmes, agreements with awarding bodies

44.

Documents relating to external moderation

45.
Copies of external examiners’ reports for the previous three years for each
academic
46.
programme (or from start date, if the course has not been available for that
time)

Copies of annual reports to the awarding

47. bodies for the previous three years for each academic programme (or from
start date, if the course has not been available for that time)

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 Copies of any academic reviews carried out by or on behalf of the awarding
48. body

Completed classroom observation forms

49.

50. Staff appraisal procedures and completed documentation

Appendix 2: Promotional T-shirts designed and printed by Rishad D’Cruz

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Appendix 3: Promotional DVD filmed and edited by Rishad D’Cruz

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Appendix 4: Promotional Fliers designed by Rishad D’Cruz

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