January 3, 2013

5 MORE Trends Transforming the Higher Education Business Model

Jan. 3, 2013 at 09:48 AM | By Todd Bloom, Ph.D. | Comment Count

With the proliferation of innovative ideas and technologies like Massive Open Online Classes and big data, there is no question, 2012 was a big year for the higher education industry. But what of 2013, what can we as students, parents, educators, and policy makers expect in the year ahead?

5 More Trends Transforming the Higher Education Business Model

(Check out the first 5 Trends.)

Remediation and summer bridge programs are broken.

The evidence is clear. Today, nearly 65% of all community college students nationwide need some form of remedial education, and only 35% of remedial students in 4-year institutions will graduate within 6 years. In 2011, we witnessed a growing concern over the effectiveness of remedial education, especially on the community college level. Additionally, a recent Community College Research Center study off summer bridge programs found that they have little impact on student success. As is too often the norm, our education systems are investing in treating the symptoms of a problem (K-12 student preparation) rather than the problem itself. What incremental good might come from higher education institutions reaching into high schools early in the senior year to connect and develop pathways to future higher education success?

Campus Diversity

Testament to the achievement gap, graduation odds are especially low for students who are African American, Hispanic, older, or poor. But, dramatic shifts in higher education student demographics have already begun. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 2009-2020, there will be a 25% increase of students who are Black and a 46% increase of students who are Hispanic, an increase expected to continue broad-based with respect to institution type. How should programs and support services adjust for these dramatic demographic changes?

The Federal government’s newfound role in higher education.

For both K-12 and Higher Education, the federal government is not adverse to taking a more assertive role in educational policy and funding measures. From the Obama Administration’s initiatives in STEM to a renewed concern over college affordability and student debt, the federal government is defining benchmarks and processes aligned with one goal in mind, to reinstate America by 2020 as the country with the “highest proportion of students graduating from college.” Underfunded Pell grants relative to projected demand and the risk of the American Opportunity Tax Credit “falling off a cliff” are very real challenges for higher education in 2013.

Going BIG with Big Data

Across industries and organizations, big data is transforming the way business and school leaders market, manage operations, and measure success. Big Data is the collection, enrichment, and analysis of extraordinarily large data sets and, for institutions, promises deeper insight into prospective, enrolled, and graduated student outcomes.
How big are we talking ?

The proliferation of data grows at an exponential rate. "Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone."
There are over 10 billion mobile devises worldwide – that’s 2.3 trillion text messages made each year in the U.S. alone.
On average, there are nearly one billion tweets per week and four billion videos viewed daily on YouTube.
On the home front, Naviance eDocs transferred 13.3 million high school student records during the 2011-12 school year.

Performance Funding

An increasing number of states are transforming their higher education funding models from one based on student enrollment to a combination of enrollment and student performance. With these changes, policymakers are adjusting priorities for institutions. Student success (through better instruction and student supports) in the goal.

Todd Bloom, Ph.D. is chief academic officer at Hobsons. Connect with Todd on Linkedin.