PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal factors
Conducting a PESTEL analysis for the Higher Education Industry involves exploring political factors that impact the industry, including changes in government funding, education subsidies, and immigration laws for international students.
Next, economic factors like the availability of student loans and the current interest rate are assessed. These directly impact students' affordability of tuition and other fees.
Evaluating the sociocultural factors involves exploring shifts in societal perspectives on higher education, changes in student demographics, and skill requirements in the job market.
Assessing technological factors includes evaluating the impact of online learning, digital textbooks, and AI teaching assistants.
Analyzing environmental factors involves considering the institutions' responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint and promote education for sustainable development.
And, reviewing legal factors includes compliance with accreditation, quality assurance standards, data protection, equality, diversity, and health and safety regulations.
Such an analysis allows businesses to anticipate potential opportunities and threats associated with the external environment.