Legislatures in Indiana and Texas are remodeling their financial allocation to colleges and universities based on an outcomes-based formula rather than blanket recommendations based on enrollment as each state grapples with higher education’s most prevailing trends: student workforce preparation and faltering enrollment.

“The current model is one that’s based upon contact hours, heavily influenced by enrollment and type of courses offered,” says Ray Martinez III, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC), according to Diverse. “What do we need to do as a matter of state policy to ensure that students have the support they need, the scaffolding to ensure they can complete a post-secondary credential?”

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Texas tackles workforce demands at the community college level

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott approved legislation on Monday to increase its community college biennium funding by nearly 25% for $2.2 billion, according to Dallas Innovates. Aside from the increase in funding, the legislation also marks a bold new direction for which colleges will earn the lion’s share. Texas will now fund its community colleges based on upward student transfer rates, high school dual degree completion, and whether they’re awarding “credentials of value.” Credentials of value include badges, certificates and degrees that “position graduates for well-paying jobs” in high-demand fields.

Texas’ former community college state funding formula relied almost entirely on contact hours, according to the Texas Commission on Community College Finance (TxCCCF), which strongly recommended the outcomes-based changes to the state. TxCCCF found that 2021 was Texas’ worst year for community college enrollment, which is particularly damaging for the state considering that the sector makes up more than 40% of its post-secondary student enrollment.

By repositioning the state’s 50 community colleges to deliver credentials of values while promoting college affordability, TxCCCF and Texas legislatures believe they are in a prime placement to recoup state enrollment by churning out workforce-ready individuals.

“A highly educated and skilled workforce is critical for Texas to remain the most attractive state to do business, and community colleges are ground zero for students to access the necessary skills and training for in-demand careers,” said Sen. Brandon Creighton, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “This new funding framework will only encourage more successful programs for Texas to train the workforce of the future.”

Indiana wants to bring students back

With only 48% of Indiana’s citizens being credential or degree earners, Gov. Eric Holcomb wants to increase the rate of Hoosiers with postsecondary education to 60% by 2025. With public college tuition and fees decreasing 4% over the past five years and the state recuperating from one of its lowest enrollment rates in recent history, Indiana’s 2023 legislative session seeks to bump state college funding by $130 million in the next biennium budget.

With a revamped budget comes an updated budget strategy. On top of the base funding each college and university will receive, they will also be eligible for additional funding based on five metrics: quality and career relevance, completion, college-going rate, quantity of adult students and graduation retention rates.

For example, colleges that score 80% of their forecasted goal on one of those five metrics will receive 80% of the additional funding they were promised. That additional funding earned in the first year of the biennium would be guaranteed in year two. It then has the potential to build from there.

Equity concerns with outcomes-based funding

While more states become outcome-oriented when deciding which colleges and universities to fund, some professionals believe doing so can hurt minority-serving institutions.

Institutions that serve students and color and those from lower-income households are already under-resourced. If they can’t deliver on state metrics, their situation will never improve, creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” wrote Dr. Kalya C. Elliott, interim director of Education Trust and co-author of the report cautioning against outcomes-based funding.

The post Why these 2 states are changing their higher ed funding model appeared first on University Business.

These are some key takeaways EAB gathered in their latest meta-report that creates a comprehensive picture of higher education’s future college cohort: “Gen P.” It draws from conversations with over 20,000 high school students, counselors, parents, EAB partners and college enrollment teams.

“Gen P” students have been molded by a world event that few can compare to, and thus they are unique in their college preferences. EAB aims to identify who they are so higher ed leaders can identify their needs—and win their selection.

More from UB: Digital credentials: Higher education’s new frontier

1. Gen P wants higher ed to be vocal about mental health offerings

In the 2021-22 academic year, 87% of public schools reported that the pandemic negatively impacted students’ socioemotional development, according to the CDC. Similarly, EAB reports that depression and anxiety have steadily increased in that period, partially due to their uptick in social media use and online interactivity. The issue has gotten so bad the U.S. Surgeon General believes social media deserves a warning label as youth mental health has become “the defining public health issue of our time.”

With the declining quality of youth mental health coalescing with their poorly matured socio-emotional development, 22% of students in 2023 opt out of college because they are “not mentally ready,” according to EAB. That’s an 8% rise compared to 2021. Moreover, the rates of first-generation and low-income students reporting this are higher.

