Office Hours With EAB

2021 saw an infusion of much-needed federal stimulus dollars as well as record-setting endowment growth. Unfortunately, a fall enrollment dip and other cost pressures have kept most university leaders scrambling to achieve financial sustainability. EAB’s Jeff Martin and Scott Winslow review fall 2021 enrollment figures, possible opportunities for cost-cutting, as well as potential sources of revenue growth. They also explore the gap between hype and reality in terms of the impact of endowment growth on operating budgets.

Many institutions adopted test-optional admissions policies out of necessity in the early days of the pandemic. EAB’s Madeleine Rhyneer, an expert with more than 25 years of experience leading university admissions teams, says those hastily constructed policies are well-intentioned, but many are poorly defined. She and fellow EAB enrollment guru Michael Koppenheffer discuss different sides of the debate over the value of standardized test scores as well as the challenge of comparing apples to apples when evaluating the academic performance of students across different counties or states. They also share their top recommendations for enrollment leaders on how to codify and articulate their test-optional policies, so they are more easily understood by prospective students and their families.

University CIOs are on the front lines of a battle to liberate and leverage data trapped in siloed IT systems that have grown like weeds across college campuses over the past 30 years. Susquehanna University CIO Jennifer Servedio talks to EAB’s Danielle Yardy about how to bring order to this chaos through a more enlightened technology strategy, and how to gain buy-in among key campus stakeholders to approve the associated costs. Ms. Servedio also shares her top pieces of advice on how to prioritize and wring the greatest value out of every IT investment.

EAB’s Amy Luitjens and Will Lamb dig into our latest survey of adult learners to find out how their plans were impacted by the pandemic and to understand their current preferences and motivations. The survey findings suggest that schools will need to hone their recruitment and retention strategies to make any headway in a graduate education market that appears to be losing steam. Amy and Will offer a number of recommendations including beefing up online support services and clearly articulating the “return on education” behind your graduate programs to counteract increased price sensitivity.

Southern New Hampshire University President Dr. Paul LeBlanc has written a new book, “Students First,” centered on the idea that time is the ultimate scarcity, the lack of which prevents far too many students from achieving their educational goals. Going further, Dr. LeBlanc explains why the credit hour concept may have outlived its usefulness and why competency-based educational curricula deserve a fresh look. Dr. LeBlanc also shares with EAB’s Sally Amoruso, reasons why the growth of short-form, alternative credentials and hybrid instructional models are good for higher education.

EAB’s Hersh Steinberg sits down for a wide-ranging conversation with Saint Leo President Dr. Jeffrey Senese. The two discuss Saint Leo’s pending acquisition of Marymount California University, currently awaiting regulatory approval, and explore why Dr. Senese’s business acumen and growth mindset perfectly fit Saint Leo’s mission. They also review key moments in Dr. Senese’s journey to higher ed leadership, particularly the influence of a former boss and mentor whose training as a business PhD informed the way she led her institution as its president.

EAB’s Madeleine Rhyneer and Michael Koppenheffer discuss findings from a new EAB research effort and a related paper titled, “Recruiting in an Era of Channel Overload: How to Optimize Your Audience Strategy to Achieve Enrollment Success.” They highlight valuable but lesser-known sources of data on prospective students, as well as ways that virtual tours and other online recruiting tools are creating new opportunities to engage and build affinity with those students. Michael and Madeleine also explain why helping students and their families become more sophisticated and more thoughtful about their college search will ultimately help you enroll more right-fit students that persist and thrive at your institution.

EAB’s Amy Luitjens is joined by Brian Gallini, Dean of the Willamette University College of Law, for a discussion on the state of U.S. law schools and attorney licensing. The two touch on everything from the lack of transparency in law school admissions, to pandemic impacts on legal education, to the perennial question of how to standardize and update licensure across the U.S. legal profession.

EAB’s Jackson Nell is joined by LSU Vice President of Online & Continuing Education, Sasha Thackaberry, to discuss the rapid growth of alternative online providers. These for-profit entities, including Coursera, Guild, Udacity, even Google, offer everything from certificates to micro-credentials to full degrees, either in partnership with or independently from colleges and universities. Thackaberry explains why collaboration between these online upstarts and traditional higher education institutions is blurring the lines and creating both risk and opportunity.

Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (or HEERF) appropriated through three separate laws by the federal government over the past year and a half represent the largest combined federal investment in higher education in our nation’s history. Schools have been slow to distribute more recent allocations (HEERF II and III) for a number of reasons. EAB’s Danielle Yardy and Jackson Nell explore some of the obstacles and share advice for university leaders on ways to prioritize spending to build a more student-centric, digital, and fiscally-resilient campus.