White Papers
From Survival to Sustainability: A Perspective on the State of Higher Education
After a difficult year, higher education faces a series of pressing challenges in 2010. In particular, the problems currently facing higher education in the state of California provide a glimpse of some of the issues that may affect the higher education community nationwide. Eduventures will be working with our members in 2010 to develop solutions to these challenges as they move from survival to sustainability.
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If you would like to access to copies of annual reports in the functional areas of Academic Leadership, Continuing Education, Development, Enrollment Management, Online Education, or Schools of Education, please contact info@eduventures.com.
Managing Change on Campus: Academic Program Development and Assessment
With most colleges and universities facing unprecedented budgetary pressure, institutional new program development (NPD) processes are being scrutinized to increase their efficiency and success. Academic leaders are expected to move more quickly than they have in the past to respond to changing market demand and to establish new and successful revenue streams for the institution. Additionally, they face increased pressure to assess existing programs and use data to demonstrate their continued relevance and value. Through this paper, Eduventures, a higher education research and consulting firm, will provide insight into effective strategies for researching new academic programs and for assessing existing ones. The paper provides high-level analysis on today’s major national trends, as well as case studies that exemplify how strong NPD processes can help colleges and universities save money and increase the likelihood of a program’s success. Finally, it provides a basic assessment model that you can use to assess programs at your institution.
Re-Visioning Career Services for a New Economy
Commencement is around the corner, but this year the celebratory mood is likely to be tempered by the economic uncertainty facing graduates. University leaders will face tough questions from parents who will want to know how the school is helping their child to find a job and succeed professionally. The desire to see an immediate return on the investment (ROI) of a college degree has never been stronger. This paper describes the growing importance of connecting a college education to professional success. It suggests key questions that university leaders should be asking about their career programs and offer examples of projects that can help to strengthen career development on campus amidst these times of deep economic uncertainty.
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Leading in a Recession: A 2009 Higher Education Action Plan
Though often considered counter-cyclical, the higher education sector has been deeply and broadly affected by the financial crisis. To help make sense of this complex crisis and its impact on colleges and universities, Eduventures conducted interviews with some of higher education’s leading thinkers to learn from their experiences and about their plans for the future. We spoke with provosts, chief development officers, enrollment management executives, and presidents. We talked to representatives of for-profit and non-profit, two-year and four-year, public and private, large and small institutions. We asked about leadership, priorities, and the role of higher education in an economic crisis. This paper weaves some of the most insightful comments from our interviews into a 2009 timeline for university leaders and can serve as a reference and planning document as this highly anticipated year unfolds.
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The Adult Learner: An Eduventures Perspective
This paper represents a synopsis of today's adult learners: a snapshot of their characteristics, motivations, and preferences with respect to educational opportunities, as well as strategies for recruiting them. Such data and analysis can greatly enhance the ability of colleges and universities to understand where the adult learner market is heading and how to best make the case of the value of the adult learner to key constituents. Eduventures, a higher education research and consulting firm, has been tracking the adult learner market and developed an extensive and unique research library designed to help higher education institutions better understand the adult learner.
How Research Can Help Emerging Development Programs
This paper provides specific examples of how data analysis, benchmarking, and case studies have helped our clients to increase their productivity while saving time and money. This type of research has a significant impact on fundraising effectiveness and is accessible to development shops of all sizes and levels of maturity. Eduventures, a higher education research and consulting firm, has been helping college and university development offices to tackle issues related to advancement organization and operations; campaign planning and management; donor motivations, cultivation, and stewardship; and staff management and productivity.
Building a Competitive Institutional Identity: Breaking Down the Academic/Professional Dichotomy
Eduventures, a higher education research and consulting firm, has been closely tracking market dynamics and student preferences to help colleges and universities position themselves strategically in an increasingly competitive environment. This paper is an introduction to the key elements necessary for building a competitive institutional identity, with a special focus on the importance of integrating the academic and career components of the undergraduate experience.