2. Less confident about college success

EAB reports that 73% of counselors believe the pandemic weakened their students’ academic preparation at least moderately. Their concerns aren’t unfounded: Average assessment scores between 2020 and 2022 have dropped by 5%, the largest ever recorded by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Students’ academic troubles interweave with their stunted social and mental development, making them feel as if they might not belong if they pursued a route in higher education. Consequently, 26% of students are worried about successfully pursuing a degree, which is one of the leading issues for turning a cold shoulder to college.

3. Holding higher ed in lower regard

From 2017 to 2022, freshman enrollment has decreased across three major sectors of higher education: public 4-year (2.9%), public 2-year (22%) and private 4-year (1.8%). While enrollment seems to have either increased or steadied in 2022, the 5-year decline is driven by a massive drop in 2020.

Despite leveling off last year, high school student sentiment for high education has become undeniably worse. Specifically, a fifth of students (20%) now agree “college isn’t worth the cost.” In 2019, less than a tenth agreed with that statement (8%).

And although higher ed’s reputation has taken a massive hit since the pandemic, its enrollment has long since declined. A separate report EAB conducted between 2016 and 2020 found that the rate of college-going high school graduates declined by 10%.

Among the top four reasons students are deciding against college, three have to do with the bottom line: cost.

Top factors students are deterred from attending college

• Cost concerns/debt (70%)
• Costs outweighing earning potential (34%)
• Academic readiness (33%)
• Cost of living (31%)

Gen P is only willing to enroll in higher education if it provides quantitative financial outcomes. This may explain why enrollment in liberal arts colleges has sharply declined over the same period as general enrollment in higher ed has.

4. Hunger for in-person events

The rate of prospective students attending campus visits has bounced back to 2019 levels, and while college fair attendance hasn’t entirely recuperated, they have increased. Similarly, in-person events have increased by 38% in 2022, while virtual event show rates have decreased by 58%.

The most popular recruitment event preferred by students were medium-sized, on-campus events with 50-100 attendees.

While virtual events have decreased significantly, EAB believes colleges should keep hybrid events for low-income students who do not have the time or money to attend events in person.

5. Digital engagement demand

A college’s website can make or break students’ esteem for an institution. For example, nine out of ten prospects make a point of visiting the website of a college they’re considering. Among them, 89% agree that “A well-designed website will improve” their opinion of a college, and 81% agree that “a poorly designed website will negatively affect” their opinion of a college.

While nearly three-quarters of students reported engaging with colleges via social media in 2023, an 11% bump over two years, students still prefer email as their main communication channel.

6. Students’ search behavior is shifting

Students are beginning their college search way later than four years ago. While the rate of students starting their college search their spring sophomore year was 67% in 2019, it was down 40% in 2023. However, EAB is unconvinced that this is a long-term trend, as the pandemic could have disrupted their priorities.

One long-term trend regarding students’ college selection process is that they visit colleges later. EAB posits that one possible reason is that students are waiting to know whether they were accepted and if their financial aid package is worthy enough to consider attending.

Similarly, Black and Hispanic/Latinx students are more likely than any other race/ethnicity to apply to an institution for being test optional. This is likely due to professional organizations purporting that standardized tests contain inherent biases against these demographics.

Trends exacerbated by the pandemic

Most of Gen P’s traits did not arise in a vacuum. EAB believes that some of their most significant characteristics result from long-developing trends that the pandemic helped push to the forefront. Among them are:

• Mental health concerns
• Academic achievement
• Equity gaps
• Student value of higher ed

The post Know who you enroll: the 6 traits of the upcoming college student appeared first on University Business.

It’s a question that Noah Geisel, the micro-credential program manager at the University of Colorado Boulder, asks employers, admissions counselors and all other professionals trying to find the most qualified human among the swaths of faceless applicants—the hay. Currently, too many industry stakeholders are too dependent on the pitchfork, according to Geisel.

“It’s a crummy tool,” he quips. Pitchforks stab chunks of hay and toss it around to search for the needle, adding to the chaos and confounding the seeker. One would be better off using a high-powered magnet to attract the needle to them rather than attempting to cut the hay out of the way.

Digital credentials and the machine-readable devices that can authenticate them, Geisel believes, are precisely that tool.

