1. TITLE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH: THE ROLE OF UK UNIVERSITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2.

BACKGROUND The number of students who prefers to do their higher studies increases nowadays as per the Higher Education Statistics Agency reports. The universities also employ people along with providing higher education. Students from all over the world play an important role in gaining their higher studies in UK. The overall number of students who choose UK to perform their higher education is 318,000 during the year 2004-2005. The financial value has been evaluated to 3.87 billion (Binsardi and Ekwulugo, 2003). As of the result of this the University fees as well as the residential charges is also found to be increased. Many degree holders after completion of their studies look for jobs in UK. This becomes an advantage for the country since it increases the number of skilled and talented workers to flow into the country. These all causes a positive impact on UK Universities in 2001. The diversity of students from the worldwide countries helps the people to understand about various cultures, to build social networks among students etc. which in turn lead to growth and development of the country (Ketchen et al, 2004). Marketing methodology is used in order to make aware of the world wide students about the importance of higher education and employment opportunities in UK is carried out with the support of several educational agencies (Goddard, 2001). 3. LITERATURE REVIEW: 3.1 MARKETING CONCEPT IN HIGHER EDUCATION The method of analyzing as well as observing the allotment of students to various courses is a responsible job. The counselling people have a good knowledge about the courses and the total fees amount charged for each courses. The responsible person should be capable of providing appropriate guidelines to the students at any time in a correct way. The institutions also focus on upgrading the courses according to the newly emerging fields and opportunities in order to upgrade the skills and level of education of students (Cullen et al, 2003). These involve the strategy of choosing higher and quality level of education. The various factors that constitute in the market research analysis are the location, cost of education, business policies and developmental strategies. By examining these factors the role of UK

Universities in serving the students needs in the field of International Education can be determined. 3.2 THE ROLE OF RELEVANT PRODUCT IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION The students have large number of choices for choosing the field of education and employment nowadays. Educational field is blooming day by day with different new courses and its opportunities. According to Hopkins (2000) academic institution offers courses in order to improve the talent of students in the field which is connected to their education. The increase in the number of dedicated workers to the University helps to run the business in a more efficient way (Rowley, 2000). The decision making activity of the University related to students course cycle of education and upgrading the skills of students some times get obstructed by the unplanned activity and unproductive actions of government in the field of education. The student offer courses in the order of features categorized into benefit oriented expectations, environmental factors of Academic campus and Students Economic needs. According to first category, most of the students prefer the courses with the aim of achieving a bright future by securing job in big companies. The achieving a good job in a top company increases the status of an individual in the society. This is the main reason behind the student options of choosing the courses for higher studies in UK Universities (Line, 2003). So the students are found to be more careful in selecting the courses. The process is called as placement assistance oriented choice of course selection by the students. The second level feature explains that the role of University in creating a good environment as well as to introduce extra curricular activities inside the campus like sports, library, or other leisure time activities etc. The activity like sports, library etc should be introduced in the campus. The Campus supposed to have a good atmosphere and study environment which keep the mind of the students fresh all the time. The library to improve the theoretical and practical knowledge should also preferred by the students in the University campus (Binsardi and Ekwulugo, 2003). Nowadays students are facing economic crisis in day to day life since they are staying far away from parents. This comes under third level feature for offering the courses. And also sometimes parents also show a very low interest in spending large amount of money for the children education which may lead to discontinue of studies of the students.

So in order to avoid such situations in their educational life students always prefer to select those type of Academic institutions which provides financial as well as placement assistance. Institutions are supposed to provide the facility of being a promise membership of library during the period of course. Thus such institutions play a key role in satisfying the needs of students (Ivy, 2001). The Academic institution should aim to achieve those goals in order to meet the expectation of students to the utmost level. The need of high quality education for students in the International Universities is also explained by certain principles by different authors. 4. RESEARCH QUESTION: The main aim of the research is to find out the features that attract the world wide students to choose UK University for higher education. The research focus on marketing factors of Universities located in UK. The objective of the research is to evaluate the proportion of students who opts UK University for higher studies in the International Market. The different research questions supposed to be asked during the research are: 1. Why the students choose UK universities to do their higher studies? 2. What are the main strategies which attract more overseas students into UK universities? 5. IMPORTANCE The research helps to analyse the role and performance of UK Universities in offering higher education in the International market. The research can be used to recommend the UK Universities to provide the students with high quality level of education and employment opportunities. The research has the detailed information which the Universities can upgrade their functionalities to meet the expectation of students from different parts of the world. 6. DETAILED PROPOSED METHODOLOGY The research uses the phenomenological approach to concentrate on the analysis of the reliability of data obtained from the students and other educational agencies to make it more accurate. The research uses the data collected from the students in UK universities and some top educational consultants in India. The primary data collection method of conducting surveys

is done in order to gather qualitative and quantitative type of information needed for the research. The qualitative method of analysis is done by conducting interviews and asking question to the students in the University. This information also used to compute the quantitative data needed for the research The inductive approach is used for the research. The inductive approach uses the existing data from the reports as well as the data collected from the students and other agencies by means of questionnaires and surveys to obtain a most perfect result. 7. TIMETABLE OF KEY ACTIVITIES TASK I NAME D Weeks Weeks Weeks Weeks Weeks 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Analysis the 1 Concept marketing in higher education 2 Literature review preparations 3 Data collection 4 Preparation of interviews and analysis 5 Report Preparation data 2w 2w 4w 1w 1w STAR T EN D DURAT OCT ION 2010 NOV 2010 DEC 2010 JAN 2011 FEB 2011

8. RESOURCES

The primary data needed for the research is collected from the students in the UK Universities and some other educational consultancies. This is done by conducting surveys from the above mentioned people. 9. EVALUATION The research aims to determine the marketing factors of Universities located in UK and to analyze the role of UK Universities in providing high quality education to students from all over the world. The research uses the primary method of collecting data from students and educational agencies. The quantitative representation of data along with the qualitative analysis is also mentioned in the research to compute the performance of Universities. The inductive approach analyzes the research and perfect result is obtained.

REFERENCES 1. Binsardi, A. and Ekwulugo, F., (2003)., "International marketing of British education: research on the students perception and the UK market penetration", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 21, Iss.5, pp.318 327. 2. 3. Line, M. B., (2003)., "UK Higher Education Research Yearbook", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 59, Iss. 6, pp.739 742. Ivy, J., (2001)., "Higher education institution image: acorrespondence analysis approach", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 15, Iss. 6, pp.276 282. 4. Cullen, J., Joyce, J., Hassall, T. and Broadbent, M., (2003)., "Quality in higher education: from monitoring to management", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp.5 14.
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Ketchen, D. and Bergh, D., (2007)., Research Methodology in Strategy and Management. Vol.4, p-451, UK: JAI Press Inc. Goddard, W. and Melville, S., (2001)., Research Methodology: An Introduction. 2nd edn., USA: Juta and Co. Ltd. Rowley, J., (2000)., "Is higher education ready for knowledge management?", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 14, Iss. 7, pp.325 333. Hopkins, W.G.,(2000)., Quantitative Research Design Department of Physiology and School of Physical Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand , vol. 4, no. 1.

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