According to a recent report from Education Data Initiative, students enrolling in colleges and universities nationally have declined 9.8% since 2010, a trend that is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future. There are multiple reasons for the steady decrease; perhaps people want to avoid debt or can’t afford to live without working full time. Some might feel a degree no longer offers a return on investment. Or maybe it’s because everyone now wants to be a social media influencer. It’s likely a combination of many of these factors and others. This raises the question: How can higher education institutions buck the trend of declining college enrollments?
Through my 30 years of working in higher education, I’ve found flexibility, collaboration and financial stewardship are the three imperative strategies that will enable higher education institutions to meet the needs of today’s students. Here are three examples of how these strategies are innovatively being used today to help students succeed and to buck the national enrollment trend.
Flexibility
We’re seeing a transformation in higher education, forcing greater responsiveness to consumer (student/parent/employer) expectations of flexibility in meeting workforce demands. The speed of response to these forces has often been slower in the public sector than in the private sector, which tends to have less bureaucratic process.
Students desire the flexibility to attend school while working, which helps fund their education while gaining applicable career experience. Employers would also like flexibility in their workforce, giving them access to advanced career training and education that accommodates their work hours and elevates their business. An institution is at its best when it is able to adapt to current workforce trends quickly by creating programs based on the economy’s immediate needs.
The pandemic taught us that the ability to pivot and be flexible is imperative in today’s fast-paced world. You see this in many institutions as they look at nontraditional educational models. For example, more schools are approaching ways to offer flexible learning modalities that modern students need and want. At Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMU), we were ahead of the flexibility curve when offering virtual and hybrid programs when the school began in 1998. Even as RMU added on-campus programs, it remains committed to offering virtual and hybrid degree options, which allow students to further their education while working in their field.
Collaboration
In a world where we’re expected to do more with less, it is incumbent upon higher education institutions to align the strengths of one institution with those of another to create clear pathways for students to pursue in advancing their chosen careers.
Innovative institutions collaborate with others to offer the best possible outcomes for students, which is also in the state’s and workforce’s best interest. One example of higher education innovation at a state level is the recent partnership between Utah Valley University (UVU) and Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions (RMU), establishing an occupational therapy “3 plus 3″ program. Program students spend the first three years of their training at UVU and the final three years of specialized training at RMU to earn a clinical Doctorate of Occupational Therapy in six years. Occupational therapy students who choose this pathway shave off a year of coursework and expense without sacrificing the quality of their training.
Collaboration is a win for all stakeholders. It increases efficiency and decreases redundancies, all while expediting the students’ pathway to their careers.
Financial stewardship
Institutions are becoming more inventive in generating and managing their resources to minimize student costs. There are numerous approaches to achieve this goal, such as collaborating with other institutions to eliminate redundancies and maximize opportunities, discontinuing programs that are no longer relevant in today’s workforce and growing programs that fuel the economy.
Another innovative approach to financial stewardship can be the approach to setting tuition. No institution is immune to rising costs, and the typical response is to raise tuition. RMU has embraced the innovative approach of holding tuition flat for students throughout the duration of their degree. Knowing exactly what tuition will be during their learning experience can help our students financially plan for their entire degree. It also forces the institution to live by a strategic plan that is within its means.
In conclusion, it is incumbent upon higher education institutions to pursue means of flexibility, collaboration and financial stewardship that provide greater access to degree offerings, create institutional partnerships that benefit all stakeholders and find solutions to financial barriers. As we pursue these means, we will attract and retain more students, garner greater support for the value of higher education and improve the depth and breadth of our workforce. This will help us buck the trend of a decreasing college-bound citizenry.
Dr. Cameron K. Martin is the second president of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, a private proprietary graduate health care institution headquartered in Provo, Utah. Before coming to RMU, Martin spent several years working for Utah Valley University and the Utah System of Higher Education.