Search Results for: meeting

Student Success and Retention in the Time of Coronavirus

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

We know many of our faculty have had a big transition to make, as institutions have moved courses online rapidly in response to COVID-19—but it’s a huge transition for many of our students, too, especially those who have never taken an online course or who have limited access to the Internet now that campus is closed. What are some ways we can help students succeed and persist when plunged into this new world? On March 25, over 900 higher-ed professionals from institutions all over North America attended one of our free COVID-19 Critical Response webcasts. It was an opportunity to hear from a leading expert on student retention—and to share ideas among their peers, hearing what other institutions are doing and what you could be doing. You can sign up to get the webcast recording (and chat transcript) here, or explore our rapidly growing COVID-19 Critical Response series—some of which are free for everyone, while others are free for our members. COVID-19 has forced institutions to pivot and adapt in unprecedented ways. If you’re like most, you are laser-focused on your own campus responses and have been craving a space to connect with others, ask questions, and share ideas with […]

Managing the Whole Student Life Cycle: A Handbook for Higher Ed

Make retention a whole-campus initiative in more than just name. From matriculation to graduation, walk through how to coordinate across enrollment management, student affairs, and academic affairs to create conditions and programs that drive student success. Managing the Whole Student Life Cycle: A Handbook for Higher Ed: Order 10+ copies and receive a $19.99 discount on every copy you purchase.

Books are shipped within 7 days of receipt of payment. For immediate receipt of book, order PDF copy.

Getting Back on Track: Ten Strategies for Successful Two- and Four-Year Institutional Transfer Partnerships

Posted on by Enya Svoboda

Amidst the current upheavals in higher education, the needs of largely marginalized students attending community colleges garner few headlines. Last year, the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University, in partnership with the Aspen Institute, reported a national transfer rate of 16 percent—only two percentage points higher than a similar study conducted a decade earlier. Despite years of investment by federal, state, and local governments, colleges and universities, and the philanthropic community, we see no empirical evidence that we are broadly improving the odds for community college students attempting to complete a bachelor’s degree by transferring to a four-year institution. Yet the allure of a bachelor’s degree remains a powerful ticket to the middle class for these individuals. Despite the increased skepticism about higher education, as many as 80 percent of new community college students understand the long-term benefits, and express an interest in transferring in order to earn a four-year degree. Have we hit a transfer rate ceiling? Is the stratified structure of U.S. postsecondary education impervious to a fully effective transfer pathway as envisioned by education progressives over a century ago? These are difficult but necessary questions. The pathway between community colleges and four-year institutions will only become […]

From Information Overload to Collaborative Learning: Why Higher Ed Needs Higher Tech

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Our campus communities — students, faculty, staff, alumni — deal with information overload across many platforms and apps. Isn’t it time we brought campus communication and learning into one high-tech ecosystem? Editorial by Kathy Edersheim (President, Impactrics LLC) and Yasim Rahman (CEO, Unio) Today, while we all deal with massive information overload, this is an acute problem for students. Simply by carrying a smartphone, students are bombarded with information almost constantly. And, as mentioned in a recent Nielsen study, 98% of students from age 18-24 own a smartphone. Millennials wake up with their phones, sleep with their phones, take their phones to their bathrooms and, yes, some check it during sex. (See this study on smartphone separation anxiety.) The massive data deluge leads to information overload, confusion, and a general lack of focus and attention. Colleges need to do whatever they can to simplify navigation of the educational experience to foster a positive experience and successful completion. It is shocking that only about 60% of high school graduates who started college in 2009 finished within six years – by 2015- and that challenges in coping with college were a key factor.*role=”document”, aria-multiline=”true”, aria-readonly=”false”**aria-label=”Block: Paragraph”* Where does all the information – and information […]

The Transformational Small College President

Posted on by Kenneth Soldink

The recent Sweet Briar crisis highlighted the difficulties that at-risk institutions face in ensuring their basic survival. Not only has the feasibility of a women’s college been questioned, but also the viability of small colleges in general. Often, colleges respond to difficulties with incremental improvements and enhancements — short-term remedies that tend not to address the fundamental issues; stories about substantive change are harder to find. What are proven ways for a president to lead an at-risk institution back to long-term, sustainable financial health? Answers were to be found at a recent Academic Impressions conference, “Foundations for Innovation at Small Institutions.” (You can read the paper that sparked this conference here. The conference featured presidents of relatively small institutions who have led quite amazing turnarounds. I will share some of their stories — and insights that can be gleaned from them — below. A Diagnosis: What Makes the Small College Turnaround Difficult? Yet these turnarounds tend to be the exception rather than the rule. Why are so many at-risk institutions slow to react to their situation? The answer is that there is a clash of worldviews within the university, all competing for influence over the institution’s direction: It would be […]

How Some Colleges are Building Student Resilience and Grit

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

Managing the student life cycle requires cross-divisional initiatives and the willingness to innovate. Applying a student success lens to the student life cycle has led institutions to examine the relative roles played by traditional measures of academic achievement (grades, credits completed, major requirements met) and less traditional, non-cognitive indicators such as student grit and resilience. This shifting approach is leading to intentional campus initiatives designed to foster attitudes and behaviors that will promote student success—as measured by higher retention, graduation, and student satisfaction rates. For example, consider the programming offered by the Office of Undergraduate Retention at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Recognizing that today’s college students live their daily lives on their devices, the UNC-CH retention office website is stocked with descriptions of workshops on, and suggestions for further exploration of, topics such as developing a growth mindset, thinking positively amidst change, and becoming resilient. Similarly, the Student Success Advocates program at the University of Utah provides video resources for students, with titles that include: Growth Mindset;” “Change Your Mindset, Change the Game;” and “Ability, Effort, or Mindset?” There is increasing evidence that such factors matter. A recent Rice University study, for example, found clear evidence […]

7 Myths that Limit Innovation in Higher Ed

Posted on by Daniel Fusch

This article continues a series focused on Creating an Innovative Institutional Mindset. The previous articles in this series are: Innovation is all the buzz these days in higher education circles, and it is no wonder.  Many mainstream media observers have noted that higher education is now ground zero for disruption due largely to what they believe is a broken business model. The significant challenges facing colleges and universities were illuminated by Moody’s December 2017 decision to downgrade its outlook for the US higher education sector to negative due to softened revenue growth prospects. Some have gone so far to suggest that we are living through an era of total disruption to the age-old model of higher education and that “reality” as we now know it will completely change. According to these same experts, the institutions that are able to reinvent themselves, to create and embrace change, will have the best odds for survival and resiliency. And yet, despite the urgency for change, many institutions find it difficult to innovate. I discussed some of the barriers to innovation here. Besides the barriers listed in that article, though, one of the major roadblocks in the way of our success is that over […]

Loading survey...