A Normative Model for Regional University Network Collaboration in Education

doi:10.4236/ce.2012.326156

Paper Menu >>

Journal Menu >>

Creative Education

2012. Vol.3, Special Issue, 1034-104 2

Published Online October 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2012.326156

1034

A Normative Model for Regional University Network

Collaboration in Education

Arne Jensen, Rickard Bergqvist

Logistics and Transport Research Group, D epartment of Business Administratio n, School of Business,

Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg, Goth enburg, Sweden

Email: [email protected]

Received September 3rd, 2012; revised October 4th, 2012; accepted O ctober 18th, 2012

Increasing demand for more specialized courses and programs increases the need for universities to dif-

ferentiate their educational offer and portfolio. Increasing the course portfolio combined with small stu-

dent populations and at the same time ensuring high quality is a difficult challenge for most universities

given their budget limitation and the access they have to educators in the specialized disciplines within

their own organization. Pooling, coordination and utilization of resources through network creation and

university collaborations is one option for coping with this challenge. This paper develops a normative

model for intra regional univers ity network collab oration in education a iming at preparing students f or wo rk

in a particular industry. The paper deals with network organization, principles of operation, course struc-

ture, course delivery, and supporting activities.

Keywords: University Network; University Collaboration; Normative Model; Educational Coordination

Introduction

Increasingly, universities feel pressures from various sources

to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their educational

activities. This situation is particularly obvious in education

aiming at preparing students for work in industrial sectors

where the global competition is strong. For such sectors, in-

creasing competence of the human capital is seen as a prerequi-

site by many for coping with future economic, environmental,

and social challenges.

This creates problems for general universities, since it forces

them to respond by offering more courses and study programs

with specialized content of high academic quality in order to

preparing their output, the students, for work in industrial sec-

tors having demand for specialized academic knowledge among

their employees. However, differentiating the portfolio of courses

for small student populations and at the same time raising

course quality is an equation which is difficult to solve for most

universities considering their budget limitations and the access

they have to educators in small and specialized academic disci-

plines in their own organizations. Collaboration between uni-

versities in small specialized educational sectors, where the

collaborating partners create arrangements for pooling, coordi-

nating and utilizing their resources collectively, is one option

for offering specialized education of high quality in a cost-

efficient way. When talking about university networks in this

context, it is important to understand that such networks in

most cases will consist of one department or, more likely, a

sub-unit within one department from each university. It is also

important to understand that participating partners in a network

of this kind can’t be too different in terms of culture, language,

education methods, and industrial needs of competence devel-

opment.

This paper develops a normative model for regional univer-

sity network collaboration in education for the maritime sector.

We hope that our model can give guidance in similar network

development initiatives. We will use the abbreviation RMUN

(Regional Maritime University Network) for university net-

works having this purpose. The maritime sector is taken here to

include the shipping industry, the port industry, the off-shore

industry, the fishery industry and also national, supra-national,

and local regulative administrations for these industries. The

paper deals with strategic network design, network organization

and management, principles of operation, course structure,

course delivery, and supporting activities.

Empirically, our paper is based on work we have done in the

Interreg IV B project “Northern Maritime University (NMU)”,

a research project in which various conditions for university

collaboration among universities (See “Acknowledgements”)

offering maritime courses were studied and several collabora-

tive course arrangements tested. The empirical focus of the

NMU project was the maritime industry of the North Sea Re-

gion and its future needs of educated academics.

Methodologically, the research of our present paper uses an

instrumental case study approach (Stake, 1995) of the tempo-

rary NMU network for drawing normative conclusions. The

NMU network was put together for research purposes. In our

present paper, data collection from several sources of informa-

tion has been used such as direct observations, participant ob-

servations, interviews, documents, and archival records (Yin,

1989). We are convinced that our case is sufficiently represen-

tative in relevant dimensions for other maritime regions as well,

which explains our choice of developing a normative model for

regional maritime university network collaboration. We think

that our normative RMUN model can be applied to other uni-

versity-industry dyads as well and not only to the maritime

sector. Despite this argued generality, we have retained some

maritime terminology in order not to over-abstract the subject

and losing its empirical flavor entirely. The few maritime terms

we use can easily be translated to or interpreted for other uni-

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

versity-industry relationships.

Our theoretical frame of reference is taken from business ad-

ministration and management since business administration is

our scientific “domicile”. The parts of business administration

we refer to belong mainly to strategic market management, a

subject which is well spelt out in Aaker (2001) and Kotler and

Keller (2006). Our theoretical framework is used instrumentally

for structuring, organizing and explaining the model we are

developing.

