Thriving In Higher Education in the 21st C.

While I have written much in my blog (academicgamechangers.substack.com) about institutions in crisis, offering some critical assessment and turnaround strategies, I am now writing to address the stable institutions. These are the ones not concerned about an imminent need for financial turnaround or the potential threat of facing closure. It is easy to rest on one’s apparent sustainability. In today’s higher education marketplace, however, if an institution is not growing, it is likely slipping backwards. Stasis equals stagnation, and, before long, the nation’s demographic cliff coupled with the growing consumer skepticism of the value of a higher education will catch up to most institutions just biding their time, doing what they have always been doing, decade after decade.

So, what does it take to really thrive in higher education in the 21st Century? How does an institution distinguish itself in today’s marketplace? What do you need to do to capture—and to sustain—the interest and enthusiasm of the community, potential students, and donors?

The answer is different for each institution and its target market. That is what makes positioning an institution for growth at the same time both so exciting and so challenging.

There are critical components to the process, however, that will serve any institution with the runway (time and resources) to invest in strategic growth. The key is to be strategic—to ensure you collect the critical marketplace data and to review the institution’s strength in relation to marketplace need. And the foundation of every strategic growth process is the same: broad conversations with key constituents to develop a shared vision for the future.

New Academic Programs?

Too many institutions forego those critical planning and inclusion processes, jumping immediately into adding new academic programs. They think more programs will automatically attract more students. Unfortunately, sometimes new programs simply dilute the existing student distribution, leading to a pattern of under-enrolled programs at greater cost to the institution. Worse, the choices of which new programs to pursue are often based on trends or hunches (at best) about general marketplace demand or the enthusiasm of an institutional champion or two who would love to teach select programs. If I had a dime for every time an institution opened and then promptly closed an academic program they thought would attract a new demographic—only to be sorely disappointed—I would retire to an exotic island in the Pacific. Shots in the dark rarely hit their mark.

Start with Data

Institutions need to understand two critical things before committing to strategic growth involving new academic programming: (1) their target market (and its unmet needs), and (2) the institution’s strengths. And—this is important—there needs to be a critical alignment of the two. A good place to start is with a review of the existing programs of the institution. Are there burgeoning academic programs for which there is a waiting list or prospective students who are being turned away? Identify your strengths. What can be done to grow those programs to meet all of the demand? Does the program need a different schedule, an alternative delivery modality, or an outreach site to expand its ability to serve? Track and study the prospects not being served and their commonalities. It just takes a little bit of work and diligence to identify those trends and to implement a strategy to grow these programs to ensure you can turn those prospects into enrollees. Your existing strength is your best resource. Capitalize on it.

Beyond existing academic programs, a market study can help an institution identify marketplace needs that are not being met by any current academic programs, either by the institution itself or a competitor. This definitely should be done before launching any new strategic planning process. Be sure to use a reputable organization to conduct the study, focused both on (1) specific demand by employers, and (2) interest in the programming by prospective students. Again, their alignment is critical: one without the other won’t contribute to the development of a successful program. Furthermore, if a critical market competitor is already very strong in that academic program, think twice before entering into that competition. How big is the unmet need? Could the competitor expand to fulfill that need themselves? More importantly, do you have the strength and reputation in that arena to be a worthy competitor? Before you invest strategic dollars, be sure to do so wisely.

Partnerships

Partnerships are critical to success. The first and most important partnership is with your current constituents: faculty, staff, students, the board, the community, and key regional and state leaders. Engage them in the process to ensure you develop a shared vision on the direction of the institution, based on the data you have gathered. Their support is critical to your success. You move forward together.

There are a myriad of external partnership opportunities available to higher education institutions—whether with other colleges and universities or with businesses and non-profits. Such partnerships can double your resources and your impact. Again, the alignment should be within an academic and market strength for your institution and should address critical, unmet marketplace demand. In addition to partnering with other stable institutions, there may also be opportunity to save critical successful programming currently offered by otherwise failing institutions. With so many colleges facing crisis and closure today, stable institutions would also be wise to reach out to offer a new home for the already successful academic programs those institutions in crisis have. This is an excellent way to expand on your strengths and to acquire new ones, while helping to preserve successful programming serving students in other venues.

Other partnership opportunities may be available with businesses and non-profits who need more employees in their fields. Such partnerships often provide tuition support, internships, and/or post-graduation employment contracts for students. The key is to be out in the community, continually, asking about the needs of these employers and creatively generating ideas for potential partnerships. When inclusive strategic planning is employed by the institution, from the start, many of these ideas will come from faculty and staff who have lived in and engaged with the community for quite some time. (See blog article, “Game Changing Strategic Planning”). With open communication and relationship-building, the process is continually self-renewing.

Flexibility

Don’t underestimate the profound growth potential of key, critical partnerships. Such partnerships have not only saved many an institution from otherwise imminent demise but have also catapulted institutions to the forefront of the market. Just be prepared to pivot to a Plan B, if the circumstances change to significantly impact potential success. For example, at my former institution, Presentation College, we worked on building a unique partnership opportunity for our nationally 4th-ranked LPN-to-BSN program with a business providing Assisted Living for elderly residents in 15 states. This proposed partnership included building an on-campus Living-Learning Community, combining apartment housing for our nursing program students with housing for the elderly residents—while creating a new, on-campus clinical site. Then COVID-19 struck out of the blue, suddenly making residential living between college students and elderly residents in the same building a terrible tactical choice. So, we had to pivot to focus our growth on the online program exclusively, ultimately finding a new institutional home to expand our stellar nursing program while, unfortunately, closing down the on-site programming. Not just stable, but thriving institutions were prepared to offer us options for consideration for migrating our online nursing program to not only continue to serve the current students but to grow the program to serve even more into the future. Market factors can change in an instant; there always need to be viable alternatives in the wings, which, through pre-planning, you are prepared to implement.

The Successful, Reiterative Process

The key to success is a solid foundation of research to inform your decision-making, an inclusive and practical strategic planning process that collects and evaluates all the best ideas, and the flexibility to pivot when necessary. And, of course, this is only possible if you have the time and resources (runway) to explore carefully and methodically. This runway provides an opportunity that stable institutions are fortunate to have to make significant, positive change. The question is whether they will use it wisely or fritter it away in stasis and apathy. Too often, institutions wait until crisis to act. Stable institutions constantly should be looking for new ways to grow and thrive, rather than being lulled into the status quo. Since it is an ongoing process, institutions should never rest on their laurels. The good news is that partnerships and market-responsive programming generate enthusiasm and energy that can breathe new life into institutions. Growth also attracts donors, who want to invest in something that is making significant positive change in the community. Pride in the mission and success of the institution invigorates all stakeholders. Keep that momentum going, continually renewing the process, as the marketplace shifts direction over time. Maintaining that agility to stay ahead of the curve becomes easier when practiced continually, ensuring and renewing the institution’s long-term relevance and viability.

For more information on institutional growth processes or assistance with the development of a strategic plan, contact [email protected]

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