Introduction
Victory international university is an upcoming university that will be located in the Dubai academic city. The university will serve the residents of UAE and other international students from all over the world. It is expected that the university will start operations from the year 2013 onwards.
This strategic plan 2013-2018, details the auspicious plan developed to enable the constructions, inception and full operation of the university (David, 1998).
This plan was initiated in January 2013 amid the changing environment in the education sector where more and more institutions are competing to increase the student intake and offer the best education services. The strategic plan was developed so that the main focus areas could be identified and resources mobilized so as to ensure the overall success and growth of the university in terms of student’s intake, quality of education and the income generated (Gerry & Kevan, 2002).
The envisaged plan will create a suitable environment for students so as to produce highly trained professional for the local and international market. This strategic plan provides solutions to five questions. What is our current position? Where do we want to reach in five years?, What resources do we have?, What are our challenges?, how do we attain our goals?, how do we evaluate what we have achieved?(Vijay & Chris, 2005).
University mission statement
Victory university mission statement is: Victory University endeavors to become an international leaning institution recognized for academic, training and research excellence and will provide the national and international community with highly trained professionals committed to advancing knowledge and skills to the local community.
University core values
The core values of Victory University are:
- Conduct extensive research so as to generate new knowledge
- Apply the new and existing knowledge to improve the society
- Recruit, train and empower all the workers within the university
- Provide high quality education and practical training to all the students
- Create an environment suitable for learning, research and academic excellence for students
- Uphold high standards, morals, ethics and professionalism when training students and in the management of the institution
- Treat all stakeholders with dignity and respect
- Engage the local and international community in order to promote cross cultural and international understanding as well as encourage collaborative research
University vision statement
To become a globally recognized university that:
- Offers academic excellence as embodied by the students and employees satisfaction as well as the student’s long term success in the careers of their choice.
- Promote research and innovations among the students and employees
Key objectives and goals
The main objectives and goals are:
- To construct all the required buildings and install equipments and facilities necessary to start the university
- To employ highly trained teaching staff and motivate them through competitive remunerations, continuous training, creating a conducive work environment among other incentives
- To enroll local and international students as well as ensure that the student population increases by 10% per annum.
- Promote good leadership and organizational culture in the university
- To solicit funds for research work and encourage research in the institution
Strategy plan
Construction of Buildings and Other Facilities
The first strategic aspiration will be to construct all the buildings within the university. This will be done within a period of one year. To ensure that the process is successful, the following main sub activities will be carried out:
- Preparation of the construction project plan including the financial, communications, schedule, risk, issues, human resource and cost management plans that outline all the task to be carried out within the project
- Initiate and execute the construction the project as per the project plan
- Continually assess and evaluate the project against the set timelines and cost
- Finish and commission the project
Employ High Trained Staff Members
For the university to operate effectively there is need to hire, train and motivate the teaching and non teaching employees so as to retain them. The main tasks to be carried out include:
Key actions
- Recruit high trained and motivated staff members with god experience in all the departments
- Offer salaries and wages that are higher than the local universities so as to attract and retain employees
- Train all the employee continually
- Issue performance contract so as to ensure all employees achieve their set target
- Forster healthy relationship between the employee and the management
- Create a local union where all employees’ problems and issues can be raised and solved
Measures
The following measures will be used to evaluate performance
- Conduct an employee turnover check so as to compare the employees leaving the institution within a given period of time
- Issue questionnaires to employee to assess their motivation and their complains
- Check the number of employees be trained per year
To Enroll Local and International Students
The students are crucial to success of the organization. The following will be done to encourage a high student enrollment:
- Advertise the university in the print, televisions and through the internet
- Offer lower fees to students. The fees will be set after checking the rates offered by other universities
- Ensure that students amenities are of high quality so as to ensure that student participate in extracurricular activities and get a good experience
- Offer high quality learning environment that provides the students with all facilities so as to create an intellectually competitive environment
- Provide the requisite books and ensure that students have online access to the world renowned journals and publications
- Create a platform where lecturers, students and the management can interact via the internet
- Indentify students who perform exceptionally and reward them
Key measures
- Issue students with questionnaire where they can evaluate the university facilities and other features
- Check the annual increase in student population
Promote Good Leadership and Organizational Culture
The institution should promote good leadership and management style so as to ensure satisfaction of the workers and students. The main activities to be done include:
- Hire high qualified and skilled management staff
- Motivate all the management staff through offering incentives and competitive salaries
- Ensure that management understands the leadership expectations
- Encourage teamwork among the management and employees
- Ensure a good corporate culture is inculcated in the university
To Promote Research and Development
Research is a core area in the advancement of any learning institution. The strategies that will be used to improve this initiative include
- Solicit for money from international donors
- Encourage students to innovate and do research
- Hold at least five exhibitions and trade fair within the university where the students, businessmen, investors and other members can interact and share ideas
- Create links with the local business and industries and encourage student to go for internship programs
- Collaborate with other institutions of higher learning
Key measure
This will be evaluated by checking the number of research and innovations generated per year.
Competitive advantages and methods of achieving it
Victory international university is an upcoming university. It is expected that the university will face high competition from the existing universities in Dubai as well as internationally (John, 2004). The campus must develop a competitive edge against their competitors (Thomson et al. 2010). The following activities will be carried out:
- Lower the fees and other charges levied to the students as compared to the other universities
- Aggressive marketing of the university both locally and abroad to ensure students become aware of the it
- Hold trade fairs and exhibitions. This should start after the second year of operations and it will market the products developed by the university
- Offer a wide range of programs
- Offering quality training, educations and other amenities
- Start setting up campuses in other regions of the country and internationally so as to increase the student population
Conclusion
This work details the development of a strategic plan for the establishment of victory international university. The plan outlines the major strategies to be taken by the university to start and grow to a world class university recognized locally and internationally. To gain a competitive edge against the other universities, research, low fees rates, offering quality services, aggressive marketing and setting up campuses will enable the university to attract and retain more students.
References
David, A.(1998). Developing Business Strategies, 5th edition. New York: Wiley Gerry, J & Kevan, S.(2002). Exploring Corporate Strategy (6th Edition). London: Prentice hall.
John M. B. (2004). Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, 3rd Edition: New York: Jossey-Bass.
Thomson, A., Peteraf, M. A., Gamble, J. E.& Strickland, A. (2011). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases. New York: McGraw-hill.
Vijay, G. & Chris, T.(2005).Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution. Harvard: Harvard Business Review Press.