Free The University of Bedfordshire Essay Sample
The University of Bedfordshire is a public institution of higher learning based in Luton and Bedford. It did start in 2006 by merging the University of Luton and the Bedford Campus of Demontfort University by the approval of the Privy Council. The university has quite a positive reputation that includes high quality teaching staff, enhanced job prospects, strung student support, access to world class facilities, and high academic set levels.
However, it also has a negative reputation of having the highest number of dropouts by those students failing the second year exams. There are various ways, by which the macro environment of the University of Bedfordshire can be analyzed, among them is PESTEL model. The PESTEL model describes the factors that influence the microenvironment of this learning institution which are political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal.
Political
Policies on education, business and industry, science, environmental and economic factors affect the university of Bedfordshire in the sense that the curriculum is aimed at training students to be useful members of the society on various fields of business or employment. The government policies on employment, thus, make the university ensure that its courses are up to the industrial standards required.
Economic
The recent global recession experiences have also affected the University of Bedfordshire. The inflation and other uncontrollable economic factors are affecting the running of the school as people can no longer afford the quality education for lack of resources. Therefore, the unstable economic situation in the country reduces the universities intakes and investments that they cannot make because of limited budgets.
Social
Resent statistics shows that the population of the people in the United Kingdom is continuously ageing. The number of old people is exponentially increasing in comparison with young people. Consequently, the number of possible students for the university is increasing as not many people would want to study in their old age. However, the formation of the global village by the social status of people worldwide creates a multicultural environment that increases the number of students and staff in the University of Bedfordshire to a self-sustaining one.
Technological
Technology keeps on changing and improving every day in the society. The University of Bedfordshire has not been left behind in technological changes. The university is an institution of creative arts, technologies and science, health sciences, sports sciences business, and tourism technology, which are a part and parcel of the university. State of the art technological equipment and facilities are available in the institution to ensure quality education to students. There is also the introduction of online study modes. This reduces the work load in the study programs and facilitates learning by students who are not in the United Kingdom. Such technological advancements define the university.
Environmental
The University of Bedfordshire has made significant steps. In the last 3 years, the university started the reduction of carbon emissions with the aim of protecting the environment. In 2010, the carbon emissions did reduce to -1.8% absolute. The university has invested hundreds of thousands of Euros in the reduction of carbon emissions. There is the application of low/zero carbon technology incorporated into all new university buildings. There is the technology use to improve day by day out in order to protect the environment, providing a convenient, safe and comfortable environment. This ensures that there is a high productivity in learning and savimg the costs for running the university. The University of Bedfordshire is a ‘green’ university.
Legal
There is a climate change law in all universities and colleges. This law enhances the institutions to help in the reduction of releasing the harmful gases so as to help in the national targets in solving this problem. The University of Bedfordshire has to develop a strategy to align itself to this law. This strategy consists of ways on the reduction and reporting the wastes it emits on annual bases. This is a legally binding position between the University of Bedfordshire and the United Kingdom government on cutting carbon emissions. Moreover, the university has a set goal of reducing the emissions of the harmful gases to 34 per cent by the year 2020 and 80 per cent by the year 2050.