final paper on building a vibrant postgraduate student life environment at smu

POSTGRADUATE STUDENT’S LIFE 1

Building a Vibrant Postgraduate Student Life Environment at SMU

Isaac Kyle Ferdaus Ahmad

Singapore Management University

Author’s Note

This paper does not have the desired analytical data to propose the most effective

recommendations. It is advisable that the Office of Professional Postgraduates Programmes

(PPP) invest appropriate resources (time, money, skill) to gather the necessary information and

use this paper as a guide in planning the postgraduate student social calendar.


Building a Vibrant Postgraduate Student Life Environment at SMU

The Postgraduate Professional Programmes (PPP) in SMU has evolved remarkably since its

inception in 2000. Back then, there were just two graduate degree programmes. Now, each of the

six schools in SMU runs its own suite of postgraduates programmes. Currently, a total of 32

postgraduate courses/programmes are available. The students enrolment has had also grown in

leaps and bounds. In 2007, postgraduate student enrolment was merely at 4191. As of 5th

September 2014, the number of enrolment for postgraduate students has jumped to 1,2572.

Surety is the only guarantee that this number will continue to increase in years to come. Each

course or/and program comprises of students from diverse nationalities, languages, beliefs and

religious practices all networking and intertwined in one space. Therefore, SMU needs to

proactively “think holistic, act personal”3 in devising a thorough yet comprehensive marketing

plan to retain its status as the heart of “Asia’s Master Class in Excellence”4. It is also important

that SMU create an environment to improve students experience5 and to allow the coexistence,

growth and expansion of this global village within the campus in the heart of Singapore which

otherwise will face many implications such as conflicts.6

Scope of Work

A holistic education7 approach is adopted during the process of recommendation and evaluation

of suitable activities within SMU environment for a postgraduate student’s life. It encompasses

connection to the community, nature and humanitarian values. The criteria are based on:

1) Ethical & Community Focus

2) Globally Minded Citizenship

3) Dynamic Communications and Presentations

4) Decisive, Action Orientation


Situational Analysis8

This requires reviewing and analysing all the factors affecting the current situation on why the

environment at SMU is not the most conducive and not the most vibrant for postgraduate

students. For a start, SMU can refer to the research paper done by The National Postgraduate

Committee (NPC) on “Student Activities for Postgraduates”9.

• Macro environment

I. Economy

II. Legal

III. Government

IV. Technology

V. Ecological

VI. Sociocultural

VII. Supply chain

• Market Analysis

I. Market definition

II. Market size

III. Market Segmentation

IV. Industry structure and structure groupings

V. Porter 5 forces analysis

VI. Competition and market share

VII. Competitor’s strengths and weakness

VIII. Market trends


• Consumer / Students Analysis

I. Degree of influence towards decision

II. Participants

It is important to identify the postgraduate students at an early stage just after the

student enrolment period. It is important to define who will be included and who

will not as some are doing their programmes on part time or full time basis.

III. Demographics

The demographics of the postgraduate students are predominantly seasoned

working professionals who hold middle to senior level management positions.

Besides that, it is also important to understand that the all postgraduates students

are already wearing multiple hats and assuming various roles in their professional

and personal spheres. Many will feel under dire stress if they have to constantly

juggle between theirs roles in the office, at home and in class. In fact, for most

working professionals, the attention of span are marginally reduced in class10.

Therefore, for any postgraduate to feel at ease, coming to class should be

considered as an extension of either their office or home.

IV. Psychographics

V. Motivations and Expectations

VI. Loyalty segments

• Internal organization

I. SMU resources

It is vital that SMU management team (administration and academic teams) and

the respective schools are in full support and willing to allocate the resources.


a. Financial

b. People

c. Time

d. Skills

II. Objectives

a. Mission statement: To create and disseminate knowledge. SMU aspires to

generate leading-edge research with global impact as well as to produce broad

based creative and entrepreneurial leaders for the knowledge-based economy.