Mission

The theory of strategic management emphasizes the formula-

tion of a mission statement as guidance for founding, designing

and managing an organization. We suggest that the mission of

the type of regional university network collaboration in educa-

tion referred to in this paper is formulated as: Coordinating,

pooling and utilizing the collaborating partners’ key resources

collectively for strengthening the sustainability, competitive-

ness and innovativeness of the industrial sector served by the

partners by:

 offering students and course providers at universities and in

industry a broad range of innovative courses and course

components of high academic quality in business manage-

ment reflecting industrial needs of the sector and according

to regional university requirements for issuing grades and

exams (Mission 1);

 offering the sector and universities improved access to sci-

entific expertise in subjects supporting business manage-

ment and public regulation of the chosen industrial sector

(Mission 2);

 organizing the skills, experiences and competences of

RMUN partners for undertaking common industrial and

educational R&D projects in business management and

public regulation related to the chosen industrial sector

(Mission 3);

Continuous collaboration among partners will be a funda-

mental driving force for accomplishing RMUN missions as

described above. It can, therefore, be considered as an impor-

tant mission in itself.

Organization and Principles of Operation

Organization

Regional university network collaboration in education is

proposed to be led by a coordinating unit, the task of which is

to utilize, develop, and manage the physical and intellectual

resources and rights that the members place at the network’s

disposal according to a network agreement. There are several

ways of organizing the coordinating unit. It is suggested here to

have a board responsible for policy and decision-making and a

secretariat for implementation and administration led by a

RMUN coordinator. The central coordinating unit should be

either placed with one partner or decentralized by placing the

secretariat and the coordinator with one partner and the web site

with another.

In functional terms it is suggested here to organize RMUNs

in two strategic business units (SBUs) under the central coor-

dinating unit, SBU1 and SBU2. SBU1 is responsible for ful-

filling Mission 1 and SBU2 for Missions 2 and 3. SBU1 repre-

sents the core activities of RMUNs and SBU2 two important

support activities for up-dating and developing the core activity:

scientifically based education. The activities of the two strate-

gic business units are interrelated and they will both, in a longer

perspective, contribute to making RMUN type of organizations

leading academic networks for innovative education and R&D.

In commercial contexts, a strategic business unit is an inde-

pendent profit centre having a strategy of its own. This model,

when applicable, should be imitated by RMUNs. Business unit

strategies, however, must support overall organizational strat-

egy. It is the responsibility of the board of the network to har-

monize strategy implementation if necessary. Figure 1 shows

the proposed RMUN governance structure and the organization

of the main RMUN activities.

The SBUs are functions responsible for coordinating various

fixed and virtual resources to a basic preparedness for service

production and marketing as defined in the RMUN network

agreement. Most service provision will be carried out decen-

tralized by network partners, either individually or in small

groups. The central unit and the SBUs can be located either

together or at different partners and rotated between them in

order to stimulate collaboration.

RMUN as Subcontractor

It is important to understand that RMUN services will be de-

livered by RMUN members to their final markets as one of

perhaps several components in the members’ service packages.

These packages will normally be marketed and delivered in the

name of the members, the universities, in their on-going activi-

ties and not primarily in the name of RMUNs. In this sense, a

RMUN will be a subcontractor to its members. It will work in

direct transaction channels (RMUN to final user/consumer)

only to regional or global markets and only if agreed upon

among RMUN members. This role of being a “subcontractor”

to its members has two important implications. The first impli-

cation is that a RMUN will not deliver services directly to its

final markets in competition with its members.

The RMUN Brand

In order for a RMUN to survive in a longer perspective, its

brand must be well known and attractive to both customers and

final markets. This can only happen, if the services of the netw or k

simultaneously are capable of adding value to both RMUN

customers and the final markets. RMUN members must con-

sider it as cost efficient, flexible and demand creating to inte-

Figure 1.

Proposed RMUN organization.

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

grate RMUN services in their output where relevant, and the

final users, the consumers, must find RMUN members’ service

outputs more valuable and useful with, than without, RMUN

services.

This calls for high quality in both the design and delivery of

RMUN services. It also calls for high quality of the context, the

service packages, in which RMUN services are integrated.

There may be quality interdependencies between the RMUN

services as such and their delivery contexts which must be ad-

dressed, if the ambition is to build and maintain a strong

RMUN brand (e.g., if a teacher is using a RMUN course com-

ponent as part of a badly managed, and badly taught, course for

industry). These quality aspects will have to be under continu-

ous review.

