6 Recruitment Issues

In the September 18, 2014, issue of Inside Higher Education  Scott Jaschik reported that higher education admissions directors were having a tough time meeting their recruiting targets.  Is online learning—now entering its third decade as a force for change in higher education—part of the problem or part of the solution?  Some thoughts:

The 2014 survey noted that admissions directors are focusing on finding more full-time undergraduates (81% of publics and 84% of privates) and minority students (73% or publics, 63% of privates), after which the publics and privates begin to diverge in their goals.  Interestingly, neither public nor privates seem to be particularly interested in attracting part-time undergraduates (40% of publics, 15% of privates), although they are interested in attracting veterans and military personnel (70% and 42%) and first-generation students (71% and 50%).  They are also interested in international students (53% and 63%) and out-of-state students (60% and 64%), but apparently only if they are full-time.  In short, college admissions officers seem to want to attract the same kinds of students who came to higher education in previous generations and whose full-time presence on campus helped to pay for the dorms, classroom buildings, the grounds, the sports teams, etc.

The last year of the Millennials—the generation that arguably surpassed Baby Boomers in number—were born in 1999 and entered college as 18-year-olds in fall 2017.  Their successor, Generation Z, is likely to be as big, if not bigger, than the Millennial generation.  The question for higher education is whether they need the same kind of education as their Boomer and Millennial predecessors.  Another 2014 Inside Higher Education article, “Ready or Not, Change is Coming,”  reported on a dramatic shift in student circumstances and student expectations of higher education.  The author, Marni Baker Stein, noted that not only is this generation of students more likely to work while attending college, they have very specific expectations of higher education, including that they (quoting Ms. Stein here):

• attend, perhaps more than ever before, to the outcomes of their education;
• expect a return on their investment and increasingly demand internships, practical experience and direct windows into possible employment paths from the very start of their post-secondary careers;
• value personalization that is embedded in their day-to-day experiences and that responds to both their weaknesses and strengths;
• prefer optimized pathways that recognize and credit prior knowledge and experience and allow them to move at their own pace;
• opt to work across multiple institutions and multiple instructional contexts to get to goal; and
• demand a student experience accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

That begs the larger question:  What is the societal need for higher education in this global information age?  Is the job of higher education to prepare young people for lifelong careers?  Or is it to help professionals stay vital through the coming decades of technological, social, and economic revolution?   Is lifelong education the real job of higher education in this new environment?

Online learning has been attracting to our institutions an increasingly large number of students who, for various reasons, cannot drop everything to attend college full-time.  However, it is also having an impact on traditional-aged students.  In Grade Change, their 2013 survey of Chief Academic Officers, I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman reported that 7.1 million college students have taken at least one online course.  This is an increase of 411,000 over the 2012 findings.  Note that this figure includes all students—full-time, part-time, on-campus, off-campus.

Clearly, online learning continues to have an impact.  Online learning should be part of the strategy in attracting new students in several of the categories that admissions officers identified as being strategic:

Full-Time Undergraduates   The U.S. Department of Education has noted that most high school graduates who are prepared to go on to college already do so.  Thus, if we want to increase the number of full-time undergraduate students, we need to increase the number of high school students who graduate ready to enter college. Online developmental courses—high school courses offered by higher education institutions—can help high schools ensure that their students develop the skills they need to enter college.  Colleges and universities can also use online courses as dual enrollment courses that give high school students an early opportunity to earn college credit as they earn high school graduation credit.

Veterans and Military Personnel  Online learning is one of the few ways that service members can maintain progress toward their educational goals as they move from assignment to assignment. Penn State World Campus is one of many online providers who have been recognized as military-friendly institutions.

First Generation Students  In today’s economy, many first-generation students will come to a decision about higher education once they are already in the workforce.  Moreover, they often lack family support and personal examples that make it easy for them to make the decision to leave home and move to a university campus.  Online learning allows these students to remain at home and to work and be part of their local community while they develop the confidence they need to become successful as full-time students.  A first year of online courses also greatly reduces the total cost of a degree for most students, helping to minimize dropouts due to cost.

International Students  Online learning is a global phenomenon.  Higher education institutions increasingly are developing partnerships with peer institutions in other countries to offer joint degrees, especially at the graduate level.  U.S. institutions wishing to attract undergraduate international students to their campuses might consider collaborative programs that mix on-line courses with residencies at both institutions or some other mix of experiences to attract international students and to give their own students an international experience.

Potential Completers    In 2014, Inside Higher Education carried an article, “Within Striking Distance,” by Paul Fain that looked at the 31 million Americans who have attended college but who have not completed a college degree.  Of this group, about a third—10 million—stopped out after the first semester.  Another 17.5 million stopped before reaching the third year, and 4 million had moved past the two-year mark.  He calls the last group “potential completers.”  Fain noted:

The most common type of potential completer is 24 to 29 years old and has been out of higher education for two to six years, the report found. About 600,000 women and slightly fewer than 500,000 men fit this description.

More than one in four potential completers enrolled in college continuously or intermittently for seven years or longer. And the study found that about 36 percent spread their enrollments over four to six years.

These students are often the core target for continuing and distance education programs.  However, this is not just a marketing challenge.  It is not enough to attract these students back to higher education.  Experience shows that, if a returning student is not successful the second time around, chances are great that they will not return for a third try.  There are many reasons beyond academic preparation why a student would need to drop out or stop out of college: financial problems, family crises, health, changes in one’s personal goals, etc.  Returning students often must continue to deal with these issues and, in addition, may bring with them new challenges, such as the need to maintain a full-time job while taking classes and to balance study with their roles as spouses and parents.  Quite often, these non-academic life issues are the major barrier that adult learners face when they return to finish their degree.

As we enter the third decade of online learning innovation, one thing seems to be clear:  the next generation of innovations should be focused on fully mainstreaming online learning, integrating it into institution-wide strategies to attract and hold an increasingly diverse set of students and continue to support their educational needs through their professional careers.  This means integrating online learning into an institution-wide vision for how the institution can best serve its communities.

Marketing is not enough.  Institutions that are serious about student success must invest in advising and counseling staff who can help these students integrate learning into their lives. Whether the institution is public, private, or for-profit, we also have an obligation to the broader society—taxpayers who often help fund students through state and federal scholarships and loans—to provide compassionate pre-enrollment counseling and academic and personal advising to help returning adult learners find the best program for them and to succeed once they return.