He joins a budding cohort of higher education professionals, industry leaders and state legislators who recognize its revelatory potential to foster the next chapter of academic equity, workforce access and attractive program offerings in higher ed.

What exactly are digital credentials, and what are they good for?

Micro-credentials, alternative credentials, stackable credentials—the list goes on, creating a jargon soup many leaders are hesitant to touch.

“It is confusing. Academic microcredentials, nonacademic microcredentials. There are still many moving parts,” said one higher education leader, according to EDUCASUE’s QuickPoll survey on micro-credential trends.

What’s important is how digital credentials umbrella all these programs to provide admissions counselors and employers a nuanced, insightful snapshot of an applicant’s specific skillsets. Geisel says it best: A micro-credential is to a digital credential, what a degree is to a diploma. And combining a diploma and digital credentials creates a textured picture.

“Digital credentials can contextualize formal recognition of achievement, skills, competencies and experiences. A diploma just has a name on it. If a diploma is issued with digital credential technology, we can contextualize it to turn it in from this flat piece of paper to this 360-degree, high-definition narrative,” says Geisel. “It takes on a storytelling capacity to better communicate who this person is as a learner and achiever.”

The key to developing a meaningful digital credential is that it communicates a specific value, much like a currency does. If it’s not specific, then it’s frivolous.

“On one hand, it can be so granular as to lose meaningfulness, but on the other end, where you aren’t specific, you can also lose meaning,” says Geisel. “What if we issued a badge on DEI?” Geisel says. “At best, the most reliable signal there is a hiring manager knows you’re interested in it, you know? It’s such a broad thing to have a credential called DEI because it’s lacking in granularity.”

While a DEI credential may be too broad, Geisel adds, one highlighting the specific competencies learned within the DEI curriculum is on the right track. Here’s a good example for one: sustainability planning for business. That’s a credential Geisel is currently issuing at CU Boulder.

For beginners in the digital credential space, the most important aspect to focus on is not its taxonomy. It should be on whether it is effectively communicating something of concrete value and contextualizing the person behind the credential.

Digital credentials’ great potential

Certificates and special non-degree credentials were the only programs to experience positive enrollment rates across every sector of higher education this past spring semester, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Private for-profit and 2-year institutions were the only sectors of higher education to increase enrollment, and it’s a direct result of their impressive non-degree enrollment rates.

In the workforce, a February report found that 95% of employers said a résumé listing micro-credentials benefited the candidate because it demonstrates a willingness for skill development (76%).

“Everybody’s talking about micro-credentials, even those campuses that a year or two ago were saying they weren’t. They’re changing their tune,” says Kristi Wold-McCormick, assistant vice provost and University Registrar at CU Boulder and president-elect of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). “The ‘why’ is a big question when we talk to different campuses.”

Wold-McCormick finds that institutions are incentivized by their potential to broaden their reach, diversify revenue streams, and competitive pressure from other institutions beginning their programs. Legislatures, too, are driving the movement, as they’re interested in seeing how schools can turn some of these learning opportunities into stackable credentials.

“How can some of these micro-credentials be stacked into certificates, and how can certificates be stacked into degrees?” says Wold-McCormick. “It’s incremental learning, which I think appeals to populations that haven’t historically had a path to traditional education.”

Wold-McCormick and other academic leaders are realizing that micro-credentials can tap a new range of students that have traditionally been boxed out of higher education. While online learning has been the predominant medium for the working class to attain a degree, nearly half have not completed their last program of study. Similarly, Black and Hispanic adults interested in pursuing higher education but are not enrolled are significantly more responsible for caring for a child or family member than white adults.

“They can be used to help get people into higher education streams that traditionally don’t have that access by giving them opportunities to take a course or two in smaller credentials,” says Wold-McCormick. “It can then give them that roadmap on how to use these credentials to inform larger credentials and keep that interest going once they’ve gotten a taste for it.”

Despite the direct interest from students and employers in micro-credentials, most colleges and universities are behind the eight ball. Only 9% of institutions have a mature micro-credential program, according to EDUCAUSE. Another 32% say they have a program that is not yet mature.

Standardizing together

As colleges and universities develop their programs, Wold-McCormick cautions higher education stakeholders of the dangers of developing digital credentials in silos.

“What we don’t want are different types of guidance and standardizations and reports coming out from all these different associations that might not be aligned,” she says. “What we need to do as a higher ed community is get on the same page regarding definitions and standards.”

