Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing
Assignment
Subject

Individual Integrated Assignment – Operational Level

Nature of the Assignment

Integrated Assignment

Examination

June 2013

Assignment Submission Period

16th May 2013 to 22nd May 2013

(No late assignments will be accepted under any circumstances)
Presentation Date

N/A

IMPORTANT (Common for Integrated and Subject Assignments)

The assignment is designed to assess the application of theory and knowledge gained in the above subject. Assignment should conform to the Assignment Guidelines presented as per the
Programme Handbook. (Refer to Section 07 – Guidance for Assignments)
Assignment should be submitted to SLIM within the Assignment Submission Period.
Assignment will not be accepted after the last date of acceptance under any circumstances.
You will score higher marks in assignments if you meet the criteria given in the Programme
Handbook. ( Please refer to Page 101 – Assignment Marking Criteria)
Assignment Marking Sheet should be attached after the cover page for the examiner to mark assignment as per the Order of Headings in Programme Handbook. (Refer the Page 64)
Attending Coaching Sessions (Classes) is compulsory in order to carry out the assignments.
Current University students are allowed to submit the assignment without attending lectures since they register as self study students.
SLIM will issue an acknowledgement slip upon the submission of your assignment and it must be retained by the student as proof of submitting the assignment.
Download the Standard Assignment Cover Page from www.slim.lk and use it for all assignments

IMPORTANT (Only for Subject Assignments)

It’s a compulsory requirement to submit the assignment in order to pass the relevant subject.
If you have not submitted the individual subject assignment your results for the respective subject will appear as “Fail” in the final grading.
Assignment marks will not be considered to transfer to next examination in case of absent at the examination under any circumstances.
In case of absent at the examination, relevant student has to re-do the assignment in order to pass the subject in the next examination.

IMPORTANT (Only for Integrated Assignments)

Student should complete / exempt or at least follow lectures for all four (4) subjects to be eligible to carry out the assignment.
Any assignment which does not fulfill above criteria will be rejected in assignment marking process. Integrated Assignment Fee will not be considered to refund or transfer under any circumstances.

Assignment Topic

“What Next? Study or Work?”
Background.

Students today are faced with many hurdles, decisions, evaluations and ‘check-points’ in deciding
“What to do next.” For example, the controversial ‘Z’ score crisis), adversely affecting Students,
University Admissions Criteria, their motivation, and focus on future learning with long-term career objectives. While a percentage of Students after A ‘Levels decide to start working, another segment decides to continue studies at this crucial turning point. Yet another segment may consider doing both study and work. Today, a student has a multitude of options and opportunities in higher studies, on offer.

Selecting the best education option, in-line with future life and career objectives, is of much concern; not only to Students but to their Parents too. Considering the large amounts of money required to pursue a course of study that could ensure a secure future, and…

The time-period spent on the study course
Options available afterwards in Career and further study
Reputation of the academy, institute or university
Quality of Education and Resource in delivering the programme
Infrastructure and Learning Aids available
The Quality of the Output and Success of Past-Students …amongst many more, are all important considerations for the right decision.

The Situation for your study.

The National Institute of Higher Education Synergies (NIHES) has been a National provider of training and development with over 20 years of experience and service in this field.

They have been primarily concerned with providing training and Diploma certification in the
Information Technology field (IT) to school leavers at reasonable costs over the years and have their main Campus in Colombo, with regional centers in Kandy and Galle.

In keeping with Visionary Objectives which include “Being the best Management Education Institute in Sri Lanka” following the Mahinda Chinthanaya declaration to make Sri Lanka a Vibrant, Innovative
Leader in Asia for a Knowledge-Based Economy, they have new plans. Being a government institute, coupled with the customer-driven-focus of the private-sector they have decided to venture into a
Degree-providing School for the Institute.

This means also that; they will build and operate a complete new ‘campus’ to accommodate 10,000 students initially with room for expansion to triple its size within the next Ten Years. This ‘campus’ will have state-of-the-art university-type class rooms, library, recreation, Communications
Connectivity, including on-site kitchens and restaurants promising to provide the Youth of Sri Lanka a secured future in achieving their dreams of achieving professional and academic success.

Some of the available courses for consideration to be provided by the new venture are;

Architecture
Accounting
Engineering
Marketing
and then newer courses such as;
Business Management
Biotechnology
Software Engineering
Aeronautics and
Psychology

The project will be divided into two stages to be implemented over a period of five years. For the initial stage, they intend to provide Five (05) subject areas as undergraduate and post graduate
Degree courses of study. The next stage will add on other courses of study.