SMU is committed to an interactive, participative and technologically enabled

learning experience. Towards this end, it will provide a rewarding and challenging

environment for faculty, staff and students to kindle and sustain a passion for

excellence.

b. Vision Statement: To be a premier university, internationally recognised for its

world-class research and distinguished teaching.

c. Vision 2025: To be a great and iconic global-city university in Asia that excels in

tackling the world’s complexities and impacting humanity positively and

producing leaders of tomorrow through its transformative education and multi-

disciplinary research to provide insights in solving these problems.

d. Corporate Objectives

e. Financial Objectives

f. Marketing Objectives

g. Long Term Objectives

h. Description of the basic business philosophy


III. Corporate Culture

• Summary of Situational Analysis

I. External Threats

II. External Opportunities

III. Internal Strengths

IV. Internal Weakness

V. Critical success factors in the industry

VI. Sustainable competitive advantage


Marketing Research and Strategies.

• Marketing Research

A systematic approach on collecting, documenting and analysing of qualitative and

quantitative data about the issue relating to the current student life environment for

postgraduates at SMU. The goal is to identify and access how changing elements of the

7C of the marketing mix for marketing services impacts postgraduate students’

behaviours in participation and involvement.

I. Information requirement: Data can be obtained through survey conducted during

enrolment period. Such data would include basic profiles data such as age,

occupation, course of study/school, area of interests, commitment of resources

(time, money, skill) and level of involvement.

II. Research Methodology Approach

a. Qualitative Marketing Research

b. Quantitative Marketing Research

III. Research results: The research results will help to determine the various type of

activities and given priorities needed that will be included in the postgraduate

student’s social calendar. It result can be tabulated as an overall data for SMU or

segmented into various schools.

• Marketing Strategy

With the marketing research findings, suitable marketing strategy(s) need to be devise so

that activities that are finalised in the social calendar will have a full participation rate or

a designated allowable joining number. It is also advisable that this social calendar is

released concurrently with the academic calendar. It is also important to adopt the most


suitable campaign and communication strategies to gain the buy-in, involvement and

engagement from postgraduate students for the organised social activities.11 The two

calendars should fit in perfectly so that no activities overlapped. The entire marketing

campaign in getting participation should also be planned in advance. Methodologies in

planning a proper campaign to broadcast the various activities should have the following

factors in consideration.

I. Product Unique Selling Proposition

II. Segmented Marketing Action

III. Price

IV. Promotion

V. Distribution


Implementation.

• Students requirements

I. Assign Responsibilities

It is important to tap on the current activities already planned in SMU university

wide events calendar. Postgraduate students should be encouraged to actively

participate in Commencement (July), Convocation (August), SMU Peace Day

(September) and Patron’s Day (January). Besides that, to celebrate the diversity of

the background among the postgraduate students, it is important to demonstrate

inclusivity by celebrating or acknowledging the presence of these nationalities.

One way is to celebrate the national days of the countries. This could be

encouraging the postgraduate students to wear their national costumes on that

specific day and also send out communications with information about that

specific country (national flag, population, primary source of economy, favourite

local foods and places to visit).

II. Give Incentives

On the professional development front, organise monthly radio talk shows or

lecture series via webinar or skypes. These sessions will showcase international

and local Crème de la crème speakers such as Management Gurus, Top 20/50/100

CEOs, Celebrities, Politicians or Religious leaders. This will make the SMU

Postgraduate Professional Programs (PPP) an exclusive by invite only.

III. Training

New proposals include organising a structured and combined all graduate schools

Get Together Team Building (GTB) Camp or Volunteering Opportunity with a


CSR component embedded towards contributing and giving back to the

community. This could be a Charity Gala Dinner or Charity Ball or Charity Walk-

a-ton. Activities can be tailored depending on available capacity and resources of

the incumbent cohorts of postgraduate students.

All these tactics will form an integral part of the overall strategic planning in improving

the overall postgraduate student’s experience. There should be ample opportunities for

postgraduate students to organise activities for other postgraduate students. One of which

is setting up a Postgraduate Committee/ Society. Postgraduate Society will provide a

good training ground for the postgraduate students to apply the academic knowledge

learn during the programme and simultaneously hone their leadership skills in the

business environments.

