AU Competitive Intelligence of Two Universities Discussion

Competitive intelligence is the act of collecting and analyzing information about competitors and the marketplace in a business sector. Often, competitive intelligence is utilized to see what new market trends are emerging and anticipate, or respond to, challenges and problems before they arise. While we often associate competitive intelligence with startup companies, universities also conduct a competitive intelligence to determine areas of growth and inform strategic planning. Competitive intelligence, as part of a broader strategic planning process, can assist a university with improving oversight by implementing competitive assessment techniques across university departments.

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the article Competitive Intelligence: Significance in Higher Education (Links to an external site.).

To begin this assignment, assume the following scenario: you have been selected to complete and present a competitive analysis of two different universities for your university’s yearly strategic planning meeting. You have been asked to complete a presentation that provides a side by side comparison of two different universities. Your presentation and paper should demonstrate your knowledge of all aspects of this course with a comprehensive analysis and discussion.

Your presentation should account for the following requirements.

• Provide the names, a URL, and brief background on the history and mission and/or values of the universities.
• Assess the reasons for and significance of the Carnegie Classifications of the universities.
• Assess the universities’ governance processes.
• Analyze the financing of the universities and the financing in the state or states in which the universities are located.
• Assess the community connections of the universities
• Analyze the universities’ community relations or giving back to the communities. If there is no mention of community relations for either or both universities, discuss why this may not be provided.
• Assess the accreditation of the universities, including why each may have selected its accreditor and how this choice has shaped the development of the institutions.
• Explain how comparing two universities and their overarching components provides useful knowledge and a unique perspective on higher education.

The University Comparison paper

• Must be 9 to 10 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages and formatted according to APA style (Links to an external site.) as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)‘s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least four credible sources in addition to pages from the websites from the two universities to support your assessments of university data.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
  • To assist you in completing the library research required for this assignment, view this Quick ‘n’ Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
  • Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
• Review the Writing Center’s Grammarly (Links to an external site.) page before you submit your written assignment; set up a Grammarly account (if you have not already done so), and use Grammarly to review a rough draft of your assignment. Then, carefully review all issues identified by Grammarly and revise your work as needed.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.