Online learning has expanded dramatically over the past two decades, reaching a high of more than 5 million enrollments in 2013. While that expansion has slowed recently, it still far exceeds overall growth in higher education. The growth of Penn State World Campus has mirrored this trend, consistently outpacing annual projections. What started as a […]
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, […]
Constructing an impressive welcome center to provide an enhanced environment for new students’ enrollment and orientation activities was a paramount goal for leaders at the University of Houston-Downtown. To facilitate those activities and properly get students acclimated to university life, the welcome center, which will open officially in the spring 2016 semester, was outfitted with […]
Higher ed leaders continue to seek ways to prove their institution's value to a shrinking pool of college candidates. In addition, a huge financial aid cloud hangs over everyone's heads: the one with that odd moniker of "prior-prior." While the hope is that FAFSA modifications will ultimately benefit students and institutions alike, 2016 is the […]
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh has been recognized as the third greenest college in America — and the greenest college in Wisconsin — by the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization in the country. The Sierra Club noted the university’s success in water and energy conservation, wind-powered electricity and recycling. At UW Oshkosh, it takes […]
For all the advantages of online learning—flexibility, personalization and affordability among them—there can be downsides for some students. Traditional, on-campus students can take advantage of a wide variety of social and extracurricular opportunities, but online students may feel isolated and disconnected from their peers and from their college or university—and risk losing the engagement so crucial […]
Colleges and universities are under intense pressure to maintain enrollment, increase student retention and ensure student success. Predictive analytics can play a crucial role in these efforts at institutions of any size, by providing actionable data that can drive more effective strategic decision-making. In this web seminar, originally broadcast on May 5, 2015, an executive […]
Most public discussions about the use of race and ethnicity in higher education admissions decisions ignore targeted recruitment and some of the other strategies that have been used most often to increase campus diversity, says a new report by the American Council on Education. The result is more polarized debate that—in seizing on less commonly […]
More students now do their research on the web, bypassing resources offered by their campus libraries as digital usurps print in curricula, a recent survey says. Among the 4,300 students surveyed, less than 40 percent reported doing research at their library. About half used the library’s online databases. Still, 77 percent said they study alone […]
A family's willingness to pay for a college education relies heavily on an institution's ability to articulate return on investment. Discounting tuition through scholarships and other financial aid is the most common approach to increasing a college's perceived value, as these strategies reduce the net cost to the family. Many efforts are being implemented to […]
