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Budget Cuts

(Goal 1: Expand University Scope)

The university faces unexpected budget cuts due to a decline in student enrollment and reduced investor funding. This impacts the university's expansion plans, including new programs and campus facilities. How can the university still achieve its objectives under these financial constraints while maintaining its growth trajectory and ensuring long-term sustainability?

What specific actions as university leaders should you take to stay aligned with the university’s principles, vision, and mission?

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New Competitors in Kuwait

(Goal 1: Expand University Scope)

New universities in Kuwait are rapidly opening up with portfolios of programs very similar to those offered by GUST, threatening the university’s expansion plans. This increased competition poses a significant challenge to maintaining GUST's growth trajectory. How should the university respond to this competition? What strategies can GUST implement to differentiate itself and its offerings, ensuring it continues to attract and retain students while expanding its scope?

What specific actions as university leaders should you take to stay aligned with the university’s principles, vision, and mission?

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Faculty Turnover and Shift in Research Focus

(Goal 3: Enhance Research and Development)

High faculty turnover last year and a shift towards less research-oriented faculty members threaten the university’s research output. What strategies should the university adopt to retain research talent and ensure continued research excellence?

What specific actions as university leaders should you take to stay aligned with the university’s principles, vision, and mission?

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Research Funding Reduction

(Goal 3: Enhance Research and Development)

Key research grants have been discontinued, threatening ongoing and future projects. What steps should the university take to secure alternative funding and maintain its research agenda?

What specific actions as university leaders should you take to stay aligned with the university’s principles, vision, and mission?

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Community Relations Challenge

(Goal 5: Drive Societal Impact and Engagement)

The university has undertaken a research project focused on transitioning a local community in Kuwait towards more sustainable energy practices, such as reducing fossil fuel usage and promoting renewable energy sources. While the project aims to contribute to environmental sustainability and aligns with global climate goals, it has raised concerns within certain sectors of the local economy, particularly among industries that rely on traditional energy sources. Community members are also expressing apprehension about potential job losses and economic impacts.

This has led to critical media coverage, with some suggesting that the research does not adequately consider the local economic and cultural context. The university now faces the challenge of addressing these concerns while maintaining its commitment to societal impact and sustainability initiatives.

What specific actions as university leaders should you take to stay aligned with the university’s principles, vision, and mission?

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Strategic Partnership Opportunity

(Goal 5: Drive Societal Impact and Engagement)

An international NGO has offered GUST a partnership on a high-profile community development project that could significantly enhance the university’s societal impact. However, the NGO’s goals partially conflict with GUST’s core values of Excellence and Collaboration. The NGO's approach may not fully align with GUST’s high standards for quality and impact, raising concerns about maintaining the university’s commitment to Excellence. Additionally, the partnership may not reflect GUST’s collaborative spirit, potentially lacking mutual shared goals, or transparency.

How should the university proceed with this opportunity? What strategies can GUST employ to ensure the partnership aligns with its mission, values, and societal impact goals without compromising its integrity or reputation?

What specific actions as university leaders should you take to stay aligned with the university’s principles, vision, and mission?

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Initiate micro certificate and online programs

Initiate executive training

Initiate training programs

Grow consultancy services

Host conferences at GUST

Grow funded research programs with international entities

Cut costs by merging some sections

Freeze hiring

Reprioritize initiatives and freeze the least important ones

Host sport events at GUST

Open GUST clothing and souvenir shops

Lease restaurant spaces to other possible businesses and tenants

Raise tuition and introduce new fees and charge students for parking

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1. Enhance industry relationships to include research funding collaborations (this will require significant awareness campaigns on the mutual benefits of research)

2. Initiate a research endowment in the name of a prominent thought leader in Kuwait or GUST founders and invite donations from Alumni and others

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New universities in Kuwait with similar programs are posing a threat to GUST’s expansion plan.

Challenges could include maintaining student retention and growth, and differentiating our programs, while keeping the expansion.

Strategy:,

1. Strengthen industry partnerships for career-ready opportunities.

2. Develop innovative programs such as data science.

3. Enhance students experience by conducting hackathons, and investing in their skills to outperform students in other competitors’ universities in different contests.

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1- Focus on hiring highly motivated faculty

2- Open new majors based on the market need

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Data-Driven Decision Making: Implement advanced analytics and BI tools to gather insights about market trends, customer preferences, and competitor behavior.

Focus on Innovation: Lead the development of new technology solutions or services that differentiate your organization from

Operational Efficiency: Automate processes where possible to increase efficiency, reduce operational costs, and improve service delivery.

Customer-Focused IT Solutions: Develop and enhance customer-facing platforms (e.g., mobile apps, websites) to offer better service

ahead in the competitive landscape.

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1. Encourage external funding applications.

2. Connect with industry partners to get support.

3. Push more theoretical research ideas that are less funding intensive.

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There are still initiatives that can be continued even with budget cuts if the faculty is committed to the mission statement of the department.

1. Maintaining teaching standards while believing in continuous improvement.

2. Having discussions about challenges students are facing to ensure the curriculum is working.

3. Evaluation of data to make informed decisions.

4. Supporting students by working with advisors, the Tutoring Center and the counselors.

5. Listening to faculty and students.

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With new universities in the market as competitors, GUST has to work on more advertising, hiring new highly respected faculty and staff and opening new majors for undergraduate and graduate.

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Classify the expansion plans of the university based on the capability of income generation.

Postpone the ones that will have long term impact on the revenue.

Postpone the renovation programs

Focus the areas more to generate income, ie. Graduate programs, international schools.

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New initiatives for faculty members with potential but insufficient output

Research funding for proliferative areas

Improve collaboration opportunities (internal and international)

Increased Awards for research output

Hire research personnel

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Reduce the teaching load and service responsibilities to those more active in research.

Establish research groups and allocate a budget to support their efforts

Encourage conference presentations.

Implement a more proactive approach helping faculty to find conference to attend and journals to publish

Create a membership program for junior faculty.

Reward reseach productivity in the merits system.

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Two actions should be taken in such a case: An interior one, which is reform the different departments of the university according to the results of an exclusive research about the reasons behind the reduction of both the number of students enrolled and the fundings. the second action should be an outer one, which is using all the employees networks to spread out the new policies and plans of the university.

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Prioritise the core objectives:

1- reassess expansion plans

2- focus the existing strength

Optimize resource allocation by enhancing the technology integration

Enhance revenue generation by looking at alternative sources of revenues

Strategic partnerships with key organization to bring student scholarships and research fund

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1. Continue to improve and expand current majors based on trends in the market. If our students are prepared with the skills required, employers will see this and hire GUST graduates.

2. I believe that while there are several new universities, it doesn't appear that they will survive. They don'thave the necessary infrastructure to thrive.

3. There are programs that began a few years ago that have been discontinued.

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The University should establish strong collaborations with other universities to work on joint-research projects.

Investigate new grants specific to MENA, GCC or discipline areas.

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There is a risk that the university may experience a decline in its QS Global Rankings due to weaknesses in research output, internationalisation, and reputation indicators, resulting in reduced global visibility and competitiveness.