ACADEMICS
Colleges Go the Distance to Attract and Retain Students
The very delivery of higher education is being re-examined, as colleges and universities look to attract today’s technologically savvy, and financially adept students.
“We deliver” is no longer a motto reserved for the neighborhood pizza parlor, but rather, it is a calling card for any business or organization that expects to succeed. And like those successful businesses that need to retool when faced with a changing landscape, the higher education community is also taking unique steps to ensure it remains an attractive and affordable resource to its target audience.
Donna Viens is chair of the Department of Accountancy and Finance at Johnson & Wales University in Providence. Today’s students, she said, expect their educational offerings to be varied – and driven by technology.
“Students enrolled in college today have never lived in a world without personal computers,” said Viens.
“Technology has always been a part of their lives and they expect to find knowledge fast, easily and in a user friendly format. While this technology offers numerous opportunities to students, it has created a generation of students who do not sit well in a regular lecture style class. Students want to learn by doing, seeing, feeling, and touching the world around them.”
The modern student is something that educators must get used to teaching.
“Asking a student to read a text book is a foreign concept to many because they don’t get their information from books anymore,” said Viens.
It might be said that the confluence of a changing student profile and a struggling economy is forcing colleges and universities to reconsider how it is they are delivering their product. In a competitive environment, they don’t have a choice. And make no mistake, the environment, is indeed, competitive.
Dennis Bline, chair of the accounting department at Bryant University in Smithfield, believes the competitive nature of higher education is fueling changes in the delivery of education as schools look to recruit and retain students.
“Universities that are successful getting students better prepared to enter a professional workplace will be more successful at attracting a larger student body and one of higher quality,” said Bline.
For example, Bryant recently began offering a distance learning component to its Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) program, which enables students to attend courses from anywhere in the world as long as they are online.
Bline said just offering that option makes a world of difference to the student, but there are still many who value the in-person experience. In fact, he recently taught a course which had a distance learning option and of about 60 students enrolled in two sections, only a couple of them utilized the cyber alternative. In most cases, it’s only when a student has an unavoidable conflict, like a job interview, which prompts them to utilize the cyber component.
In general, “[Universities] have courses where it is vital – because they are so interactive – for the students to be in the classroom,” he said. “But there are others, where there is no reason the student can’t do it on their own (online). Students like to have the option.”
But always, there are the issues of cost – and quality. Students of the current generation, have seen first-hand how a difficult economy can present enormous financial challenges to individuals and have a ripple effect on their families and friends.
Gretchen Guertin is an associate professor at Johnson & Wales and chair of the school’s Department of Management. She leads the Student Retention Team for the College of Business. Over the past five years, she said, Johnson & Wales has invested heavily in institutional aid to help students keep the cost of their education as affordable as possible. But despite this commitment, some students are just not able to afford the price tag of today’s higher education.
“Some opt for time off to earn and save for their tuition,” said Guertin. “We do everything we can to assist students through institutional aid. But sometimes the most appropriate decision is not in our control.”
And while colleges and universities seek to offer programs and services that will attract students, they are inherently aware that quality can never be sacrificed – not in their business. Their customers, today’s students, are looking for degrees from programs that will inevitably land them jobs, and will have prepared them to succeed at those jobs.
Joanne M. Galenski is the assistant dean and associate professor for the College of Business at Johnson & Wales. Galenski points to the school’s Program Review Process, a comprehensive, formal mechanism that allows for administration, faculty and a panel of outside auditors to examine all school programs.
“This process allows us to stay current with the industry, as well as with our competition,” said Galenski. “It has also allowed the university to determine where resource allocation should take place. It is an exhaustive process, but definitely worthwhile.”
In the end, higher education must operate like any good business. That means being willing not only to look honestly within, but to be open to change. And of course, to always focus on the student.
“Continuing to do things as they have been done in the past, in light of the technology that currently exists is not an acceptable alternative,” said Bryant’s Bline. “The best universities are those that will embrace the change and use the technology to improve their programs.”
