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  • Redefining Student Success with Digital Marketing and CRM

    Redefining Student Success with Digital Marketing and CRM

    Reading Time: 10 minutes

    The way higher institutions define and acknowledge student success in higher education today is changing rapidly. Today, diplomas and transcripts are no longer the benchmarks for measuring the success rate of students in their academics. To define success, you have to consider a complete and holistic journey and vision. Factors like the student’s academic excellence, mental and physical growth, and preparation for what comes next are increasingly becoming key to defining academic success. This is why universities are looking beyond enrolment figures, they are now more focused on helping their students thrive academically, socially, and professionally.

    This brings us to the role of modern digital marketing tactics and advanced CRM tools. Colleges can create an environment that supports every student with the right resources they need to succeed, using the data-driven outreach and personalized support that these tools offer. In this blog post, we’ll explore the true meaning of student success and what key metrics are best placed to measure student success in higher education. We’ll also show you how marketing automation and CRM platforms (including HEM’s own Mautic for Education and Student Portal) can help drive real student achievement. Read on to find out what strategies and tools are best suited to define modern student success.

    Looking for an all-in-one student information and CRM solution tailored to the education sector?

    Try the HEM Student Portal!

    Redefining Student Success Metrics in Higher Education: Beyond GPAs and Graduation Rates 

    Who you ask about the definition of academic success will also determine the type of answer you get. Administrators might lean towards metrics and retention rates. Students tend to have a more personal definition of success, like having supportive mentors, developing confidence, and building lasting connections.

    This brings us to the question: What is the definition of student success? The definition of student success encompasses building communication skills and critical thinking activities, career or grad school readiness. In essence, a successful student grows through campus life, engages with the community, and adequately prepares themself for future opportunities.

    Below are components of a comprehensive student success definition:

    • Academic Achievement: Mastering course material and maintaining strong GPAs
    • Persistence and Retention: Continuing enrolment term after term until graduation
    • Personal Development: Cultivating critical thinking, communication skills, and emotional intelligence
    • Engagement and Belonging: Finding community through meaningful campus involvement
    • Career Readiness: Building the confidence and skills needed for post-graduation success

    As EDUCAUSE, a prominent education technology organization, points out, student success programs “promote student engagement, learning, and progress toward the student’s own goals through cross-functional leadership and the strategic application of technology.” This reaffirms the fact that true success calls for a harmonious relationship between human connection and technology. 

    Measuring What Matters: The Metrics of Achievement 

    How do we truly and correctly measure student success if we say that there are many sides to it? What is the definition of a successful student, and how to measure student success in higher education? While this question has intrigued higher educational professionals for decades, today’s schools are finding the right answers by combining traditional metrics and emerging indicators.

    Traditional measurements include retention rates (are students returning each semester?), graduation rates (are they completing their degrees?), and academic performance (are they mastering the material?).

    Now, these numbers matter. They help us tell to a reasonable degree if students are progressing toward their educational goals, or not. However, there’s a richer story to be told beyond these statistics, and you’ll learn about it shortly.

    Student success metrics commonly include:

    • Retention Rates: The percentage of students who return for subsequent terms
    • Graduation Rates: How many students complete their degrees within expected timeframes
    • Academic Performance: Beyond grades—how students grow intellectually over time
    • Student Engagement: Participation in everything from research opportunities to campus events
    • Student Satisfaction: Feedback that reveals how students experience their education
    • Post-Graduation Outcomes: Career placement, graduate school acceptance, and alumni achievements

    Away from these quantifiable measures, today’s schools value the essence of student-defined success. For them, it could be a first-generation student finding their voice, an international student building cross-cultural friendships, or a working parent balancing studies with family life. The schools that manage to combine statistical trends with individual stories will ultimately get the most complete picture of things. 

    Examples: ULM developed FlightPath, an open-source advising system for degree audits, early alerts, and “What If?” planning. It is designed to help you determine your progress toward a degree.

