Category: Blog

Increasing demands for capital expansion combined with a continued weak economy make partnerships with private entities an attractive option for financing new campus facilities. But before forming partnerships, an institution must review the possible trade-offs, including implications of those partnerships on the institution’s risk profile, debt capacity, and credit rating. To learn more about how a rating agency will evaluate the credit impact that any given public/private (P3) project will have on the affiliated university, we interviewed Karen Kedem, the vice president, senior analyst, and co-manager of Moody’s U.S. Higher Education and Not-for-Profit Team. Kedem spoke with Academic Impressions recently about how Moody’s analyzes the credit risks associated with these transactions, as well as how institutions can work more effectively with the agency as they prepare to enter into a P3 partnership. Increasing demands for capital expansion combined with a continued weak economy make partnerships with private entities an attractive option for financing new campus facilities. But before forming partnerships, an institution must understand various structures and options, as well as possible implications of the partnerships on risk profile, debt capacity, credit rating, and even town-gown relations. Here are several key points Kedem shared with us this week.   AI. What does Moody’s look for when […]

Last June, Ball State University released a study showing that of college students owning phones, 49 percent owned smartphones; the number had doubled since 2009. In the year since, many colleges and universities have launched mobile marketing initiatives or mobile apps for students and alumni, and a few admissions offices have begun experimenting with uses of Quick Response, or QR, codes, those black-and-white matrix barcodes that can be scanned into students’ smartphones to provide URLs to specific online content. Given the increasing use of smartphones among the college-aged, this year is an excellent time for your admissions staff to familiarize themselves with QR codes and with mobile marketing in general. In an interview with Academic Impressions this week, Web marketing guru Bob Johnson, president of Bob Johnson Consulting LLC, offered the following practical tips and caveats for experimenting with QR codes. AI. Bob, thanks for joining us for this interview. Recently, we’ve seen a few examples of fresh uses of QR codes in admissions and orientation. For example: Orientation staff at Washington and Lee this year welcomed new students while wearing T-shirts with QR codes; when scanned into students’ smartphones, these codes took students to mobile-friendly websites for a variety of campus services […]

It’s likely that at some point we have all seen a convocation, state-of-the-university, or other speech by an institutional leader fall flat — even when the subject matter of the speech was not itself intrinsically dull. Yet it has rarely been more important for presidents and cabinet members to be able to speak compellingly and directly to a wide array of constituents, as institutions are increasingly called upon in the public sphere to make strong cases for funding, for their impact and outcomes, and even for their relevance. To learn why well-intentioned speeches by campus leaders sometimes fail — and how to help your academic leaders prepare better for them — we turned this week to speechwriter and policy analyst Chuck Toney, who serves as assistant to the president of the University of Georgia. He offers these tips in avoiding three common pitfalls: Lack of structure Lack of research into one’s audience Failing to engage one’s audience in the subject matter from the start Structure “Audiences want speakers to succeed,” Toney notes. “Think about it — a bad speech is a very awkward experience for the audience, too, so they are invested in your success. They’re willing to go where the speaker is […]

Beyond offering flexible course scheduling, what are the real keys to persistence and academic success for adult learners? Janet Daniel, director of the office of adult students and evening services at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, distills the current research into four key points that, when present, make a difference: A central unit on campus to coordinate cross-departmental efforts to support adult learners, and which serves as a single, “one stop” point of contact for adult students An intentionally designed orientation to help adults transition back into the college experience Academic advisers (and faculty) who understand adult learners’ unique needs Extended office hours for key services and a campus-wide emphasis on availability and convenience A Coordinated Approach, with One Point of Contact Many campuses have particular services and staff that are equipped to help address the needs of adult learners, but they are seldom coordinated. Daniel speaks to the importance of a “one stop” approach to offering services for adult learners. Many adult learners are either first-generation students or have been removed from the college experience for enough years that they are not familiar with what offices to contact and when, or where to go to locate critical campus resources. Adopt a “one stop” […]

Because adult students represent a growing demographic and one largely untapped in terms of the donor pipeline, advancement shops with a long-term view need to act now to begin planning how to move alumni who were adult students into the pipeline. For advice on how to start, we turned to Don Fellows, president and CEO of Marts and Lundy; Fellows’ clients include institutions that have seen early gains in building affinity with nontraditional students and alumni. “There are real challenges here,” Fellows acknowledges. “Adult students often hold full-time jobs and have families; their time is at a premium and their encounter with the institution tends to be a more transactional experience. They come prepared, they pay money out of their own pockets for tuition, and they have their eyes set on the outcome. It’s a different experience than the traditional student’s. You will need to really invest in getting to know this population well.” Here is Fellows’ advice. Two Obstacles to Overcome Fellows suggests two common obstacles to cultivating affinity with adults. First, “because they paid out of pocket, they have a high appreciation for what they received, but they also feel that they have already paid for it.” Student philanthropy messages […]

Your efforts to both attract and retain the growing population of adult students have to begin at the curricular level. No amount of investment in marketing or student support will make up for a curriculum and an academic calendar that does not meet adult learner needs. When asked about key influencing factors on college choice for adult students, Bob Sevier, senior vice president of strategy at STAMATS, notes: “If there’s one thing you need to stress, it’s flexibility.” It’s key to understand that adult students have more demands on their time. Sevier suggests that adult students are also more likely than traditional students to perceive their college education as a means to an end. “For many traditional students, the campus experience and the process of gaining education is an event, a rite of passage. For adult learners, it is more likely a step to getting something else — a better degree, a better job.” Adult students are likely to be focused on that end outcome and will search for the quickest and most convenient way to get to it. The flexibility that attracts adult students includes: Courses offered at different times (evenings, weekends) Accelerated programming Prior learning assessment For adult students who […]