Reach out to Your Students

Reach Out to Your Students:

A Relationship Marketing Approach

Dr. Dinesh K. Gupta

Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, India

Abstract

In present day knowledge society, education and learning is going to play a dominant role. But, there have been tremendous changes in education and learning arena, viz. learning needs are expanding, learner groups are multiplying, new forms of knowledge are emerging, and new resources are being placed into the service of education. More and more institutions will deliver distance learning and operate in competitive mass niche markets. It will also result into a change of relationship between the education providers and the seekers of knowledge and expanding institutions beyond mere buildings as temple of learning. The processes of education are getting continuously adjusted to these developments and educational institutions are experiencing major changes in their structures and functions as well as the ways in which they function.

This paper sets against the backdrop of the emerging education, scenario in the knowledge era and finds out how learners of an Open University system prefer focus of the university’s programmes and policies. It argues that the relationship view of marketing can help distance-learning institutions in maintaining their customer base and also turning them into advocators by creating a sustainable relationship with them. It presents results of the short study of the students of VMOU (gold medallists and doctoral) of the last five years and critically analyses their responses from relationship marketing perspectives.

The Knowledge Society

It was in the beginning of 1990s, that new phase of India's development strategy took place. Since then there has been a vast changes in India's social, economical, technological and educational environment. We are marching towards the knowledge society in which knowledge has always been the prime mover of prosperity and power.

An analysis of the knowledge era would reveal certain distinctive features (1):

-Democratization of knowledge

-Emphasis on the use of intellectual resources

-The knowledge component is increasing in all sectors of the economy

-Reduction of the time gape between the generation of ideas and implementation of ideas

-Every one is knowledge worker

-Easier access to knowledge

-Emphasis on constantly learning new things, and unlearnt old processes.

Thus, responding to the learning needs of the knowledge society, there have been changes in the educational scenario of the country.

Changing Educational Scenario

Considering the need for building up of knowledge society, the Government of India established National Knowledge Commission ( , about to years ago to look into existing institutions and infrastructures and to offer recommendations to take India into 21st century with particular focus on knowledge as key driver for various developmental activities. The Commission has submitted ‘Report to the Nation’ to the Prime Minister. The recommendations relating to access to education in general and higher education in particular are of much significance for the overall revamping of higher education in the country. There is very little accountability; openness, transparency, freedom and flexibility exist in the present system. The key recommendations relate to institutional changes, organizational restructuring, re-thinking of the ways we have been doing things a bureaucratic system where controls are essential in the centralized systems.

In the speech by Smt. Pratibha Patil, on her assumption of office as President of India on 25th July 2007, emphasized ‘ I am deeply committed to the cause of education and would like to see every person, man and woman, boy and girl, be touched by the light of modern education.’

Addressing to the nation on 15th August 2007, on the eve of Independence Day, the Prime Minister focused that ‘for every one of our people to benefit from new employment opportunities being created across the economy, we must ensure that every India is educated and skilled. No nation can progress unless its people are educated. He also emphasized that ‘we should seek not just functional literacy, but good quality education- Education, i.e. Affordable, Accessible, and Equitable- and Available to every Boy and Girl who seeks to study’ He further wished ‘it is my fervent desire that India become a fully educated, modern, progressive nation.’

This clearly indicates the priorities of the nation towards education. These priorities clearly envisage ‘Education for All’ and ‘Education through Life’ as primary focus of work.

When we talk of democratization of knowledge, knowledge cannot be the prerogative of a few; everyone in the society must have access to knowledge and become a knowledge worker. As such "education for all" is the new mantra for empowering people. The United Nations has declared Education Decade (2005-2014) to meet out this objective at the international level. ‘Education for all’ an ideology propounded by the government is well respected and widely practiced in our country. Special efforts are being put into educating women, socially backward class, and people residing in remote and rural areas. For those who have missed the opportunity, open learning has come forward to meet their aspirations. By providing education to all we enhance the literacy, employability, and productivity of our people (2).

We are marching towards knowledge society, in which a convention to regard formal school years as ‘once-in-a-lifetime experience’. The shelf –life of the acquired knowledge is getting shorter and shorter (3). Changes in every field of work are so fast that one-shoot-philosophy of education is no more tenable. In present day environment, every individual must be ready to integrate ‘working’ with the ‘learning’ and willing to update his knowledge to retain relevant in the fast changing environment. The ODL has proved to be a powerful instrument to achieve such objectives.