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    Source: ULM FlightPath

    Digital Marketing: Setting the Stage for Success

    What do marketing strategies have to do with student success? What does digital marketing contribute to student success? Higher education marketing and student success are interconnected through a series of key touchpoints.

    The path to college student success often begins with that first Instagram post that catches a high school junior’s eye or that personalized email that addresses their specific interests. It is all part of the coordinated digital marketing campaigns that today’s schools employ, to great success.

    Here’s how digital marketing strategies  can help nurture student success:

    • Attracting the right-fit students: When marketing materials paint an authentic picture of campus culture, incoming students arrive with realistic expectations and are more ready to engage.
    • Personalized communication: Tailored messages that speak to individual aspirations create early connections. When a prospective engineering student receives content about robotics competitions or research labs, they begin envisioning their place in your community.
    • Seamless onboarding: The summer before freshman year can be overwhelming. Automated campaigns that introduce new students to campus resources, share advice from current students, and foster peer connections help transform nervousness into excitement.
    • Feedback loops: Savvy marketing teams don’t just broadcast – they listen. Social media monitoring and regular surveys help identify pain points before they become barriers to success.

    Examples: Gonzaga’s English Language Center moved from siloed data to a Student Success CRM on Salesforce, improving collaboration and early-alert capabilities for ESL learners.

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    Source: Gonzaga University

    CRM Tools: The Backbone of Student Support

    Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are now important tools for tracking and supporting the student journey, especially in today’s data-driven world. These platforms present themselves as centralized hubs that help schools track student progress, identify potential challenges, and carry out timely interventions.

    Colleges can transform how they engage with students at every stage using the right CRM. Take this scenario for example: A first-year student misses out on many classes and fails to log into the learning management system for two weeks. While this might have gone on without being detected in the past, probably until midterm grades showed a significant gap, not anymore. With a CRM, a trigger will set off based on this pattern and send automatic alerts to the students’ advisor, who can now contact support resources to arrest the decline before it further spirals.

    Example: King’s College uses CRM Advise to flag risk factors, like missed classes, and automatically route alerts to advisors and support centers.

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    Source: King’s College – CRM Advise

    Here are six ways CRM tools elevate student success in higher education:

    1. Centralizing the 360° Student View: Modern CRMs integrate data from admissions, advising, financial aid, and student life to create comprehensive student profiles. When an advisor can see that a struggling student is also working 30 hours weekly, they can provide more targeted support.
    2. Enabling Early Alerts: By analyzing patterns like missed assignments or decreased LMS activity, CRMs can identify at-risk students before a crisis develops.
    3. Automating Support Workflows: Smart CRMs ensure consistent communication throughout the student journey. From congratulatory messages when students ace exams to gentle nudges when they miss classes, automated workflows maintain continuous engagement without overwhelming staff.
    4. Providing Data-driven Insights: Institutions can analyze which interventions are best-suited to promote student success, using comprehensive data collection.
    5. Streamlining Administrative Processes: By simplifying registration, financial aid processes, and advising appointments, CRMs eliminate frustrating barriers that might otherwise derail student progress.
    6. Promoting Community: Many platforms include features that connect students with mentors, study groups, and support communities. These all help to nurture the sense of belonging that anchors students during challenging times.

    With solutions like Mautic by HEM, schools can enjoy robust CRM and marketing automation tailored specifically for them. The platform provides a central hub where you can manage all of your leads, applicants, agents, and parent contacts, enabling personalized support throughout the student lifecycle.

    Example: Michael Vincent Academy, a Los Angeles-based beauty school, sought to enhance its student recruitment efficiency by streamlining lead management and follow-up processes. With HEM’s Mautic CRM, the academy automated key marketing tasks and introduced lead scoring, enabling staff to focus on high-value prospects. This allowed the team to dedicate more time to building meaningful connections with prospective students, ultimately improving recruitment outcomes.

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    Source: HEM

    HEM’s Student Portal combines online application creation and management, SIS functionality, and lead-nurturing tools in one centralized system. As a student, this is designed to help you manage your journey – from initial application to enrolment to graduation and beyond.

