Higher Education Trends - 2016

In this week’s higher education notes and trends, predictive behavior technology comes to the education sector, for-profit schools see sharp declines and a closer look at how the University of Southern California is differentiating itself from other prestigious private schools by becoming a leader in recruiting minorities. 

Predictive Behavior Technology Starting to MAKE an Impact in Higher Education

Inside Higher Ed published an interesting article on how some firms are using predictive behavior technology to anticipate student drop-out and hypothesizing how that data may, in the future, reduce student churn.  Civitas, an education technology company uses the data from learning management systems (LMS) and have correlated the relationship between the number of interactions with the LMS and success rate in a particular class. In English, if student’s login to the LMS for a certain class early in the semester and multiple times, they are far less likely to drop the course. This may seem intuitive but confirming a trend could be the start of strategies to proactively reach out to students who don’t log in frequently to offer assistance.  Predictive behavior tactics (also referred to as “machine learning”) are finding its way into more and more industries as the application for the data is seemingly limitless. Ignoring the techy naming conventions, you’ve likely been exposed to this type of technology hundreds of times without realizing it. When you shop at Amazon, your browsing history is used to serve up recommended products. Facebook ads use data from your likes, affiliations and posts to serve up the ads that best meet your interests; these are both common applications of machine learning.  It is great to see the higher education community apply this technology for more positive student outcomes and not just commercial application. 

For-Profit Schools Continue Downward Trend

Another for-profit post-secondary institution is feeling the heat. Education Management Corporation recently announced that 22 of the 26 Brown Mackie campuses are set to close after a steady period of decreased demand for its programs.  For-profits have been under perpetual scrutiny for their aggressive recruitment strategies and low student completion rates in recent years. The introduction of the Obama administration's gainful employment regulations directly targeted for-profit’s and career colleges, designed to increase accountability by forcing programs to prove after graduation employment metrics align with tuition costs. Additionally, transparency on student success and improving student outcomes are principal areas of focus of the new regulations.  Once a booming industry, it will be interesting to see how for-profits adapt their offerings and strategy; one thing is for certain, the old ways will not survive much longer.

University of Southern California Sets the New Standard for Diversifying Recruitment Practises

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent interview with UCS President C.L. Max Nikias on how the university’s outreach efforts have increased its enrollment of students who use low-income grants to 25% of its current base, bucking the trend of large, private institutions whose student base comes from predominantly wealthy, upper-middle-class homes.                                                  “We decided that we wanted to be very, very proactive in terms of recruiting students who are first-generation [college students]. That wasn’t the case seven or eight years ago,” said President Nikias. “We visit 2,000 high schools around the country and we promote USC programs. We do it twice a year, in the fall and spring. We’re not sitting back and whoever applies to USC, then we screen and decide. The second thing that we do is that we pay attention to the pipeline because American higher education will only address the so-called diversity issue successfully if we pay attention to the pipeline. Without doing that, we’re kidding ourselves.” In last week’s Higher Education Notes and Trends post, I openly questioned how the academic world would adapt to the changing demographic trends of enrolling students, specifically larger, more prestigious schools. As fate would have it, UCS has shown one way it can be done, with very tangible results.