As of now about 20 lac students and representing about 25% of an adult population currently in higher education in India are studying in the distant mode through more than hundred dual-mode institutions and 12 open universities and a national open university. The ODL system has been given larger targets to be met in the 11th five-year plan (4). But newer developments in higher education have witnessed many changes. ‘Today, we are witnessing to a situation in which this instrument of change itself is changing; education is going through a process of complete transformation, which, in many ways, is fundamental in nature. Learning needs are expanding, learner groups are multiplying, new forms of knowledge are emerging, and new resources are being pressed into the service of education. The processes of education are getting continuously adjusted to these developments and educational institutions are experiencing major changes in their structures and functions as well as the ways in which they function’ (5). The ODL technologies are significantly contributing for the free flow of education within the country and across the boarder.

Thus, the higher education institutions are confronting with the following situations:

-Newer learning strategies, technologies are available for making learning flexible, tailor-made and learner-centered.

-Newer groups of learners, learners can be grouped on many bases like age, sex, income, educational, social background, motivating factors, and learning needs.

-Internationalization of education, educational institutions are opening their campuses in foreign countries, franchising of courses and collaborations and partnerships in other forms are in rise, and also student population going abroad is increasing.

-Self-sustaining policies, there is pressure on higher education institutions to become self-sustained. Policies like self-finance schemes, mobilizations of resources are on the more.

-Growing competition, business houses are entering into the higher education sector; private-own universities are coming up and these compete with public sector universities and institutions in higher education. Competition is growing even among public-owned institutions in order to attract more learners and get larger share in the education market.

-Professional management approaches, there is emphasis on adopting professional approach in managing the institutions on the lines of commercial organizations.

Thus, it is no consensus that changes in education policies; demographic trends and some other factors push institutions in higher education to be managed almost like business. The famous Management thinker of our time Peter F. Druker believes that ‘every organization, whether a business or not, has a theory of business.

Marketing of Higher and Distance Education

Managers of higher education institutions have been skeptical about marketing their institutions; their programmes and services even when marketing exist in their work. The creation of PR, Marketing and Communications Network at the Association of Commonwealth Universities ( is a significant development to bring out marketing in higher education. The ACU’s PR, Marketing and Communications Network aims to provide one mechanism to achieve by bringing together professionals in the field and providing a practical channel through which members can exchange experiences, share good practice and keep abreast of current thinking. The Network was official launched in 2003 and has so far generated a great deal of interest.

ODL is considered as quasi-industry and has sufficient scope to look at the decisions, operations, offers and services from marketing lenses. The following are some examples, which are common in distance education institutions:

-There is growing emphasis on number of learners in ODL institutions or ODL system in any country. There are many success stories of mega universities and now gaga universities on the basis of number of learners they have enrolled. Talking of an educational institution in terms of number of learners indicate mercantile approach. Of course, it indicates success of an institution and which is used to attract new learners. Is it not simplistic marketing?

-There are indications that the market share of distance learner is increasing everywhere, example distance education has a share of 25% of the total learner population of the country and it is envisaged to enhance it to 40% in the next three years. Does not it clearly speak marketing language?

-ODL institutions strive to define their objective to target the learner population, e.g. a university focus on the in-service persons; another focuses on the adult learners, and so forth. Does not realization of the objectives involve marketing efforts?

-ODL institutions are concerned with greater number of dropouts. Perhaps there institutions have not been effective to help learners to achieve desired level of marketing action to some extent.

-ODL institutions are concerned about their corporate image, having their logo, statement of purpose, and are involved in mass advertising, campaign, etc. Are not these parts of marketing?

-ODL institutions charge certain price from the learner for each service, course, and credit offered to the learner. Does not pricing involve marketing action?

With these example, one can easily recognize that marketing is a tool for ODL institutions that is useful to:

-Compare what the institution is actually doing and trying to achieve.

-Identify challenges and devise plan that will help the institution fulfilling its objectives.

-Attract learners to distance learning institutions, programmes and services.

-Identify learners’ needs and meet out these needs and demands satisfactorily through offers and services.

-Making appropriate decision about the design and development of the product/service, delivery mechanism, communication, pricing, etc.