Closer to home, the National University of Singapore (NUS) has the NUS Graduate

Students’ Society (GSS) which caters to the postgraduate needs for 29 years. Every year

GSS organizes about 30 events with active participations of over 3,000 postgraduate

students.12 Some of the activities organised include overseas trip, sports carnival and

movie nights. The aim of these activities is to take stress away from studying.

At Imperial College London, postgraduate students are offered a suite of professional

development programmes. The Postgraduate Development Unit (PDU) ensures that the

programmes are tailored to the needs of the students and also allowing them to learn new

skills for their future needs.13 It is important to provide other soft skills trainings so that

the postgraduate student’s life can be more enriching.

In University of Exeter, the Postgraduate Society is dedicated to represent postgraduate

students’ social and recreational needs14. This will allow postgraduate students from


different schools to network, interact and extend their social circle. One of the highlights

of the activities in the calendar is The Postgraduate Summer Ball.

Similarly in University of Western Australia (UWA), the Postgraduate Students

Association (PSA) is the representative body for postgraduate students at UWA. It runs

events and a weekly opt-in newsletter.15 PSA organises social activities such as informal

Connect on the first Thursday of every month, Board games sessions and Quiz Night.

• Financial requirements

Adequate budget must be allocated for successful program implementation

• Management Information System requirements

• Develop Month-by-month agenda

I. Gantt chart using PERT

II. Critical path analysis systems

• Monitor Results and benchmarks

• Adjustment of campaign mechanism

• Availability of Emergencies / Contingencies Plans

Financial Summary / Budget.

• Assumptions

• Pro-forma monthly income statement

• Cost Volume Profit /Contribution Margin Analysis

• Breakeven analysis

• Monte Carlo method

• Internet Strategic Intelligence


Scenarios.

• Prediction of future scenarios

• Plan of action for each scenario

Controls.

• Performance Indicator

• Provide feedback mechanism

Measurement of progress.

The success of the social activities are dependent on the satisfaction of participants. It is

therefore important to perform a simple yet impactful survey to capture the response and

feedback prior to joining and post activity. These data will determine and impact future

planning of the social calendar and the continuity cycle of the activities. It is also

important that the calendar offers a balanced of social and professional development

opportunities.

Conclusion.

The life of a postgraduate student is the current socio-economical environment is very

much different from the one 10 or 15 years ago. A postgraduate student must think what

will be useful for him or her beyond the course of programme itself. Therefore, for a

reputable university like SMU, it must prepare its postgraduate students to all tackle and

handle all situations especially in a robust and inter-cultural environment. The entire end

to end postgraduate student’s experience journey should generate a return of investments

for the amount of dollar spent in the programme. Every touch-points within the

University creates the opportunity to leave a lasting impression. Therefore, it is important

that during any interaction between the postgraduate students and the University; either


via academic or social calendar activities, the University should constantly portray an

image that it talks about and uphold. Social activities should not be used to cushion off

and defray bad experience. That is the hard truth about customer experience that every

business needs to understand.16


References

1 http://www2.smu.edu.sg/about_smu/pdf/Statistical_Highlights_2007.pdf 2 http://www.smu.edu.sg/sites/default/files/smu/statistical_highlights_20140905.pdf 3 http://www.thinkholisticactpersonal.com/en/ 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWOWgcoSyxI 5 http://www.improvingthestudentexperience.com/why-improve-student-experience/ 6 http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/61/understanding-the-implications-of-a-global-

village 7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holistic_education 8 http://www.usfca.edu/fac_staff/weihrichh/docs/tows.pdf 9http://www.npc.org.uk/postgraduatefactsandissues/postgraduatepublications/leftbehindst

udentactivitiesforpostgraduates2006.pdf 10 http://www.academia.edu/8749503/Attention_Span_in_Adults 11 http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/pageassets/campaigns/highereducation/student-

engagement/toolkit/enhancingstudentengagement/avenues/EngagingPostgrads_lr-spreads.pdf

12 http://www.nusgss.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=101 13 https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/pg/graduate-school/professional-skills/ 14 http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/life/pgsoc/ 15 http://www.psa.guild.uwa.edu.au/ 16 https://hbr.org/2013/09/the-truth-about-customer-experience

final paper on building a vibrant postgraduate student life environment at smu

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