Category: Blog

Key Components for a Competitive Pricing Strategy

In this difficult economy, higher education has seen a rapid rise in demand for need-based aid and a decline in the ability of many student applicants and their families to pay the costs of college tuition. Institutions have been responding to the economic pressure in a variety of ways — sharp tuition increases, tuition freezes, repackaging financial aid. Two prestigious schools that had adopted no-loan policies have recently canceled them (Williams and Dartmouth), finding them no longer financially tenable. Middlebury College recently opted to limit future tuition increases to 1% above inflation. In this economy, your pricing decisions need to be informed and deliberate. Kathy Kurz, vice president of Scannell & Kurz, Inc., outlines the key components to consider as you frame your pricing strategy in this market. Make Sure You’re Comparing Yourself to the Right Competitors “The first mistake we often see institutions make is comparing themselves to the wrong set of competitors.”Kathy Kurz, Scannell & Kurz, Inc. Most likely you have a set of peer and aspirant institutions that you compare yourself to in terms of student/faculty ratio and other metrics. But is this the right group for comparing sticker price and tuition discounts? Kurz suggests that to […]

Crisis Communications: Lessons Learned From Lynn University

The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti left four students and two faculty from Lynn University (Boca Raton, FL) missing, and for several long weeks, no definite information was available about the whereabouts or the security of the missing persons. During the long rescue and recovery, Lynn University kept the campus community, the families of those missing, and more than 900 media professionals informed and current at every stage of the crisis. We asked Jason Hughes, former director of public relations at Lynn University and now director of marketing and communications at Beloit College; Laura Vann, Lynn University’s media relations specialist; and leading crisis communications expert Cindy Lawson, for advice on what best practices institutions can learn from Lynn University’s crisis response. “Lynn University has established a best practices benchmark for future crisis communications. This should be a case study for university media relations professionals. I think it was impeccably done.”Cindy Lawson, DePaul University The Emergency Alert Lynn University’s communications strategy during the recent crisis relied on a well-tested and well-prepared emergency alert system, in which alerts arrived in inboxes and were posted to a separate website that kept a running log of the updates. “We needed to have it easy to […]

Naming Gifts for Campus Facilities

“Endowed chairs and scholarships are well understood as naming properties. We have well-defined processes for them. We don’t often have well-defined processes for how to manage naming gifts for facilities, but it’s needed.” This article refers to events in 2010 but offers practical strategies are still very relevant today. In an unusual story (2010), it emerged that Utah Valley University is raising funds by reselling the naming rights to its event center, at the request or with the permission of the original donor, whose name is being transferred to the school of education building. While this particular type of renaming is very rare, this is a good time for institutions to be thoughtful about their capital and facilities naming and renaming opportunities. Vincent Duckworth of ViTrēo offers his insights into taking a more strategic approach to identifying and managing naming opportunities. Renaming A Facility “The life of an institution is measured in hundreds of years, but the life of buildings is measured in decades,” Duckworth notes, “so as your buildings get refurbished, renovated, demolished, and rebuilt, you need to have processes in place for how to go about renaming the space.” Invariably, Duckworth suggests, the institutions that manage this best […]

Considering Mobile Learning For Your Institution

Academic Impressions has designed this seven-step checklist that you can consider with your team. This is a list of critical decision points along the road to adopting mobile learning at your institution. A Campus Technology article highlighted both Abilene Christian University’s development of a homegrown mobile learning solution a few years ago and their current expansion of that mobile learning initiative to include classroom management, blogging, and (soon) mobile podcasting. While mobile learning continues to be a topic of interest among educators, very few institutions in the US have adopted it. We turned to Judy Brown, founder and former director of the University of Wisconsin system’s Academic ADL Co-Lab and a key thinker in mobile learning strategies, for her advice on what questions institutions who are in the earliest stages of considering a mobile learning initiative should consider. [wcm_restrict] Start with the Key Question When considering adopting a mobile device for your freshman class, or choosing multiple devices to support, the most critical question to ask is what you expect from your learners, from the users of the device. Will they be consumers of content? Are you looking to them to create content? Or both? Mobile learning can offer you more […]

Techniques for Assessing Prior Learning

Here’s how to do prior learning assessment (PLA) rigorously and well. The suggestions given are by the author of a landmark study of prior learning assessment portfolios. 2010. Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the Lumina Foundation for Education, has released a statement offering ideas for a national strategy to rapidly train workers for new jobs; among these, prior learning assessment (PLA) was cited as one possible game-changer. But beyond CLEP and the controversial challenge exam, how can enrollment managers and academic leaders assess prior learning effectively and with rigor? We asked Denise Hart, director of adult education and creator of the Success Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and author of a landmark study of prior learning assessment portfolios, for techniques that institutions should be thinking about. The Prior Learning Portfolio Hart recommends starting with portfolio assessment as your core option. But for this to work, you have to: It is important to have the portfolio evaluated by faculty with specific and relevant expertise. “Don’t have a History of Civil War expert evaluating a Vietnam War portfolio,” Hart cautions. “Have someone who is au courant, who knows the material, is current with the material, and understands adult learners.” The portfolio, […]