    As a school, using these specialized tools can help you address your institution’s unique needs and leverage the capacity of generic CRMs.

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    Source: HEM

    Example: Students at Western Michigan University (WMU) use the Student Success Hub’s CRM to schedule and manage appointments, review advising notes, work on success plans, and tasks.

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    Source: WMU Student Success Hub Training

    The Impact of Dedicated Success Programs

    One of the key ingredients of college student success is the use of structured programming that helps students navigate important stages of their academic journey. Many schools have found value in offering a student success class or course, such as a freshman seminar or “College 101” course that equips students with essential skills and connections.

    What is a student success class in college? It’s a course designed to help students be successful in college. It aims to help students properly navigate both academic requirements and college culture. Here is a list of subjects that these classes typically cover:

    • Effective study strategies tailored to college-level expectations
    • Time management techniques for balancing academic and personal demands
    • Campus resource navigation, introducing students to everything from tutoring to counselling
    • Financial literacy skills to manage college costs
    • Stress management and wellness practices
    • Career exploration and professional development

    Research continues to show that the students who complete these courses earn more credits and have a higher graduation rate than those who don’t participate. 

    The Power of Storytelling in Student Success Marketing

    By channelling authentic storytelling into their marketing narratives, schools can connect with prospective and current students. Stories have a way of transforming abstract content as “retention initiatives” into relatable human experiences that inspire action.

    What if you created a series featuring diverse student voices? Think of the impact it can have. Think of first-generation students who initially had doubts about themselves but connected with mentors who had faith in them, the transfer student who found unexpected opportunities, or the international student who calls the school home.

    Not only do these narratives attract prospective students, but they remind the current ones that challenges are not special and that success is very much achievable. 

    Tips to Boost Student Success with Marketing and CRM

    Institutions looking to take advantage of digital marketing and CRM tools more effectively should consider these practical strategies.

    1. Use Data to Personalize Outreach: Segment your communications based on student interests, challenges, and milestones to provide relevant support throughout their journey.
    2. Implement Early Alert Systems: Configure your CRM to identify warning signs like decreased engagement or academic struggles, enabling timely, personalized interventions.
    3. Integrate Your Systems: Ensure your marketing automation, CRM, and student information systems communicate seamlessly for a complete view of each student’s experience.
    4. Maintain Consistent Communication: Develop messaging flows that accompany students from prospective inquiry through graduation while remaining authentic and supportive.
    5. Leverage Student Feedback for Content: Gather testimonials and success stories that inspire current students and set realistic expectations for prospects.
    6. Train Your Team on Tools: Invest in comprehensive training so everyone, from admissions counselors to faculty advisors, can effectively use your CRM to support student success.

    Example: GSU’s Student Success 2.0 initiative includes implementing an enterprise CRM for a unified student record and early-alert triggers to boost retention by up to 1.2 % annually, with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) also set up to that effect.

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    Source: GSU Student Success 2.0 Initiative

    Creating a Culture of Success: A Holistic Approach

    The most effective approach to student success blends marketing insights, CRM capabilities, and human connections in one big package. With these elements working in harmony, institutions can create environments where students from all backgrounds can thrive.

    Remember that behind every data point is a student with dreams, challenges, and unlimited potential. When you align marketing, technology, and support programs around a student-centred vision of success, you can get positive outcomes in return. We don’t just improve statistics, we transform lives and fulfill higher education’s fundamental promise.

    Looking for an all-in-one student information and CRM solution tailored to the education sector?

    Try the HEM Student Portal!

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Question: What is the definition of student success?

    Answer: The definition of student success encompasses building communication skills and critical thinking activities, career or grad school readiness.

    Question: How to measure student success in higher education?

    Answer: While this question has intrigued higher educational professionals for decades, today’s schools are finding the right answers by combining traditional metrics and emerging indicators.

    Question: What is a student success class in college?

    Answer: It’s a course designed to help students be successful in college. It aims to help students properly navigate both academic requirements and college culture.

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  • Probably not the next Laurentian, but…..

