ENBIS: European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics

Can Research Processes be Improved: An attempt at making graduate education more effective (and more efficient)

23 September 2009, 10:05 – 10:25

Abstract

Submitted by

Irena Ograjenšek

Authors

S.Y.Coleman, R.S. Kenett and I. Ograjensek

Affiliation

Newcastle University

Abstract

It has long been the case that companies and businesses need to take care of their customers to survive. Increasingly institutions also need to look after their customers to keep hold of their market share. In today’s increasingly globalised educational market, University and Tertiary Level Education Systems have to operate under similar forces. They need to attract and retain qualified students and achieve competitive performance targets in research and publications. In order to become more effective they need to better understand and cater for customer needs and expectations.
Customer Relations Management (CRM) involves listening to the voice of the customer and responding quickly and comprehensibly to their needs. Customer knowledge is increasingly being used to focus promotions and marketing campaigns, develop new products and services, and thereby improve competitive position and profitability.
In this work we apply CRM principles to graduate education systems. The customers there mainly consist of graduate students who are enrolled for a masters or doctoral program. Such programs combine courses with research at various levels of complexity. We also draw the distinction between graduate degree programs and more general life-long learning which is also a major activity for most Universities. The latter is purely business oriented and is more aware of the issues of CRM. This awareness can be utilised and adapted to graduate degree programs.
The presentation will review work in the area and present findings of our research. We will draw conclusions indicating why Universities should pay attention to CRM. We will also make methodological recommendations on how Universities can improve their CRM.

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