This week represents my last week at Azorus; and so, the last blog post.

To all who have read the blog, and to those who have posted replies, I’d like to thank you for your participation and your ear.  It has been a pleasure sharing thoughts with you all and I wish each of you the utmost success in whatever area you’re working in!

Sincerely,
Toby Keeping

Many states have proposed different funding formulas and as Julie Bell of the National Conference of State Legislatures expresses in the article, “We as legislatures have been giving higher education a pass on accountability.  With tuition going up … there’s a whole new thinking about productivity.”

Some proposals include;

• Ohio and Indiana are targeting degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.
• Missouri’s department of higher education has proposed a plan to finance schools based on how students in allied health and other fields fare on state licensing exams.
• Washington state’s board of community and technical colleges plans to reward schools when students cross certain hurdles, such as completing 15 credits and passing math, along the way toward earning a credential.

Of course, few things guarantee success.  Florida apparently used a system like this for 10 years and community college completion rates went up by 43%, and enrollments 18%.  However, of 26 states that had performance funding since 1979, nearly half abandoned it.

“Accountability”, “performance”, and “data driven results” are phrases that I hear almost daily from executives at higher education institutions.  As the shift to view students as ‘customers’ continues, has the culture in higher ed shifted to the point where a philosophical change, such as performance-based funding, could now be suitable?

Please share your thoughts!

They relayed some statistics which are of no surprise to those in higher education circles, including;

• tuition has crested $50,000/year at many private schools
• average tuition and fees have risen by 440% in the past 25 years
• the middle class is restricted by a private student loan market that has dried up
• declines in housing valuations makes it hard for home-equity loans to pay for college
• endowment losses no longer allow for deep tuition discounting
• many states could see eligible students decline by 10%; Vermont is expected to lose 20% by 2020
• non-traditional competition has risen steeply
• and others

The suggestion is that higher education institutions need to look for ways to become more efficient and other sources of tuition.

While much of the commentary was dire, a few bright spots emerged.  Specifically, the government has raised support to returning veterans to obtain education.  They also suggest that an additional 400,000 students each year could be enrolled in US schools from abroad if visa applications were expedited.  While this may be true, it’s important to note that the UK has recently become a more prominent draw for international students and the US has increased competition.

Like any institution, company or individual seeking to become better, higher education is now presented with a challenge to become more efficient and effective.  “Doing more with less” is now part of the higher ed vernacular and the economic and demographic challenges facing it are profound.

What are your thoughts?  Could higher ed be the next bubble to ‘burst’?  What are unique examples you’ve heard of that schools have either found alternative sources of tuition and/or become more efficient/effective?

As part of the Azorus 20 Minute Take Away Webinar series, the title of the upcoming seminar is “Facebook and Student Recruitment”.  Alexandra Fricker, Director of Market Research and Business Intelligence at Azorus, will deliver information that will help you understand the Facebook platform and who is using it, steps to overcome your fear of social media, and best practices in Facebook and social media.

Date:  Thursday, May 14, 2009
Time: 11:00am EST
Cost: Complimentary

Click HERE to register

I invite you to review the 18 page report here but here are a few snippets which I’m certain will be of interest;

• 46% of households surveyed said their plans for college have changed “dramatically” or “somewhat” because of the economy
• 53% said as a result of the economy, changes to their plans include enrolling in a less expensive college
• New England recorded the highest percentage of students looking to less expensive schools – 64%
• 76% of respondents indicated they were “somewhat” or “very likely” to consider a college initially believed to be too expensive if they could demonstrate value
• When identifying this ‘value’, 38% indicated scholarships and aid would demonstrate value while 62% mentioned non-financial values; like track record of students finding high-paying jobs upon graduation
• 27% of applicants will submit fewer applications; with the south reporting this number being close to 40%
• 33% said that the existence of a large endowment is attractive when deciding where to apply
• 10% of people with multiple children enrolled in college indicate a return to college will be impacted by the economy; 29% were not sure

Are these changes visible at your institution already, or are you expecting different outcomes?

You can learn more about the event at the following pages:

Main Website – http://www.wfu.edu/provost/rethinkingadmissions/

Blog – http://rethinkingadmissions.blogs.wfu.edu/

Twitter – http://twitter.com/rethinkingadmis

In addition, if you were tasked with either recruitment or marketing, what would be some things you would introduce if your school was one of these two? What, if anything, would you be doing to leverage this wonderful situation into an opportunity?  Has your school, or one you know of, seen significant enrollment related benefits by advancing through athletic competition?

Congratulations to both teams, and schools, for making it this far; best of luck to both!

The goal in a recruitment effort is to appeal to both the logical and emotional needs of your future students to influence them that your school is the right fit for them. In appealing to the emotional drivers of prospective students, traditions certainly have a valuable place in recruitment.

More and more schools are including storytelling in their recruitment marketing. We see it each day; current student blogs, first year profiles, etc. While each of these offer a snippet of student life that is tailored to the prospective student, traditions offer something more unique, and more valuable. By comparison, most schools can employ a blogger, or have a student profile that they can match to a prospect-profile. However, traditions are one of those things that either make a strong connection or don’t. While they will illicit an emphatic “I want to be part of that!” from some students, they won’t appeal to others. This mix in responses is perfect, both for you and the entire prospective student population you’re recruiting.

Recruitment isn’t just about bringing students to campus; it’s about bringing the RIGHT students to campus. Anything that allows you to really connect with those most likely to succeed academically and socially at your school, while filtering out those that aren’t a good fit, is a great tool. The impact of this initial filtering trickles down from applications right through to the conversion of accepted students.

Great post, Andrew. Thanks for sharing!

Rather than just calling Uncle Joe and asking him to kick in a few hundred dollars for little Suzie’s tuition, sites like GreenNote will allow you to connect with your network to ask for help.  They collect money, create formal loan documents, give students the money, and then distribute repayment when the student is able to.

I have to say, this is a pretty neat concept with perhaps one primary issue; the economy has likely had a strong impact on those you might otherwise be able to get help from.  Have you seen students using sites/tools like this?

In mid-September of 2008, I blogged about some of the most recent efforts by universities and colleges to go green; tray less cafeterias, wind power, solar garages, and so on. Yesterday, I saw something that was both unique and innovative, and it comes from Oregon State University.

With the support of a Florida-based firm, OSU has retrofitted 22 elliptical exercise machines in its student center. The retrofit on these machines will capture the kinetic energy generated by student workouts and bring that into the power-grid on campus. While the output of nearly 3,500 kilowatt hours of electricity may not go a long way to powering the campus, kudos must be given to the school as they are clearly putting into action their desire to affect big change by making small ones.

In addition to the environmental benefits of making changes like this, in a time of budgetary crisis at most schools, is the other side of the fence indeed greener? Also in the news yesterday, the University of Albany reported that their green efforts have saved them $280,000. As reported in the article, in a matter of weeks, they saved approximately 900,000 gallons of water, 1.33 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, 11.25 BTUs of heating fuel, and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5 million pounds.

Earlier this month, I recall a news item in which Jim Rogers, the chancellor of Nevada’s public higher education system, put forward many cost saving environmental programs that have saved the system millions of dollars in utilities expenses since 2000-01.  One of these was ‘trimming’ the amount of turf on campus by 855,000 square feet which saved 45 million gallons of water, or $135,000 annually.

I would love to know of other green innitiatives that campuses could explore in this challenging time to trim budgets. Share what you’ve done, or what you think should be done by leaving a comment!