The RMUN web site is an important tool for communicating

the RMUN brand, for marketing, and for operational order

mediation and service delivery. Therefore the responsibility for

the website is placed at the central coordinating unit.

Product Mix

The RMUN product mix consists of services organized in

three product-lines: education, scientific counseling, and project

development. Scientific counseling and project development

are components of the RMUN Virtual Competence Centre, the

design of which is developed in the present chapter.

Education

Education is the key product-line in the RMUN product mix.

The educational offer consists of a system of modules. A mod-

ule has a natural coverage and content in terms of learning ob-

jectives, as well as in terms of theoretical origin and practical

relevance. A module thus constitutes what is normally under-

stood as a course in the language of the academic community.

Module Structure and Content

It’s important that RMUN modules follow the rules in terms

of size and quality for issuing grades (e.g., Bachelor and Master

grades) in the region to which RMUN partners belong. For

regions in Europe, RMUN modules should follow the require-

ments of the Bologna principles. Here modules should have a

size of 7.5 ECTS credit points and are made up from five mod-

ule elements (MEs) of 1.5 ECTS credit points. The MEs are the

smallest elementary components in the course system. They

must allow flexible use as fundamental building blocks. MEs

are normally developed and used in the context of a module,

but a given ME may occasionally also have a stand-alone use

for other educational purposes or be used in more than one

module. European RMUNs should only develop and offer

modules and MEs of size 7.5 ECTS and 1.5 ECTS respectively.

All modules and MEs in the RMUN product-line for courses

for courses have to follow RMUN quality criteria, among them

the Bologna principles and requirements.

A set of RMUN modules should be possible to use for de-

signing course programs for specific careers or labor markets.

Such modules should exist for both the Bachelor level and the

Master level.

Each ME should be developed, owned, and provided on de-

mand by one or more of the RMUN university members as long

as it exists in the RMUN product mix. It is the responsibility of

ME owners to update their MEs over time. RMUN members

will develop new MEs and modules according to the standards

prescribed in their network agreement when sector needs and

member capabilities coincide.

Course Delivery

There are three basic modes of delivery by which a ME owner

can deliver the content of a ME (Franklin and Peat, 2001):

 Conventional face-to-face classroom teaching at the ME

owner’s campus;

 Via the Internet as e-teaching;

 Conventional face-to-face classroom teaching by the ME

owner as a visiting lecturer—traveling lecture concept.

In many cases, a combination of two or three of these modes

of delivery will be used which leads to a forth category:

Blended teaching (Garrison and Kanuka, 2004; Osguthorpe and

Graham, 2003). Blended teachin g differentiates the RMUN brand

from many competing alternatives.

The combination of modes actually offered fo r a give n ME is

the choice of the ME owner. These modes of delivery can be

combined with exchange of students between universities

where students study one or several MEs at another campus

during a short period of time. This kind of flexible, goal-ori-

ented, course based student exchange will add a new creative

dimension to regular student exchange programs and policies

(Shaheen, 2010), for example in Europe.

The ME owner must take responsibility for examining and

grading students of a ME according to RMUN requirements.

However, the formal use of these grades in a wider educational

context such as in various academic degrees is the responsibil-

ity of the university or organization issuing the degrees and not

of the ME owner that delivers the ME.

Customers

RMUN customers refer to organizations to which RMUN

partners will sell course services. These organizations can be

considered as resellers or distributors in the RMUN marketing

channel for courses. The services are delivered by RMUN ME

owners at locations chosen by the resellers and delivered there

to the resellers’ service consumers. A consumer is a recipient of

the educational act or process. In commercial terms we have

two transactions, between RMUN partners and their customers

and between these customers and the final consumers, the stu-

dents. RMUN partners will normally also distribute courses

directly to consumers (direct distribution) in their own con-

sumer segments such as to thei r own students.

In production terms the service will be provided and deliv-

ered by the RMUN ME owner to the final consumer in an in-

teractive process. The consumer is the RMUN customer’s cus-

tomer if distribution is indirect. The actors in the RMUN mar-

keting channel for courses are summarized in Table 1, where

the terms target customers and target consumers refer to both

existing and potential such actors.

