WEEK 8

1. Make a list of competitors for Islington College

2. Develop a Porter’s 5 Forces Model for Islington College

3. To which strategic group might Islington College belong?

Can you map the group?

1.

      Islington College is the first college of Nepal to offer an international degree in Information Technology and Business Administration.  It offers degree from London Metropolitan University which is one of the famous universities in London .There is a stiff competition in the market for Islington College, there are colleges which offers contemporary courses and provide international degree. Some of the competitor colleges are:

Institutions that offer International Degrees:

ü  Softwarica College

ü   Lincoln College

ü  International School of Management and Technology

ü  Silver Mountain College

ü   Kings College

ü  London College of Business and Computing

ü  Nova International College

ü  The British College

Colleges offering Nepal education board degrees:

• ACE College of management
• White House College
•  Apex College
• Kathmandu college of management
• College of Software Engineering
•  Global College of Management
•  Himalaya College
•  Kantipur City College

FIVE FORCES MODEL OF ISLINGTON COLLEGE 

       Competitive Rivalry:

      Competitive rivalry has an impact on any sort of business. It may help business in positive direction or can turn it down.  The growth of competitive rivalry between colleges has risen up. Likewise the competition for Islington College is in augmentation. In past there were few colleges linked with foreign universities and Islington College is one of them which provides international degree to the students.. But lately it is seen that the number of colleges offering such degrees are increasing which brings the colleges into competition. Not just the colleges offering International Degree, but also the colleges affiliated to Nepalese University are becoming a threat to Islington. With various facilities and ideas such as reduction in educational fee, scholarships program and other incentive programmes leads competitive rivalry to Islington College to a greater level.

     Buying Power

     The buying power of students is very low and the income of the people is average. Students have high switching cost hence there will be no threat from buyers to the Islington College.  Also students cannot threaten Islington College by entering as a competitor. Hence, the buyer’s bargaining power seems to be lower and it will be benefit for Islington College.

o     Power of Suppliers 

      London Metropolitan University is the supplier for Islington College. The power remains high towards the supplier as Islington College is dependent to the supplier. It will be very difficult for Islington College to switch to any other university as the switching cost will be high and the time consumption can create negative impact on the college profile. The act of switching to another university needs a lot of research, lengthy procedure, licensing, other cost etc. Hence, the bargaining power of supplier remains higher.

      Threat of Substitutes

      The concept of acquiring international degrees by studying in native country has just been accepted by the people. So there aren’t many threats of substitutes to Islington College. Various educational programs such as online degrees and distance learning facilities which have recently been developed could be regarded as substitute product of Islington College’s international cost but has no threat as those facilities are not well followed by the society.

     Threat of Entry:

      The threat of entrants is absolute. The investment to establish such a college is high. Even the licensing cost is very high. For the establishment of college, they have to follow all the government regulations and policies which are quite strict. Any new company which has consideration in entering the field of education needs to analyze the Economies of Scale. Newly established company may hardly maintain the brand loyalty.

Strategic Group Analysis

Strategic Group Mapping

Therefore from all the above explanations of diagrams , we come to the conclusion that Islington College comes under as the college thats providing international degrees ,  and its cost is relatively very high as compared to other contemporary colleges of Nepal . Its is immensely improving in its brand power and infrastructures .

References:

• http://www.islingtoncollege.edu.np/

        [Official website of Islington College, Accessed on 25th December, 2012]

• http://www.thebritishcollege.org.np/

         [Official website of The British College, Accessed on 25th December, 2012]