Helping Chinese Students Transition for Academic Success

Originally published when international enrollment was booming, the suggestions given below for helping Chinese students achieve academic success remain relevant. A number of reports in the past months have highlighted rising numbers of students from China, and rising efforts by US institutions to recruit them. A recent article in USA Today profiled some of the challenges faced both by the universities and by the students transitioning into an American institution. Mark Parker, assistant provost at University of Maryland University College, offers advice on helping Chinese students who are new to your institution navigate some of the intercultural challenges they may face. First, Let Them Know What to Expect “The most efficient and cost-effective thing that a university can do is to build on the model of the ESL program that institutions typically offer to international students. In addition to addressing the language barrier, add material to address specific cultural challenges.”Mark Parker, UMUC While English proficiency might be the most obvious challenge, subtle cultural barriers may prove to be larger obstacles. For example, in a US classroom, it is expected and valued that students will challenge the professor, ask provocative questions, and participate actively in the learning experience. Students from other […]

Improving Community College Student Success

Last week, a new study involving 13 participating institutions, Jobs for the Future, and the Delta Cost Project released a report on cost return for student success initiatives; with the report, the researchers made available a cost-return calculator that ties program-level cost data to student outcomes in success programs. With increasing federal and public pressure to increase graduation rates, it is important to adopt a strategic and measured approach to improving student success. Given the limited resources (yet often greater flexibility) of the community college, Joyce Romano, vice president for student affairs at Valencia Community College, and Maureen Pettitt, director of institutional research at Skagit Valley College, suggest these keys for improving student success at two-year institutions: Focus on 2-3 Big Ideas “The main thing is to be very focused on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Have a theory of practice. What is the big idea that you’re trying to accomplish? Why do you believe that will be successful?”Joyce Romano, Valencia Community College Pinpointing the 2-3 outcomes that will have the most significant impact on student success is critical; each outcome becomes an “organizing idea” that can help you prioritize new programs and efforts to revise policies […]

Community College Finance: Maintaining Liquidity

2010. A report from Moody’s Investors Service stresses that as community colleges experience enrollment surges during this down economy, many will issue bonds as a means of raising the capital needed to provide the new construction, renovation, and technological infrastructure projects needed to meet the growing demand. As community colleges take on more debt to fund capital projects, it is going to be critical for business officers to ensure that they can maintain liquidity. We asked Cynthia Gilliam, the vice chancellor of administration and finance for the Lone Star College System and a past president of the Texas Association of Community College Business Officers, for advice on financial planning. Long-Range Financial Planning Gilliam notes that the Lone Star College System is unique in that the system is in a very strong financial position (and has just received an AAA rating from S&P), but also remarks that this didn’t happen by accident or by luck. It is the outcome of a long history of solid debt planning. “The key for us has been to have our financial advisers extremely involved in our debt planning from the get-go,” Gilliam comments. “We use them to assist us in strategy. How are we going […]

Make Your Veterans Resources Center Effective

The New York Times this week ran a thoughtful feature following one military veteran’s transition from the battlefield to campus life. This and other recent articles on veteran students reveal that: Don Pfeffer, director of the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, Higher Education Veterans Programs, and Jayne Lokken, a professor and counselor at St. Cloud State University, offer tactics for setting up your veterans center so as to maximize its effectiveness in helping veterans achieve success. Provide the Right Space “There needs to be a space on campus that veterans can call their own, where there are people who can talk their language and share similar experiences, and particularly where it is safe for veterans to vent their frustrations.”Don Pfeffer, Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs Pfeffer suggests that if veteran students who are new to campus have a ready opportunity to vent around other veterans who may have already worked through the situation they are facing, this can resolve many issues that could potentially become more explosive. “This is a group-focused, self-regulated process. This is the best kind of therapy, conversations among peers.” Lokken adds, “This should be a relaxing place, where they don’t have to argue about war and […]

Marketing the Value of the Education You Offer

In October after the release of the College Board’s Trends reports, we interviewed Robert Massa, vice president for communications at Lafayette College, for tips on marketing the value and affordability of your institution. This week, we have asked Bob Sevier, senior vice president of strategy at STAMATS, for practical strategies toward publicizing the value of your academic programs. Rethinking Value First, Sevier suggests moving away from talking about value. “When students hear ‘value,’ they hear that you’re justifying a high cost. The key is to talk about outcomes.” “Colleges define academic quality in terms of their curriculum and their faculty. Students define academic quality in terms of what happens after their graduation.” Bob Sevier, STAMATS This can mean more than just tracking and promoting the percentage of graduates who are employed in their field or enrolled in a graduate program within six months after graduation. Sevier recommends promoting: What type of jobs your graduates are finding (are they finding career positions?) The path from particular majors to particular careers “Students define a good job not just in terms of income, but in terms of security, benefits, and opportunity,” Sevier notes. It is important to show the level of opportunity that an education […]

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