And as passionate as Geisel is about digital credentials’ ability to open the doors for new student demographics, he urges stakeholders to be intentional, vigilant even, to ensure those voices are in the room developing it as well.

“There’s so much power in deciding what counts because we are also deciding at that moment what doesn’t make the cut,” Geisel says. “When we’re looking around the room and realizing that for all of our talk and intentions and passion for serving learners who do not look like the learners who have historically been served well by our institutions. If we’re not seeing those people represented in the room, I think that’s a huge opportunity for us to pump the brakes.”

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Despite first-generation college students making up one-third of today’s students, only 27% graduate in four years, according to NASPA’s Center for First Generation Student Success. Among those from low-income households, about 90% do not graduate within six years, according to EAB, an education consulting firm.

“First-generation students too often come to our institutions, and it seems like this maze of, ‘How do I get to where I think I want to go? How do I even figure out where I want to go?'” says Kessler Scholars Collaborative Executive Director Gail Gibson. “This is so critical to think about when working to find success for these students.”

The Kessler Scholars Collaborative embarked on a mission in 2017 to support this vulnerable slice of the student body at a handful of esteemed institutions, and its pilot program proved a success. First-generation college students’ four-year graduation rate at the University of Michigan reached 83%, one point less than continuing education students. At Johns Hopkins, students experienced a 100% first-to-second-year persistence rate. Consequently, its buzz is growing.

Fueled by a $10 million donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Judy and Fred Wilpon Family Foundation, Kessler Scholars will expand in the upcoming academic year to ten more colleges, nearly tripling its institutional reach and quadrupling its support network to 1,600 first-generation students. The initiative now reaches 16 schools nationwide.

Institutions launching Kessler Scholars Programs must create a student cohort of 60% Pell-eligible students to emphasize support for lower-income students. “The challenges of the first-gen experience aren’t necessarily bound only by income, but we know that when there are income disparities, there are more challenges when the student gets to the institution,” says Gibson.

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Funding the under-resourced

Each newly enrolled school will receive a $1 million grant to support the initiative’s operational costs. Such schools include Bates College (Maine); Brown University; Centre College (Ky.); Ohio State University; St. Mary’s College (Ind.); the University of California, Riverside; the University of Dayton (Ohio); the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Pittsburgh and Washington University in St. Louis.

Kessler Scholars trusts its network to spend the funding however it deems fit. Gibson understands how the needs of first-generation students may differ circumstantially, so Gibson stresses how important it is for each participating institution to spearhead its own operation.

“The schools are making those calls about, ‘What are the resources in our context that are the most critical?'” says Gibson. “If this project is going to work well, it has to be responsive to local context, and that’s why some of the determination about how the funds should best be used are best made at the local level.”

Some colleges have spent money on experiential or high-impact practice learning exploration, staffing, internship funds, research opportunities or emergency funds. For example, at Queens College, a commute-based college, Kessler Scholar students are given a transportation stipend. Syracuse University, whose been part of the collaborative since 2020, is using the funds toward laptop distribution.

Collaboration—not competition

While institutions can credit themselves for their solutions, the real magic of being part of the Kessler Scholars Collaborative is its school network. Aside from providing colleges funding, Kessler Scholars is facilitating collaboration between different institutions so that they can get better together—not apart.

“Universities and colleges tend to be pretty siloed places. One of the aims of this project from the start was how we can make this a space where we can truly and authentically bring those silos down,” says Gibson. “How can we re-serve these institutions’ competitive nature so that we are learning from each other that the success at one institution truly can be the success for this greater group.”

Syracuse University has created a powerful mentorship program, which Kessler has shared with other schools to save time and energy and streamline student success rates.

The post This program dedicated to boosting first-gen success rates is tripling down appeared first on University Business.

While Fall enrollment among men and women has mostly declined between 2017 and 2022, women have weathered the storm far better across non-profit and for-profit institutions. For example, male enrollment at 4-year public institutions has dropped nearly 6% more than women, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Among all student demographics in this sector, white men experienced the sharpest decline in enrollment, falling nearly 20%. Moreover, fall enrollment rates for women at for-profit institutions have increased in the same period while male enrollment has declined.