Value Added

The task of the RMUN course services is to deliver educa-

tional value to customers and consumers by increasing the

competitiveness of both in their respective market places. In a

generic sense, the RMUN network can deliver value to custom-

ers by increasing their ability to offer such courses and educa-

tional programs which they are unable to produce themselves

without access to the kind of subcontractor services offered by

1036

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

Table 1.

RMUN marketing channel actors.

RMUN marketing channel actors

RMUN target customers RMUN target consumers

University customers:

Course deve l opers and course

leaders in logistics and transport

economics and management and

other subjects relevant to the

maritime transport sector

University students in:

- Logistics and transport

- Other subjects relev ant to the

maritime tra nsport sector such

as international trade and

international business

Industry customers:

Competence managers and

developers in the maritime

transport sector

Industry students :

Industry stude nts from the

maritime transport sector in

need of competence

development

RMUN. There can be several explanations for their difficulties.

RMUN can deliver added value to customers and consumers by

offering:

 Specialized modules and module elements (MEs) of high

quality for the maritime sector, courses that target custom-

ers are unable to produce themselves because of lack of ex-

pertise or financial resources for developing and running

such courses;

 Modules and MEs made available to customers when and

where they need them. This means that RMUN education

services must be possible to integrate in a flexible way in

the educational production cycles of the customers;

 Modules and MEs that consumers find interesting and

stimulating to study;

 Modules and MEs that are expected by consumers to be

competitive in their labor markets;

 Flexible and differentiated teaching and learning methods.

These characteristics can be seen as specific generic “value

adders” which are important for future RMUN course devel-

opment and delivery. They differ in importance for different

customer and consumer segments. They have been applied in

the development processes of the RMUN project. In addition to

these specific factors as “value adders”, a strong RMUN brand

will in a more general sense add value to any customer/con-

sumer who is permitted to distribute/consume RMUN products.

Scientific Counseling

Scientific counseling is one of the services of the RMUN

Virtual Competence Centre, strategic business unit 2 (SBU 2).

It is a manifestation of the second mission of the RMUN.

Service Definition

The RMUN scientific counseling service offers external and

internal users to draw on the collective skills, experiences and

competences of the RMUN members as scientific experts in

subjects related to business management in the maritime sector.

Possible services include inputs to maritime transport decision

processes in industry and public management as well as advi-

sory educational services to universities and companies such as

development of in house management training programs in

industry and supervision of thesis work at universities.

Service Delivery

RMUN partners should appoint their own experts within a

predefined set of scientific fields of competence according to

their internal policies and RMUN requirements. Names of ex-

perts of each RMUN partner are available on the online portal

of the RMUN Virtual Competence Centre under “Part A, Sci-

entific Counseling”. Experts are categorized in a way which

facilitates for clients to identify and contact the correct expert.

The predefined set of scientific fields of competence is shown

in Table 2.

Each RMUN partner university wanting to participate in

RMUN scientific counseling will be offered a template for

expert identification like the one shown in Table 2. It is the

responsibility of the partner to maintain and update the template.

A unique key to the template will be given to each participating

partner by the RMUN secretariat.

Customers

Operationally, customers could be defined as anyone in need

of scientific advice or knowledge related to business manage-

ment in the maritime transport sector. In nominal terms, the

potential clients for scientific counseling are widespread over

several sectors in society and therefore difficult to specify. Ta-

ble 3 gives an overview of target customer categories and target

customer representatives for scientific counseling.

Value Added

The objective of RMUN scientific counseling as defined

above is to deliver value to customers by offering scientific

knowledge and expertise that:

 can be found directly without long search processes;

 is supported by theory and/or scientific studies;

 provided by researchers who meet RMUN and member

quality criteria;

 is objective and free from vested interests and following

RMUN and university rules of ethics.

Table 2.

RMUN virtual competence centre. Part A, Scientific counseling. Tem-

plate for expert ide n t ification. RMUN member: ______________.

Application Scientific fields of compete nce Names of

experts

(1.1) Analysis of freight markets

(1.2) Analysis of competition

Company

strategy (1.3) Company overall and

functional strategies

(2.1) Regulation/deregulation and

efficiency

(2.2) Transport policy measures

(2.3) Environmental policy

measures

Government

strategy

(2.4) Maritime and transport law

(3.1) Port management

(3.2) Technologies of shipping s eg-

ments and ship types

Transport

chain design

and manage-

ment (3.3) Intermodal maritime

transport chains

Others (4.1-)

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

1038

Table 3.

Customers and their rep re se nt at ive s fo r scientific counseling.