But, marketing is more than a tool; it is a philosophy. In ODL system learners are the customers. Organizational mission, objectives and goal must speak of the customer focus and it must be guiding principle for all activities, processes and outcomes. Organizational culture must be tuned to meet out the learners’ needs exceptionally.

ODL system is business from of education, which involves contributions from more than one divisions of the institution to serve the learners. An integration of the internal operations may be useful for the effective delivery of services. Work of one department may affect the performance of the other departments, e.g. the distribution of the study material by the Material Distribution department may not be possible unless the list of students admitted is supplied by the admission unit. Hence, each department must meet out the demand of others considering that everyone is customer of the other division and put internal marketing into operation in the whole institution. Even suppliers, technological solution providers, printing houses, course planners, writers, counselors, and others who are involved in the service development and delivery must be part of the marketing programme.

Bringing out such culture requires attitudinal changes among all people working in such institutions, because people are the biggest marketing resource in any organization, through word-of-mouth, they market:

-The open and distance education system;

-The institution they serve;

-The programmes, facilities and services on offer; and

-The innumerable interactions and experiences, knowingly or unknowingly.

These interactions and experiences a learner gets during his/her study of the ODL institution. Many a time the learner compares his/her experiences with other educational institutions and also with other business operations. Not only interactions with people but also services with the physical facilities he/ she uses make mark on the experiences. Organizational policies, rules, regulations also must be supporting to the learner. Accumulated experiences create an impression of the institution, programmes and services. Even study material, website, educational video, face-to-face counseling must communicate the message effectively in order to establish fruitful interactions with the learner. The existing learners share such experiences in the peer-group on the basis of which future decisions for opting of institution and programmes are made for their selves and potential learners. As learners have multiple educational needs; to meet out such needs they acquire educational qualifications one after the other. The University should have sufficient programmes on offer to meet out such needs. A continuous review of the programmes/ services vis-à-vis learners need is imperative to meet out the needs of learners. More so,, learners in the ODL system are mature, highly motivated, many of them are influential at their work place, home or in the society, their experiences can be capitalized to attract more learners to the ODL system.

Thus, marketing in ODL institutions has greater scope; it is not limited to some strategic actions or some techniques centered to product, promotion, place and price. Rather, it requires everyone’s involvement, not only to reach out to learners, but also to build strong relationship with them based on understanding of their needs, and meet out these needs exceptionally.

The VMOU Case

Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University (VMOU),Kota, formerly known, as Kota Open University (KOU), established in 1987, is one of the thirteen open universities exist in the India. It aims at spreading knowledge and education in the state of Rajasthan based on distance learning philosophy and techniques and to contribute for better life of the citizen of the state. It’s a state run university established by an Act passed in the State Legislative Assembly. In all, during the year 2006, 20732 learners were registered in 38 programmes. It has diverse base of learners, male and female, young, old-gale and adults, employed and unemployed, people having different vocations, housewives, rural and urban and so forth. The present Vice-Chancellor joined the university in October 2006 and emphasized the need for its greater acceptability in the society. He set his vision ‘My dream is to make this University, premier institutions of higher education within the state and premier institution of distance education in the country’. He also projected to double the admission figure within a year. The admission process is on and it is believed that this figure will be achieved.

To this end, the University has started 37 new programmes of various levels, viz. Certificate, Diploma, Post-graduate Diploma, Post-graduate, and M.Phil. Programmes in 2007. Many more initiatives are under way to popularize the University; employing technologies in administration and delivery of courses through more dynamic website which is under construction; and start of University Newsletter ‘MEERA: Open & Distance Learning Newsletter’ from January 2007 is another measure.

The newsletter aims at:

-Establishing communication with the government, fund-providers, policy planners, distance education institutions and advocators of distance education;

-Informing community at large about on-going and future projects and programmes of the University; and

-Contributing to popularize open and distance education philosophy and technologies thorough sharing of experiences and expertise.

The newsletter came out with celebrations; in the inaugural issue a message was written by the then Governor of Rajasthan (now the President of India). It had interviews with the Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU (the national Open University and the Vice-Chancellor of VMOU. Sir John Daniel, President of the Commonwealth of Learning, released the newsletter during a Press conference on 8th January 2007, which was widely distributed during the third convocation two days later.