Reference no: EM133011224

Case Study

Metropolitan University Metropolitan is one of the leading universities in Victoria. As the leading university in the state, its primary goal is to provide quality graduate and under graduate programs to students. Although enrolment figures have been increasing, there has been a substantial shift in demand within the university. Specifically, the faculty of Arts has experienced a 20 per cent decline in enrolment over the past decade, while the faculty of Business has experienced a 30 percent increase. Metropilitants failure to anticipate and accommodate the changing demand has resulted in a stressful situation for university administrators, faculty and students. The arts faculty is over staffed - many lecturersteach only one or two units per semester and classes are small. Lecturersin the business faculty aon the other hand, are over worked and disgruntled; they typically have maximum teaching loads every semester, and classes are large. Teaching responsibilities take an increasing amount of time, leaving less time to do research, an activity that is rewarded by the university's promotion system. Demand for certain business courses at Metropolitan is so great that many that many business students cannot enroll in the units they need in order to complete their degree program. This poses special problems for final year students who are about to graduate but lack one or more key units.

Questions

1. How could Metropolitan have avoided the situation in which it now finds itself?

2. What specific analyses could Metropolitan planners have undertaken that would have enabled them to foresee this problem?

3. Having foreseen the problem, what specific actions could Metropolitan have taken to avoid the situation they are now experiencing?