Target customer categories Target customer representatives

Industry: Companies in the commercial part of the mar itime transport sector Board members, top managers, and transport and logistics

analysts

Government: Regional, national, and sup ra-national authorities and pu blic

organizations in the maritime transport sector Politicians, p olicy makers, a n d t ransport analysts

Academ ia: Universities and similar institutions p roviding education in logistics and

transport Program and course de velopers

Media Journalist s r eportin g o n logistics and transport

Project Development

Project development is another service of the RMUN Virtual

Competence Centre, strategic business unit 2 (SBU 2). It repre-

sents the third mission of the RMUN.

Service Definition

Project development is an expert service providing advisory

support for various steps in the project development process in

the maritime transport sector such as initiating, funding, orga-

nizing, carrying through and reporting R&D. The aim of such

projects is to create new knowledge for maritime transport

management and education.

Service Delivery

Project development advisory services are provided by the

RMUN project development group, led by the RMUN project

development coordinator. The role of the group and its coordi-

nator is to give advisory and administrative support to all steps

in the project development process. The demand for service can

be communicated to the coordinator via a portal or at personal

meetings, and the service can be delivered either via the Inter-

net or through personal contact. The project development coor-

dinator will continuously follow the development in the mari-

time transport sector and its needs for R&D and inform RMUN

partners about such needs via the internal area of the network

web site. Two kinds of project development services will be

provided:

 Continuous surveillance of the maritime sector’s needs for

R&D made by the project development coordinator;

 Advisory and administrative project support on an ad hoc

basis.

Customers

Project development initiatives can be taken by researchers

or teachers from individual or groups of RMUN partners. Such

initiatives refer in particular, but not only, to common projects

supposed to be carried out by all or some of the RMUN part-

ners. This means that customers are internal RMUN customers.

Only employees in RMUN partne r organizations, who are enti-

tled to plan and lead R&D projects in their own organizations,

can be authorized to use the project development service. This

does not, of course, exclude RMUN members from involving

non RMUN members as participants in such projects. Commu-

nication to all members in project development going on in the

project development group is required, even if not all RMUN

members are involved.

Value Added

The objective of the RMUN project development advisory

service is to add value by increasing internal RMUN members

ability to base their education on scientific research by:

 identifying project ideas;

 identifying sources for project financing;

 offering expertise for organizing and monitoring project

work;

 giving support to reporting project results to the scientific

community, the industry and the public.

Marketing Strategies

The Aim of Marketing and the Importance of Brand

Development

The aim of marketing is to create interest, awareness and

demand for the products of the RMUN product mix. Formu-

lated in this way, the aim reflects a lot of methodological wis-

dom about the marketing task. It points to the dynamic problem

of moving from an initial situation, where the RMUN concept

is almost unknown by the market, to the ideal situation where

there is a sufficient and lasting demand for the RMUN products

characterized by customer and market loyalty. RMUN products

are complicated knowledge services, and thus intangible. They

are produced by a virtual organization which is also rather in-

tangible. This makes it necessary to create a set of image di-

mensions in which potential customers and consumers can cre-

ate a mental picture of the RMUN and its output, a picture that

is reflecting RMUN as an academic network for innovative

maritime education and R&D. This mental picture is the

RMUN brand, a perceived intangible concept.

If a RMUN succeeds in creating a strong brand, the brand

will automatically carry out a lot of the marketing work.

In the beginning of the brand building process, marketing

communication between RMUN members and potential cus-

tomers, consumers and communication mediators will be the

most important method for marketing and brand building. Per-

sonal communication in particular will be extremely important

for RMUN brand building in the beginning of the RMUN

life-time. The RMUN slogan and the three components of the

RMUN mission provide general promotional content to the

personal communication. Non personal written communication

using the RMUN web site, the RMUN logo and various mar-

keting artifacts can support and facilitate personal communica-

tion, but the latter will be the most important marketing method

considering the products and target groups of the problem.

However, in the longer perspective a strong RMUN brand

will first and foremost be created by offering the market a rele-

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

vant product mix and delivering this mix in a way that meets

the expectation of the customers. There is no escape from that.

Since this will take time, RMUN brand development will need

support from marketing communication between RMUN mem-

bers and potential customers, consumers and communication

mediators.