Enrollment numbers don’t tell the whole picture. Men are also graduating at a lower rate than women. The rate at which men are graduating from 4-year institutions is 6% less than that of women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Additionally, a recent report by YouthTruth surveying over 25,000 graduating seniors suggests that the gender gap may widen for higher ed’s next cohort of young students. The Class of 2023 reported that while 68% of young men want to go to college, only 57% expect to actually attend. On the other hand, 83% of young women want to go to college, and 77% expect to go.

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Why are men ducking a college degree?

The reasons why men may be skipping out on college are tangled in a web of cultural and socioeconomic factors.

First, students are increasingly looking at vocational training and short-term credentials as a viable route post-high school, and men are more inclined to pursue unskilled labor, such as construction, to earn a wage. “Men at 18 have a higher wage premium than women,” said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University (Ind.), according to Newsweek.

Secondly, first-generation college students are 44% less likely to graduate than students with at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree, according to the Pew Research Center. Without proper guidance from family members, men who are first-generation college students may not be able to visualize success in academia truly. “You’re encouraged to go better yourself, but my dad would always call me ‘college boy,’” said one student, according to The Hechinger Report. “It was confusing because I thought it was what I was supposed to be doing. But then there’s this resentment.”

College hopefuls from a minority background may be particularly affected by cultural setbacks. For example, initiatives to boost college enrollment at Montclair State University are facing an uphill battle, according to assistant provost Daniel Jean. “There are more accolades for getting out of jail than for graduating from college,” he said. “There’s an anti-intellectual environment that’s gotten worse. The definition of manhood is often flawed.”

Lastly, among college students, men may be struggling internally but not reaching out for help. More than 40% of men considered quitting college in 2022 and find it challenging to remain enrolled. More than half of all students surveyed on why they considered stopping out cited emotional stress and personal mental health reasons.

Community colleges tackling the problem

One of the key objectives the American Psychological Association made to understand better male academic performance was to examine how Black and minority males may be underserved in academia. At least two community college systems have implemented mentorships and success coaches for minority demographics with promising results.

The North Carolina Community College System, in partnership with one edtech company, led the Minority Male Success Initiative (MMSI). This three-year study examined minority male retention rates over three years when assigned a success coach. Consequently, the study found a 22.4% retention increase in new, minority-male, full-time students pursuing an associate degree and a 47% persistence rate increase in the third term among students with a medium and high risk of dropping out. Online students, too, were significantly impacted, as they experienced an 8.8% increase in course completion rates.

Similarly, the African American Male Education Network and Development (A²MEND), spanning across California’s 116-campus community college system, is creating individualized mentoring and meeting spaces for its Black students.  In 2021, A²MEND’s reported that “two-thirds” of its mentored students remained in college during the COVID-19 pandemic despite the overall 8% drop in African American males in that same period. Moreover, “most” students continued their studies by transferring to a California college system institution or an HBCU, according to the statement.

Is the tide changing?

The pandemic may have caused a shift in declining enrollment rates for women. Between Spring 2021 and 2023, female college enrollment has dropped twice the rate of men, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. This concerning figure deserves an analysis over an extended period to judge whether this is an anomaly or a new trend.

The post Men are falling behind in higher ed and the trend may not be letting up appeared first on University Business.

However, Bellwether, a nonprofit dedicated to equitable student success, wages higher education as a whole is due for a remodeling that eliminates the students’ need to make life-altering decisions at step one that will affect their quality of life indefinitely. Sometimes it takes learning from a profession to understand what one actually wants to pursue academically, and, as a result, professionally.

“An Investment, Not a Gamble: Creating More Equitable and Effective Postsecondary Pathways” explores three fundamental trends higher education can keep in mind to regain students’ trust on a cost-heavy journey and recapture their valuation of a degree.

This report is one of two newly released publications launching Bellwether’s Admission, a beta initiative that will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to chart a course toward a more equitable and effective postsecondary system.

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Empower choice at every step of the process

These are the three fundamental elements Bellwether believes students need to make dynamic and effective choices. The more prepared they are, the more they will frame their journey into higher education as an investment rather than a risk.

1. Access to timely, credible information

Students need to have access to ten different elements of information that assists them with answering two things: what they are capable of pursuing and what pathways are available to achieve this. Students need an honest assessment of their intelligence, passion and monetary desires by accessing resources on aptitude tests, labor market demand data and short- and long-term earning potential for a specific industry.

