Strategic Planning Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Strategic Planning - Assignment Example Irish colleges have changed their age old stance of focusing only on domestic students. Globalization of educational system has forced Irish colleges to think beyond domestic boundaries in order to attract international students. Higher educational system of Ireland has already experienced a boom due to rapid internationalization during the period of 1995 to 2007, which is known as ‘Celtic Tiger years’. In that era, China was an important source for student immigration in Irish colleges but supply of international student has reduced after the recession which has painstakingly reduced industrial output of Irish economy. As a result of industrial slowdown in Ireland, private parties have reduced higher education funding for universities and colleges (ICEF Monitor, 2012). In such context, Irish government has taken initiative known as â€Å"Education in Ireland† in order to market the existing education programme in Irish universities and colleges in international m arkets such as Argentina, Brazil, China, India, USA etc. Irish Government has planned to implement recommendations made by Hunt Report (2011) in order to attract international students... Hence, due to involvement of customer perception variables, Irish colleges need to build their brand among international students in order to convince them that Irish colleges are capable of delivering quality education. The researcher in the study is head of Strategic Planning Division of Irish owned and managed college and board of the college has asked the researcher to prepare strategic recommendation for the college on how to increase its penetration in Argentine educational sector and simultaneously increase its Argentine student base. Hence, following sections of the study will try to throw some light on issues like macro environmental analysis of Argentina, analysis of educational sector of Argentina, challenges regarding cultural and managerial practices in both countries, identifying strategic options etc. Part 1- Research Macro-environment To understand a country, one must take a step forward to analyze macro-environment of the country; hence the researcher will analyze ma cro-environment of Argentina in terms of PESTLE analysis. Political Argentina can be called as pariah state due to its unstable political environment which is complemented with nepotism, corruption and cronyism. Gabriel Torres (who is senior analyst in Moody's) has stated that, â€Å"Argentina's inability to solve its political differences is a problem, contentious politics make the country less able to cope with the impact of economic shocks† (Mercopress, 2009). Although political instability in the country has hampered the economic growth in the country but Argentine government has taken initiatives during 1990s to reform the educational sector in order to increase privatization and internationalization of higher education sector. Educational reform