Organization of the RMUN Marketing Work

An important implication of the discussion so far is that

marketing, and especially personal marketing communication,

has to be decentralized to RMUN members. The reason for this

is, firstly, that most market contacts will be based on RMUN

members’ personal and organizational relationships with exist-

ing and potential customers and, secondly, that contextual

knowledge about markets and customers makes the solution of

marketing problems more efficient and effective. This is true

for the industry segment of employees as students. For univer-

sity students the conclusion is the same but for a slightly dif-

ferent reason. Here student populations, in particular newcom-

ers, are all part of the local catchment areas of RMUN universi-

ties. This also calls for decentralization of marketing to the

members. However, in both cases the decentralized marketing

task will become easier over time since it will be possible to

draw on the, hopefully, increasing strength of the RMUN brand.

RMUN marketing will be relationship marketing.

Communication Strategies

Courses

RMUN marketing communication will take place in a com-

plicated social system with possible transmission of informa-

tion and influence through series of face to face dyadic contacts.

In such diffusion processes it will be efficient to identify two

target groups for the RMUN communication strategy, target

customers and target consumers. The customers are the deci-

sion makers who have the power to choose or not to choose

RMUN as a supplier, but the consumers may influence these

decisions for or against RMUN in the complicated social sys-

tem that is at work here. Therefore, possible communication

channels to both customers and consumers of courses are

shown in Tables 4 and 5.

Scientific Counseling

Communication strategies for scientific counseling are easier

to develop than for courses since the target group is much

smaller, more homogeneous and easier to identify. Table 6

below presents possible communication channels for various

target groups.

Project Development

Since the customers of the RMUN project development ser-

vice are employees in the member universities, there are no

difficulties with communication channels. All communication

will be internal.

Pricing Strategies

The aim of the RMUN pricing strategies is to design princi-

ples and a structure for pricing so that the revenues from selling

the RMUN services can be expected to give a predetermined

contribution to cost coverage, and also, perhaps, to generate a

surplus that can be used for further development of RMUN.

Pricing must be simple and transparent.

Cost Coverage

Two categories of costs must be covered: Common costs and

separable cost.

Common costs represent the use of resources that are re-

quired to maintain a minimum RMUN production preparedness

and marketing activity according to the RMUN mission. The

costs of the central coordinating unit (coordinator, secretariat,

and web site) and part of the costs of SBU 1 and SBU 2 can be

regarded as common costs. They are by definition independent

of the volume of output of the three service categories in the

product mix. There are at least three possible alternatives for

Table 4.

Possible communication chann e l s t o t arget customers of RMUN courses.

RMUN target customers Possible communication channels

Personal:

 Organization of scientific conferenc e sessions about RMUN

 Short seminars about RMUN at un i v ersities

 Informing about RMUN in all contexts where RMUN representatives meet members from

target markets

University customers:

Course developers and course leaders in logistics and

transport economic s and management and other

subjects relevant to the maritime transport sector Non personal:

 Articles in scientific journals

 Articles in newspapers and magazines written by journalists

 Posters at trade fairs, exhibitions etc.

 Internet communication (written and photographic)

Personal:

 Organization of industry conference sessions about RMUN

 Short seminars or presentations about RMUN i n ind ustry

 Personal communication at face to face meetings with industry managers

Industry customers:

Competence managers and develo pers in the maritime

transport sector

Non personal:

 Articles in industry journals

 Articles in newspapers and magazines written by journalists

 Posters at trade fairs, exhibitions etc.

 Project leaflets, newsletters, press releases

 Internet communication

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

Table 5.

Possible communication ch a n nels to target consumers of RMUN courses.

RMUN target consumers Possible communication channels

Personal:

 Presentations abou t RMUN at course and pro gram information meetings

 Information to student unions etc.

University students in:

 Logistic s and transport

 Other subjects relevant to the maritime transport sector

such as international trade and international business

Non personal:

 Articles in industry journals

 Articles in newspapers and magazines written by journalists

 Posters at trade fairs, exhibitions etc.

 Project leaflets, newsletters, press releases

Personal:

 Presentation of RMUN at indust r y confe rence sess i on s

 Information to labor un ions etc.

Industry students :

Employee s in the maritime transport sector in need of com -

petence development

Non personal:

 Articles about RMUN i n in dustry and compa ny journals

 Articles in newspapers and magazines written by journalists

 Posters at trade fairs, exhibitions etc.

 Project leaflets, newsletters, press releases

Table 6.

Possible communication ch a n nels to target customers for sc ientific counselin g.