With an understanding of their pursuits, students can research different pathways. When looking into different higher education pathways, potential students should have a transparent knowledge of the true cost of pursuing a degree, demographic completion rates, and the likelihood of employment for that specific pathway.

2. Social capital of navigation

However, the information provided to students doesn’t mean anything if there aren’t strong support networks to provide students the insight. Specifically, marginalized students lack access to advising resources that are culturally inclusive and unbiased. Just one strong navigator can help, Bellwether believes, and technology can help.

3. Innovative pathways to higher education

The kind of information students have access to and the network of resources and individuals assisting with providing that information is limited by the quality of education that higher education is willing to provide.

Credentials, badges and assessments should not be relegated to a “Plan B” for students if they have the potential of providing high-quality, sought-after skills. They can also access students who cannot attend the traditional two- to four-year track. However, the current ambiguity on which ones can be trusted is hindering students from being able to reskill or upskill at their discretion.

An ailing system

Only 51% of students who began a four-year degree in 2012 completed a degree within eight years at that institution, according to NCES. It’s primarily due to these three reasons, which are symptoms of the currently rigid higher ed system.

Inequitable completion rates

59% of Americans who came from the top income quartile earned a bachelor’s degree by 24 years old compared to just 15% from the lowest quartile. Similarly, 20% of first-generation college students earn a bachelor’s degree, compared to 49% of continuing-generation students.

ROI on different degrees varies wildly

An analysis by Third Way found that of the 25,691 bachelor’s degree programs it analyzed, a quarter of its students didn’t pay back their costs in a decade. Even worse, 10% never achieved a return on investment.

Costs outweighing aid

Since 2008, student debt has skyrocketed more than $1 trillion, totaling $1.76 trillion as of Q3 2022, mainly due to median U.S. household income and Pell Grant support being unable to keep up with the rising sticker costs of a full-time undergraduate degree.

The post 3 ways to improve student choice and why it’s important for higher ed’s health appeared first on University Business.

In total, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking 469 anti-LGBQ+ bills in the U.S. and 220 specifically focused on higher education.

As state legislation against diversity, equity and inclusion gain more traction across the United States, state officials in Missouri are concerned about how they might sway LGBTQ+ students from attending their public schools. Missouri’s bill targeting LGBTQ funding passed the House and is on the way to the Senate.

“I definitely identify with that concern,” said Zora Mulligan, Office of the President executive vice president, according to the Springfield News-Leader. “And I know that it’s something students are thinking about as they make decisions about where to attend college and where they think they will have the best experience.”

To help colleges retain this vital demographic of their students, BestAccredited Colleges has identified the nation’s most accepting institutions of LGBTQ+ students, which can guide other schools to take similar measures. After all, LQBTQ+ students contribute to the 7.1% of LGBTQ+ Americans in the country.

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Top 10 most LGBTQ-friendly colleges

BestAccredited Colleges created their rankings based on these traits and opportunities:

• Campus Clubs: Spaces for these students to mingle with others and find their network/support
• LGBTQ+ Housing: Housing exclusively for LGBTQ+ students
• LGBTQ+ Campus Safety: Well-defined procedures that outline how to deal with harassment of LGBTQ+ students. Similarly, policies that promote inclusiveness and govern how this subset of students should be treated.
• LGBTQ+ Counseling: Counselors with specialized training for dealing with the specific challenges this subset of students face
• LGBTQ+ Scholarships:
• National LGBTQ+ Organizations: These aren’t affiliated with any particular school, but is readily available and promoted on campus.

#1 University of Michigan – Ann Arbor

Known for: The Spectrum Center, which is known as the hub of the LGBTQ+ experience. It’s resources range from academic tutoring, to mentoring, to crisis intervention.

#2 Ithaca College

Known for: LQBTQ+-specific course offerings and an advisory committee dedicated to LGBTQ+ issues on campus.

#3 University of Kentucky

Known for: Admission officers and counselors with LGBTQ+-specific training, as well as campus police liaisons.

#4 University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Known for: The Queer-e newspaper with over 2,000 readers, as well as a first-year mentorship program.

#5 DePauw University

Known for: Trans sport teams and an on-campus Rainbow-Community that provides living and networking spaces

#6 Indiana University – Bloomington

Known for: Special scholarships and a network of LGBTQ+-friendly employers, as well as a solid base of non-discrimination policies.

#7 Kansas State University

Known for: Plethora of student organizations, such as the Kansas State University Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA), Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM), and the Gender Collective.