The expenses, infrastructure, resource and all other training needs can be amply provided for in the new project.

Your Role.

You play the role of a Junior Business Development Advisor to the Board. Ultimately, you are expected to suggest the best combination of Subjects/Areas to be offered in the first Phase by analyzing and reporting on the following tasks.

The Board requires you to study, evaluate and produce a report to them, covering the following areas; Task 01.
Marketing environments - are continuously changing and businesses operating in such turbulent environments need to be flexible. Globalization and lower barriers to entry now mean that there is an even greater threat of substitute products and new entrants to the Sri Lankan education market.
One can see such new entrants from Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Russia, China, India, New
Zealand and many more as players today.

Understanding your studies in the organizations macro-environment and the factors affecting it, identify the most critical factors and how they will affect the new project of NIHES typically in offering the correct combination of subjects.

Task 02.
Consumer behaviour - when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product/service, from psychology, sociology, and economics, it attempts to understand the buyer decision making process.
NIHES has to build up long-term relationships, driven by customer satisfaction while delivering all its promises, promoting further and protecting their goodwill.
Propose a viable consumer behaviour strategy for NIHES promoting the above, through the product/service offerings of the courses of study to be launched.

Task 03.
Evaluate the legal factors involved in providing these courses of study while identifying the most critical that NIHES needs to be aware of. They need to protect themselves and comply with National and International (e.g. Intellectual Property, Plagiarism, imagery copyrights etc.) especially in advertising and promotions.

Task 04.
To clearly evaluate your effective communications applications, present all the above tasks in a professionally put-together report format. This will be to the Board of Directors of NIHES.

Include your suggestions, recommendations and views in a clear, easy-to-understand manner.

Consider the following areas;
Effective use of language
Proper logical flow-of-information
Clear Conclusions recommendations, suggestions, arguments
Follow the report format as per page 64 in the student hand book
Your suggestions for the tasks given should be based on clear arguments and decisions using relevant Effective Communication tools studied.

You may also:
Use Primary or secondary data as you see fit and where necessary.
Carry out any research including customer/student interviews to determine their views and use this to strengthen your arguments and observations.

Other Guidelines:
Any literature, websites, journals, magazines referred should be included in the list of references. Unnecessary theory unrelated and unjustified will not be given marks. A concise, clear well formatted report will gain marks as opposed to a large report with excessive, unnecessary information and theory directly brought in from text books etc.
Be mindful of the guidelines given by the Education Division as well as consider the following in formatting the assignment as 20 marks of the total is allocated for good format and guidelines.
Marks could be deducted if not followed.
Ensure that a Full, Proof-Reading has been done to correct Spelling, Format, Layout and other errors. Marks would be deducted if attention is not paid to this.
The main body of the assignment (Excluding Contents, Cover page and annexure should be limited to a minimum of 1,000 words.
The Contents page should include a complete list of figures, tables, illustrations and annexure where used.
Assignment Marking Criteria – please refer page 101 of the Programme Handbook

** Very Important:
The EXECUTIVE SUMMARY should be Strong, Concise and a Clear, one-page-document.
This must contain important information and include - MAIN proposals, recommendations, findings and CONCLUSIONS. Marks will not be given if not to these expectations.

Assignment Marking Scheme
Subject
Student Registration #
Marks
Allocated Awarded
20

Criteria
Aligning to the purpose of the assignment
Some of the answer addresses to the purpose of the question
This has addressed the purpose of the assignment
Has addressed the purpose of the assignment coherently
This has addressed the purpose of assignment comprehensively
Clarity of expression
An attempt to organize in a logical manner
Satisfactory showing of logical manner and organization
Shows higher level of Carefully and logically organized
Shows coherent structure with clearly expressed ideas
Using examples/evidences
Shows a little use of examples
Some use of examples. Some evaluation attempted
Some use of examples. Well evaluated
Shows appropriate examples are fully and reliably evaluated
Critical analysis of concepts, theories, conclusions
Demonstrates limited evidence of critical analysis
Demonstrates some critical analysis of relevant theory
Demonstrates application of theory through critical analysis
Demonstrates application of critical analysis well integrated
Following assignment guidelines
Limited follow-up of assignment guidelines
Some level of follow-up of assignment guidelines
Good display of adherence to assignment guidelines
Excellent adherence to assignment guidelines
Total

Special Remarks

Signature of the Examiner

1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
20
1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
20
1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
20
1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
20
1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
100