Target customer categories Target customer representativesPossible communication channels

Personal:

 Organization of industry conference sessions about RMUN

 Short seminars/presentations about RMUN in industry

 Personal communication at face to face meetings with industry managers

Industry: Companies in the

commercial part of the

maritime transport sector

Board members, top managers,

and transport and logistics analystsNon-personal:

 Articles in industry journals

 Articles in newspapers and magazines written by journalists

Personal:

 Organization of conf erence sessions about RMUN

 Short seminars/presentations about RMUN in Government

 Personal communication at meetings

Government: Regional,

national, and supra-nationa l

authorities and public

organizations in the maritime

transport sector

Politicians, policy makers, and

transport analysts Non-personal:

 Articles in industry journals

 Articles in newspapers and magazines written by journalists

Personal:

 Organization of scientific conferenc e sessions about RMUN

 Short seminars about RMUN at un i v ersities

Academia: Universities and

similar inst itutions providing

education in logistics and

transport

Program and course de velopers Non-personal:

 Articles in scientific journals

 Articles in newspapers and magazines written by journalists

Personal:

 Organization of industry conference sessions about RMUN

 Short seminars/presentations about RMUN in industry

 Personal communication at face to face meetings with industry managers

Media Journalists reporting on logistics

and transport

Non-personal:

 Pre-written contents or drafts for articles

covering the common costs:

 Alternative 1: From external funding;

 Alternative 2: From fixed yearly contributions from RMUN

partners;

 Alternative 3: From a fixed proportion of RMUN revenues

(OH rate).

Sources for external funding according to alternative 1 could

be regional (such as EU funding programs in Europe) as well as

national financiers. RNUN stakeholders could also be a source.

Alternative 2 requires that the partner universities are willing to

cover the cost of a fixed minimum capacity. Alternatives 1 and

2 can of course be combined. They require that the yearly com-

mon costs can be estimated, at least approximately. Alternative

3 is more complicated since it makes the contributions to com-

1040

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

mon costs dependent on revenues that are difficult to estimate

in advance. Alternative 3 probably means that invoices either

have to be issued centrally by the RMUN secretariat or possible

to check by auditors if issued by partners. An interesting solu-

tion could be to combine the three alternatives so that they to-

gether will generate a reasonable surplus that can b e saved as a

reserve for consolidation or paid back to the RMUN members.

Separable costs refer to costs that are specific and identifi-

able for separable activities such as the delivery of services to

customers by RMUN members. Such services are proposed to

be priced by the service supplier in an agreement between sup-

plier and customer, and the supplier can use the revenues for

cost coverage and contribution to profit (after deduction of

contributions to RMUN common costs, if required).

Education

RMUN modules and MEs must be described in a standardized

manner on the RMUN web site. This description will also pro-

vide information about the module “owner”, e.g., addresses for

communication. The cost of delivering a module or a ME will

vary between modules and MEs depending on a lot of factors

such as teaching hours, mode of delivery, travel expenses etc.

Therefore, the price of course delivery should be decided in an

agreement between the provider and the customer for each

specific delivery. Any profit should be owned by the course

provider. A RMUN partner providing a course may need to buy

one or more MEs from other RMUN partners in an internal

supplier-customer relation.

Within SBU 1 there will be a common cost for updating and

maintaining the MEs to secure a basic production preparedness

of the system. This may be the case for MEs containing e-

learning elements. The principles for covering common costs of

updating and maintaining MEs will be defined in the RMUN

network agreement, and yearly budgets for these activities will

be decided by the RMUN board.

If alternative 3 is chosen by RMUN for common cost con-

tributions, then a payment system for OH rates has to be de-

veloped so that the necessary contributions to RMUN common

costs from course revenues will be paid to the central coordi-

nating unit at about the same rate as the revenues are received.

Scientific Counseling

Each partner will pay a fixed amount per year for the right to a

template on the RMUN website. The price to customers of the

service itself is assumed to be determined in direct negotiation

between the service provider an d the cus tomer, and the payment

for the service rendered will be m ade directly from the customer

to the provider. The fixed OH rate for common cost coverage

will not be applied for scientific counseling.

Project Development

The continuous surveillance of the maritime sector made by

the project development coordinator will be a service which is

available to all RMUN partners. The cost of producing this

service is a common cost and covered by the alternative that is

chosen for covering such costs. The price of ad hoc project

support on demand will be determined in a negotiation between

the customer and the provider(s), and the payment will be made

directly from customer to provider. Use of the fixed OH rate

could be discussed for ad hoc project development.

