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
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.
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