Thirty years ago, we knew that larger institutions would consume smaller, more fragile schools – pure mergers as they came to be known. Yet, during the early higher ed merger mania era, many found that consolidations of venerable institutions offered a creative and more equitable non-merger alternative – read as, Azusa Pacific University, Birmingham-Southern College, […]
Student retention, persistence, success and graduation remain top-of-mind issues for higher ed leaders amidst the advent of the College Scorecard, the push toward 60 percent of high school graduates earning college degrees by 2020, and families' familiar concerns about return on investment. Lower-than-desired retention and graduation rates are not limited by an institution's size, sector, […]
A series of initiatives championed by Gov. Bill Haslam in Tennessee—home of the Tennessee Promise free community college initiative—promotes higher education to learners of all ages. The Reconnect + Complete initiative for degree completion aims for an elusive demographic: non-traditional students, many with families and careers, whose college experiences were cut short by illness, financial […]
Like it or not, we spend a lot of time on planes and in airports as we travel to campuses across the Nation and around the world. Over the 2015 summer session we sensed winds of change in the aeronautics industry – read as, devising new global security measures; retrofitting outdated air fleets; and creating […]
Faculty and students at Bridgewater College in Virginia complained increasingly in recent years about the unavailability of textbooks at the campus bookstore. To control inventory, the store stocked only a percentage of materials required if everyone purchased what was expected. Campus business officers also noted a rapid decline in textbook revenue and related commissions, as […]
As the definition of student success continues to expand beyond retention and graduation rates, its physical presence on many campuses is also beginning to sprawl. Student success centers have been emerging for years, and the trend is expected to continue. For each school considering one, decisions involve how to structure and design the space, as […]
Anyone who has worked in higher education knows that harnessing and harmonizing many disparate voices representing different academic disciplines and administrative perspectives can be a challenge. That was our experience at Monmouth University during the more than 10-month process to develop our new strategic plan. By the time the plan was endorsed by our board […]
Technical education is often touted as solely a means of getting a job. There is no doubt that it’s a key reason students enroll in our programs. And yet if all we do is give our students the tools to secure an entry-level position, then we have failed as educators. We have failed the student […]
Institutions are under increasing pressure to provide more services, despite reduced operating budgets and elusive funding, and amid calls to hold down tuition. To meet these challenges, leading institutions are combining innovative approaches to technology and strategy by moving to the cloud, adopting managed services and focusing on strategic planning. In this web seminar, originally […]
Addressing the technology needs of today’s students is becoming increasingly challenging, as students expect to have mobile access to any and all learning resources, anytime and anywhere, from any device. These challenges require new IT strategies for institutions; IT managers across campus need to work together with other administrators to address common problems, save money, […]