Dynamic Price Strategy Implementation

The first step in implementing the price strategy is to calcu-

late the yearly common costs of the central coordinating unit

and the two SBUs. Given this cost, it is reasonable to require

that it must be covered mainly from alternatives 1 and 2 for cost

coverage year 1 and that the income expected from applying the

OH rate on revenues (alternative 3) are underestimated with a

reasonable safety margin. Any RMUN profit will be carried

over to the budget for year 2 for reducing partners’ own contri-

butions to the coverage of common cost or as profit for partners

at the end of year 2. This strategy can be followed in subse-

quent years.

Concluding Remarks

Collaboration networks such as RMUN can deliver value to

their customers’ educational portfolio by increasing their ability

to offer such courses and educational programs which they are

unable to produce themselves without access to the kind of

subcontractor services offered by the network. The collabora-

tion network can deliver added value to customers and con-

sumers by offering:

 Specialized modules and module elements (MEs) of high

quality for the specific field and sector, courses that target

customers are unable to produce themselves because of lack

of expertise or financial resources for developing and run-

ning such courses;

 Modules and MEs made available to customers when and

where they need them. This means that the education ser-

vices must be possible to integrate in a flexible way in the

educational production cycles of the customers;

 Modules and MEs that consumers find interesting and

stimulating to study;

 Modules and MEs that are expected by consumers to be

competitive in their labor markets;

 Flexible and differentiated teaching and learning methods.

These characteristics can be seen as specific generic “value

adders” for collaboration network such as the RMUN.

From the three different modes of delivery and teaching:

conventional face-to-face classroom teaching, via the Internet

as e-teaching and conventional face-to-face classroom teaching

by a visiting lecturer—traveling lecture concept, a combination

of two or three of these modes of delivery can be used which

leads to a forth category: Blended teaching. These modes of

delivery can be combined with exchange of students between

universities where students study one or several MEs at another

campus during a short period of time. This kind of flexible,

goal-oriented student exchange will add a new dimension to the

regular student exchange programs.

The probability of long-term survival and sustainability of a

collaboration network such as the RMUN is very much de-

pendent on stable and high quality of its educational offers.

High quality of its service packages is the single most impor-

tant factor for building a strong brand and ultimately its com-

petitiveness and attractiveness.

Sharing and distributing risk and revenues is a difficult as-

pect in collaboration network such as the RMUN because it is

difficult to define and construct a framework that everyone can

agree upon and that works in all possible settings. The model

and role as subcontractor and subordinate unit to the universi-

A. JENSEN, R. BERGQVIST

1042

ties is one option to cope with this issue where decisions and

design are designed bilaterally for individual cases.

Experiences from our case, the Northern Maritime University

project, also illustrate the importance of separating the strategic

and marketing focus of the collaboration network with that of

the individual universities. It is important to define the network

as subordinate/subcontractor to the individual universities in

order not to compete and be in direct conflict with the individ-

ual university goals, strategies a nd brand.

In sum, collaboration networks such as Regional Maritime

University Network (RMUN) proposed in this paper can deliver

great value for its customers and consumers by its three funda-

mental business units: educational services, scientific counsel-

ing and project development.

Acknowledgements

The authors of this paper thank the participants of the North-

ern Maritime University project for interesting and rewarding

co-operation and the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Pro-

gramme for funding the project. These participants are: Edin-

burgh Napier University, Great Britain; University of Applied

Science, Kiel, Germany; University of Southern Denmark,

Denmark; Molde University College, Norway; Bremen Univer-

sity of Applied Science, Germany; Luebeck University of Ap-

plied Science, Germany; International Jacobs University, Bre-

men, Germany; University of Gothenburg, Sweden; IVL,

Swedish Environmental Research, Sweden; and PANTRAK,

Great Britain.

REFERENCES

Aaker, D. A. (2001). Strategic market management. New York: John

Wiley.

Franklin, S., & Peat, M. (2001). Managing change: The use of mixed

delivery modes to increase learning opportunities. Australian Journal

of Educational Technology, 17, 37-49.

Garrison, R., & Kanuka, H. (2004). Blended learning: Uncovering its

transformative potential in higher education. The Internet and Higher

Education, 7, 95-105. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.02.001

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2006). Marketing management. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Osguthorpe, R., & Graham, C. (2003). Blended learning environments:

Definitions and directions. Quarterly Review of Distance Education,

4, 227-233.

Shaheen, R. (2010). Creativity and education. Creative Education, 1,

166-169. doi:10.4236/ce.2010.13026

Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage.

Yin, R. K. (1989). Case study research: Design and method. Newbury

Park, CA: Sage.