Based on the decision model, York St John is the one with the highest priority according to the student’s preference, mostly because of York St John’s excellent placement and low fees. Note that, York St John is about twice as favored by the student as the second place Nottingham, while in turn, Nottingham is about twice as favored by the student as Huddersfied. Therefore, the student should choose York St John by the decision model.
- Management Report
In this research project, a model built based on AHP is given and a detailed analysis of a three-alternatives-five-criteria problem is conducted. AHP model allows the decision maker to track the decision alternatives, decision criteria and preference weights all the time. The decision makers can adjust the decision process any time if there is any change in the internal or external environment (Saaty, 2008a).
However, there are difficulties and budget constraints (PMI, 2013) associated with this project. In this case study, York St John University is finally chosen by the overseas student who is looking for a post-graduate program in computer science which is career-oriented. In this decision process, information for each alternative according to their five criteria must first be collected. Collecting more detailed information for more precise decision may be an overwhelming task in reality. Some projects, including this task (more alternatives and criteria can be included in the model actually), may include more alternatives and criteria. Huge amount of labor, money and time must be put into the information collection procedure. The more the variables are, the more the cost of the decision procedure is.
Fortunately, in this case, the cost of the project is just the time searching for university information on-line, the time interviewing friends and alumni of the universities and maybe also time and money spent on a visit to the universities. Included in the cost can also be the computing cost when the number of variables is huge. The benefits for making the right choice by this model include a great time in university, good preparation for the future career and less waste of money and time because of a bad decision. It looks the benefits from this decision process outweighs the cost.