#8 University of New Hampshire

Known for: Queer and gender studies, along with specialized student clubs and gender-inclusive housing.

#9 Kent State University at Kent

Known for: An LGBTQ+ emergency fund for financially disadvantaged students.

#10 University of Arizona

Known for: SafeZone, a community-wide training program. They also offer a fraternity for gay, bisexual, and allied men called Delta Lambda Phi.

The post Concerned about low rate of LGBTQ+ students? Take some notes from these colleges. appeared first on University Business.

This is how the University of Kentucky is gaming its students in a first-of-a-kind program, UK Invests, to develop healthier living habits and drive-up school persistence rates. After a beta test that attracted around 300 students to invest over $40,000, UK—in partnership with Fidelity—is set to roll out the full product this Fall semester.

Vice President of Student Success Kirsten Turner and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Eric Monday view student success as a ladder built by four vital steps: mental and physical well-being, academics, belonging and engagement and financial stability. UK Invests approaches this cycle not by its parts but as a holistic strategy that attracts students through financial incentives and pulls them in with everything else in between.

“This whole thing is about financial literacy but it’s also about the development of habits across those four areas and we want you to hardwire those while you’re here,” says Turner.

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While students have the opportunity to learn a pivotal facet of financial literacy by opening a personal investment account, UK understands how cash-strapped students are. The college is willing to financially support students with their investment journey under the condition that they participate in university activities that adhere to the student persistence ladder.

“Money is a really big incentive to our students,” says Turner. “How can we use that to motivate them to perform behaviors that we want to see them do?”

Turner first recognized how money can be such a potent catalyst for student change during the pandemic. The school gained a 93% vaccination rate without a mandate and of the “levers” used to achieve this was incentives, chief of them being money.

UK intends to fund this initiative through their philanthropic partners and a reallocation of current financial resources with limited positive outcomes, such as student “swag” for attending school events. Donors, according to Turner, are already buzzing with excitement asking how they can be further involved.

“So many of our students that we interact with are concerned that they can’t start investing because they don’t have enough money to start. Well, there are no fees in these accounts, and ultimately, it’s about the habits, not the amount,” says Monday. “The amount can change as they age, but the focus is to get them to understand how the financial decisions they make today can affect them tomorrow.”

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A new report from TimelyCare reveals that 88% of the Class of 2023 feels prepared to enter the workforce. However, half of all managers and business leaders surveyed by ResumeBuilder say it’s difficult to work with their generation all or most of the time. Instead, they’d rather hire Millennials.

Managers cite GenZers’ lack of technological skills, lack of motivation, inattention and thin skin as their top complaints, and they mentioned employees’ lack of motivation and their proclivity to take offense as the top reasons they fired someone. In fact, 65% say they more commonly need to fire GenZers than employees of other generations.

It’s important to note that nearly eight in 10 (79%) graduating seniors say COVID-19 impacted their workforce preparedness, mental health struggles being the top reason (68%) graduates felt behind the eight ball. For example, The National Library of Medicine believes mental illness can affect students’ motivation, concentration and social interactions, and the Class of 2023 endured the pandemic’s impact throughout their four-year college careers.

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How higher ed can bridge the student-employer gap

• Prioritize mental health resources: Nine in 10 seniors say mental health resources are a necessity for college students, according to TimelyCare. Even after graduating, 82% affirmed they would continue using mental health resources.
• Develop student interpersonal skills: “As a result of COVID-19 and remote education, GenZers may lack the foundation to be more successful than older generations in entry-level positions,” said Chief Career Advisor Stacie Haller. “We know that with remote work and education, communication skills do not develop as well and people tend to work more independently. This generation may need more training when it comes to professional skills.”
• Build on current success at your institutions’ career development centers: Of the nearly nine out of 10 students who feel prepared to enter the workforce, 81% attribute that to career development offices, resources or programs. The top five most cited contributions they made were resume or cover letter help, job sourcing, providing networking opportunities, sharpening interview skills and post-college planning.

“The survey results make clear that COVID’s long shadow continues to impact today’s students as they transition into tomorrow’s employees,” said Jerrod Hinders, Counseling Center Coordinator at Amarillo College, whose students have access to TimelyCare. “It’s critical that both colleges and employers invest in their mental health, basic needs and overall well-being.”

