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America’s higher education enterprise is facing multiple challenges — increasing demands from students and government; changing demographics; structural fiscal challenges; and technologies that are disrupting how information and education is delivered. Not to mention an aging workforce and an uneven track record for developing leaders. Without investing in identifying and developing the right talent at all levels of an institution, a college or university will be ill-prepared to thrive in an environment of increasingly complex and high-stakes challenges and rapid change. Let’s take a closer look at the challenges academic institutions face, and what’s needed to move forward. How Prepared Is Your Institution? In April 2010, Academic Impressions conducted a survey of senior and mid-level managers in higher education across an array of public and private institutions; 176 administrators responded to the survey. The findings emphasize the extent to which higher education is under-prepared for replacing a rapidly retiring leadership. Perhaps the starkest finding from our survey, 48 percent of respondents graded their institution with a C, D, or F letter grade when assessing the level of commitment they felt their institution has toward their development as a leader. We also asked respondents to identify ways that their institutions currently […]

A new report from the Pell Institute (pdf link) suggests that without more students from low-income and working-class families earning bachelor’s degrees, the United States will be unable to meet the Obama administration’s college-completion goal. As demand for college education rises among lower-income families amid a troubled economy, and as the pressure mounts on completion rates, more institutions are beginning to assess their strategies for recruiting and retaining first-gen students. We addressed the issue in Higher Ed Impact recently, interviewing Mary Ontiveros, Colorado State University’s vice president for diversity, who suggested four tips for boosting application rates for lower-income, first-gen students. This week, we turned to Thom Golden, associate director of undergraduate admissions at Vanderbilt University, for four additional tips — this time for boosting yield. What Keeps First-Gen Admits From Enrolling? When asked why first-generation admits opt not to enroll, Golden several barriers: Concerns over affordability Lack of clarity about financial aid (how it’s applied for and when; what the award amount means, etc.) Lack of clarity around aid eligibility The American Council of Education has released several studies indicating that over 1.8 million low-income and middle-income families who would have qualified for college aid failed to apply. Golden […]

by Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions The White House’s 2020 college completion goal and funding opportunities such as the Walmart Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s focus on college completion have placed fresh pressure and attention on both college preparation and “remedial” education. According to a new analysis by a national education advocacy group using data from 2007-08, remedial education for college students costs the United States $5.6 billion a year, including $3.6 billion in tuition. One in three students require a remedial course. While much of the attention is given to teacher preparation and reform for the K-12 system, it’s also critical for colleges and universities to examine what they can do to improve the developmental education programs that are needed at the post-secondary level. To trim costs and prepare students for academic success, colleges need to continue improving success rates in developmental courses and need to be able to move students through developmental courses faster. In November 2010, on the heels of an earlier, more regionally-focused report that demonstrated that the state of Georgia spends $22 million annually to provide developmental education at colleges and universities, we turned to Nick Bekas, professor of English and project director for the […]

May 12, 2011. In 2010, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) rescinded the 2005 “third prong” standard for Title IX compliance, and recently, at NCAA’s Gender Equity Forum, OCR and Department of Education (DOE) officials have sought to clarify what Title IX compliance entails; the resulting picture suggests a need for more rigorous standards and assessments than have been seen over the past decade. To learn more about what’s changing and where institutions need to be proactive in order to manage their Title IX liability, we turned to Betsy Alden (who has conducted many Title IX reviews for higher ed institutions) and Jeff Orleans (who helped write the original regulation for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972) with Alden & Associates Inc. A Shift from the Past What became apparent from the OCR representative’s remarks at the NCAA’s Gender Equity Forum earlier this month, Jeff Orleans comments, “is that schools that have been can no longer rely on the ‘third prong’ standard that if you show that you are satisfying the interests and abilities of student athletes regardless of the counts, you were in compliance. Under the Bush administration, you just had to survey and account for student interest in […]

During the recession, many institutions scaled back their campaign goals and timelines, but as donors begin to bounce back (a new study (subscription required) finds that 4 in 5 donors intend to give as much if not more to nonprofits in 2011 as they did in 2010), some institutions are considering more ambitious efforts. For example, the University of Colorado has just launched its $1.5 billion capital campaign (although without a projected finish date). If your institution is preparing for a campaign as the economy (and donors) bounce back, it will be important to consider thoughtfully — and as early as possible — how you will make use of social and interactive media channels and tools to support your campaign goals. This week we interviewed Rob Moore, president of Lipman Hearne and a nationally-recognized expert on branding and marketing in higher education, to learn more about some of the opportunities and caveats in the use of social media for campaign branding and messaging. AI: Rob, what is the first thing you would want to tell fundraisers about the use of social media in branding a capital campaign? Rob Moore: Know where it is useful. It’s important not to oversell social media. There’s a […]