University Business - October 2012 - (Page 22)

viewpoint Staying Ahead of the Educational Curve Four ways mission-driven institutions can succeed By Arthur F. Kirk, Jr. arliEr this yEar in March, college and university presidents convened in Washington for an annual meeting to discuss the state of education. i was a panelist for a session entitled “staying ahead of the Curve: rethinking the higher Education Model.” While i don’t believe that the days of the traditional educational model are over, that model is on life support for most of us. The only exceptions are institutions that have billion-dollar endowments and only accept 10 percent of applicants. That is where the traditional business model will sustain itself. But there are fewer than 100 such institutions, meaning that the rest of us—the other 3,900 or so colleges and universities—have outdated business models. it’s not hard to see, just by looking at recent numbers on traditional students issued by Moody’s. Discount rates increased last year, yet roughly half of all institutions reported either flat or declining enrollments. There are big challenges in higher education and none of them can be solved easily. College presidents and senior administrators constantly wrestle with issues related to access, affordability, achievement, accountability with diminishing government support, and, of course, the necessity of doing more with less. institutions of higher learning need to adapt to a changing marketplace and a much more diverse student population. They, however, should not abandon their core mission or eschew their institutional values to fill the seats. Below are four ways mission-driven institutions can succeed in these turbulent times. E great deal of research that led to improvements that now contribute to our vision of growth. With this research, saint leo has grown its hispanic and latino population to twice the size it was before we commissioned the initial plan. 2. Make sure strategic plans have strategy. Most strategic plans don’t live up to their name. instead, they are wish lists of what an institution hopes to accomplish. in today’s economic times, this will no longer do. as someone who spent 16 years teaching strategic planning to college and university executives at the snowmass institute in Colorado, i’ve read hundreds of strategic plans and almost all of them lacked strategy or priorities. strategic plans are really about strategic priorities and execution. Most private colleges and universities and, increasingly, many public universities, must pursue a growth strategy to generate more income. schools want to increase enrollments to grow revenue from additional students with only modest tuition increases. For many smaller colleges without large budgets, growth is an imperative. how do you grow? What steps must you take as an institution to achieve this growth? 3. Accelerate a strategy with technology. This can be done through lead scoring, a system that allows an institution to rank prospective students in terms of probability of enrolling. a 2011 EDU survey showed that 8.3 percent of respondents considered lead scoring for admissions “extremely valuable,” and 22.5 percent of respondents found it “valuable.” That Wish lists of what an institution hopes to accomplish will no longer do. 1. Understand the demographics. The Western interstate Commission for higher Education (WiChE) has published data showing a 15 percent decline in Caucasian high school graduates in the next decade, a 9.5 percent decline in african american high school graduates, a 62.5 percent increase in hispanics and a 51.5 percent increase in asian americans. hispanic public high school grads will be double the number of african americans and will be half the number of Caucasians. What are you doing about it? These students are not ethnically homogeneous and are not, in some ways, like their white or black counterparts. Back in 2007, St. Leo University (Fla.) commissioned a strategic initiative to prepare our institution for the explosive growth of hispanic high school graduates. This included everything from having bilingual financial aid and admissions officers to hiring a more diverse staff and offering more diverse activities. This strategic action committee did a 22 | October 2012 universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - October 2012

University Business - October 2012
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Venue 365
Not Your Parents’ Campus Bookstore
CRM Grows Up
Where the Workers Are
The Payment Plan
Education Innovators
Money Matters
What's New
End Note

University Business - October 2012