Forbes magazine loves lists. The publication features an inventory of the world's billionaires and measures the wealth of the richest families. It ranks the top 100 wealth managers and offers tips on wealth building, among other interesting topics. It is also in the business of ranking our nation's colleges and universities. In its ninth annual […]
Forbes magazine loves lists. The publication features an inventory of the world's billionaires and measures the wealth of the richest families. It ranks the top 100 wealth managers and offers tips on wealth building, among other interesting topics. It is also in the business of ranking our nation's colleges and universities. In its ninth annual […]
Although their leaders might claim otherwise, ratings by U.S. News, Princeton Review and others are of outsized importance to universities today. But what about the many colleges that didn’t rank high with these reviewers? How can they compete with the list-toppers? One answer may be that what really matters to prospective students is not so […]
Alice L. Brown doesn't pull punches when discussing the problems of leadership at the small schools that constitute the Appalachian College Association. Some, she says, are barely surviving and their leaders seem reluctant to take the steps necessary to change course. Brown served 15 years as president of the Appalachian College Association, a nonprofit consortium […]
Almost everybody ranks colleges these days—old stalwarts like U.S. News & World Report, influential upstarts like Washington Monthly and click-baiting websites that measure everything from campus sustainability to most attractive students to coolest mascots. William Destler, president of Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, even found his university named one of the "geekiest" in […]
Some colleges and universities don’t need to market themselves to prospective students. Names like Harvard, Princeton and Stanford are the academic equivalent of Rolex, Tiffany and Mercedes. Other schools don’t have it so good. So more of them are advertising these days. But some, paradoxically, seem to do it without much use of what is […]
Officials at the University of Missouri in 2012 looked at the business troubles of its academic press and decided the most prudent path forward was to shut it down. The community disagreed, lobbying against the closure, and the university recanted. The whole affair emphasizes that academic publishing is not about dollars, but about the proliferation […]
What does 2016 have in store for digital professionals in higher education? New and revisited technologies promise to drive online marketing for colleges and universities. Watch these five trends to help you set a course. Podcasting The first column I wrote for University Business a decade ago focused on an emerging trend: podcasting. But beyond […]
On Aug. 19, The New York Times published an op-ed titled “Stop Colleges from Hoarding Cash,” written by Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of San Diego. Fleischer’s primary point is that very wealthy universities (he focused on Yale, and its $24 billion endowment) spend more money compensating their fund managers than they […]
Outside the circle of higher ed facilities managers, it’s the shiny new campus buildings that get all the glory. Yet what facilities insiders know all too well is that existing buildings are in dire need of attention. Aging buildings, a recent economic downturn and pressure to invest in new construction has led to rising deferred […]