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Determined to leverage these tools in higher education, the University of North Texas and Reynolds Community College (Va.) are building a culture of faculty and administrators equipped to leverage AI-powered predictive analytics and data visualization products to strategize more effective enrollment tactics.

“Prior to having the tools in their hands, there was a big question mark. ‘Why is this a game changer?’ We already had tons of reports. Staff was churning out literally thousands of static PDFs out of my unit,” says Melanie Boynton, director of institutional research and analytics at Reynolds. “The internal selling we had to do was difficult, but now people really love these tools. This is the most data-informed they’ve ever been in their entire lives.”

Before North Texas had any analytics software suite, the administration’s only way to assess future recruitment and enrollment trends was by backtracking minute details and analyzing the only results they had – the ones that had already happened. Now, North Texas has 1,200+ trained employees, from administrative assistants up to the president, using their predictive analytics software suit to forecast trends years from now to make more informed decisions, says Jason Simon, associate vice president of data, analytics and institutional research at North Texas.

Preparing for the storm

Simon thanks his university president, Neal Smatresk, for modernizing North Texas’ enrollment strategies. “It takes effort and support from the top to achieve a higher level of analytic maturity,” he said. “There are some foundational hurdles that most institutions haven’t figured out how to get over yet.”

However, Simon believes schools may be running out of time to adapt.

“As we approach the demographic cliff of the traditional 18-24-year-old market, I believe that institutions that mature their analytics and invest in their people who know the data are probably going to fare a little better than those who are a little late to the party,” says Jason Simon, associate vice president of data, analytics and institutional research at North Texas. “I’m concerned for students. We all want to see us produce graduates.”

Making data human

Boynton is the first to admit that getting into the depth of an institution’s data can be overwhelming, and that’s precisely what makes their statistical software suit, SAS, such a game-changer for them. The real “tool” it provides, Simon argues, is its ability to take huge swaths of data and create a data model from it to drive clear, intentional decision-making. “Data is about storytelling,” he says. “Because it’s a visual approach to data, it allows us to tell stories very easily.”

Similarly, Boynton views the way leadership at Reynolds now makes strategic decisions as a blend of art and science. “Making decisions purely on your intuition or what the data says isn’t great,” she says. “It’s about balance.”

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Applying the technology

North Texas uses over 20+ analytic products to assist decision-making with academic performance, financial aid and budgeting to name a few. Let’s look at a few ways the two schools are using their data-literate staff to enroll its largest classes ever and increase graduation rates.

Recruitment

Matured analytic tools allow North Texas to leverage publicly available data to identify high-growth areas for competitive academic programs and how they stack up with other institutions. When deciding on adding or changing curriculum, administration has more to rely on than anecdotal evidence and intuition.

The figure below is an elegant, accessible calculation of the proportion of admitted students who enroll elsewhere, broken down by their intended academic program and number of enrollees. This helps administration know which of their programs need concentrated outreach efforts and program re-tooling.

Retention and persistence

• Simon partnered with North Texas’ division of student affairs to track traditionally aged college students in the fall semester who were involved and engaged in programs outside of the classroom. North Texas proactively reached out to students they identified were not contributing to extracurricular programs to assess how they were doing and if any follow-up actions were necessary if the student was indeed struggling.
• North Texas also has a “D, W, F, I” product that analyzes how many students—and what types of students (demographic, major, etc.)—are struggling with a particular class and with a particular teacher. Assessing student performance by teacher allows North Texas to gain an understanding of if the issue is a with particular student body or with a professor.
• Using SAS has allowed Reynolds to gain a better insight into their large pool of adult learners aged 41 years old and older. Reynolds already knew that this student body liked to take STEM courses. They used to employ student support measures across all 15 of their STEM subjects, straining resources. However, Reynolds now knows the majority of their adults take biology and math courses. Their support efforts are now efficient and strategic.
• Just as Reynolds uses SAS to identify adult learners, both institutions also use the product to identify how their students of all ethnicities and first-generation status are doing, combatting historical performance equity gaps that may have persisted at each school. Reynolds’ dashboard, as Boynton puts it, identifies the “where.”

“For groups out there who want to go on this journey, you’re going to go through that learning curve, and that question mark is going to be there,” Boynton says. “Now it’s a thing where if this thing doesn’t run, I’ll immediately get a message in the middle of the night asking what’s going on.”

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