Strategic Position of Rivers State University within the Higher Education Sector: A Micro and Macro External Environmental Analysis
Abstract
Rivers State University (RSU) is the oldest University of Science and Technology (ST) in Nigeria, established by the Rivers State Government to promote science, technology, and the development of the Niger Delta Region. This study appraises its current operating environment and strategic position within the Higher Education Sector. An analysis of factors micro externally exerting influence on RSU as a business is carried out, via the adoption of the prescriptive view of strategic management which subscribes to the school of thought that, despite varying degrees of uncertainties, the operating environment of a business can be reasonably and usefully analysed/predicted to inform a future course of action. Five-forces analysis is carried out to evaluate the state of competitive rivalry within the Nigerian (HE) sector/market, relative to the bargaining power of buyers/suppliers and the threat of new entrants/substitutes. Further to this, macro analysis is carried out to identify the overarching political, environmental, social, technological economic, and legal drivers of change in the Higher Education (HE) sector and more specifically in RSU as a business entity. The study reveals that the interplay of the dynamic of forces (demand/supply/pricing) positions the public HE sector at the undergraduate (UG) level in Nigeria as being mostly non-competitive. Despite the seemingly non- competitive UG market, there are underlying intricately interwoven threats to RSU’s market share via technological/economic/COVID-19 related megatrends and localized political/socio-cultural factors which paradoxically present business opportunities to RSU.
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