    Probably not the next Laurentian, but…..

    As I noted yesterday, there are only two institutions in Canada which have run deficits in each of the last five years: St. Thomas University (STU) and Vancouver Island University (VIU). In both instances, these institutions have had deficits averaging between 4 and 5% of their total income over the course of those five years. By any definition, this puts them on some kind of watch list.

    As Figures 1 and 2 show, the root cause of both institutions’ problems is the same—namely, a big two-stage decline in enrolment. The first stage came in the early 10s, when the domestic youth population was shrinking, and the second came during Covid. The numbers are particularly bad at VIU, where the number of international students is down by over 35%. If these institutions could just get their enrolment numbers back to where they were in 2018, then STU’s tuition income would be about $3 million higher, while VIU’s would rise by roughly $20 million. In both cases, that would be enough to put the institutions well into the black. The much larger numbers at VIU are not just because it is a larger institution, but because the recent fall in student numbers is happening disproportionately on the international student side.

    Figure 1: Domestic and International Enrolment, St Thomas University, 2012-12 to 2022-23

    Figure 2: Domestic and International Enrolment, Vancouver Island University, 2012-12 to 2022-23

    At this point, folks, I am going to have to do something which some might find triggering, which is to invoke the L-word, because I am quite certain that everyone remembers the extent to which falling enrolment and a drop in tuition revenue were among the key elements in the collapse at Laurentian. I am not going to do this because I necessarily think either of these institutions is following the Laurentian path exactly. One very big dissimilarity is that neither STU nor VIU has any long-term debt, which was another of the key factors at work at Laurentian. Rather, I am doing it because I think at least some of the same dynamics are at play, particularly at VIU, which just happens to be about the same size as Laurentian in terms of enrolment and budget size, albeit without some of Laurentian’s big ambitions with respect to research. In fact, given the VIU/Laurentian similarity, I will concentrate the rest of this analysis on this west coast institution. I might come back to STU sometime, but for the moment, I will leave it aside.

    Let’s start by looking at budget surpluses over time at VIU and Laurentian. Figure 3 shows the last fifteen years of VIU’s surpluses/deficits and compares them to the fifteen years prior to the insolvency declaration at Laurentian. Based simply on the last five years or so, there is no question that VIU is actually worse than Laurentian. The institution has spent $34 million more than it earned in the last five years; Laurentian, in contrast, was only $9 million in the red over a similar period prior to insolvency. But shift your eyes to the left of that graph for a minute, and you’ll see another difference: Laurentian ran deficits basically for most of the fifteen years prior to its events, whereas VIU was in pretty good shape. What that meant was that when the bad times started five years ago, VIU had a decent accumulated surplus to draw from. That is why the institution has been able to carry on over the past few years, but since it has now drawn down well over half of its accumulated surplus ($30.6 million in 2024, down from $78 million in 2018), that strategy doesn’t really have any more room to run.

    Figure 3: Long-term Record of Surpluses/Deficits, in Millions, Laurentian vs VIU

    There are also significant differences between the two institutions when you look at cash balances, as below in Figure 4. Laurentian was basically out of gas and surviving on fumes for several years prior to the collapse, with cash reserves barely enough to cover a couple of weeks of operating expenditures; VIU has never been anywhere near that point. However, note the big dip in VIU’s cash last year. It reversed itself, but only because the institution sold off a big chunk of portfolio investments precisely (I think) to boost cash reserves. There are warning signs here for sure, albeit nothing like Laurentian’s blaring klaxons.

    Figure 4: Long-term Record of Cash Position at End of Fiscal, in Millions, Laurentian vs VIU

    The final comparison I want to make has to do with what is known as the “working capital ratio.” This is one of the key financial tests that the Government of Ontario uses to identify institutions in financial trouble, and it is the ratio between “current assets” (basically, cash plus accounts receivable) to current liabilities plus deferred contributions for research. Anything below a ratio of 1 puts you in the “high-risk” category.

    (Nota bene: some people think this ratio is not very useful because in a liquid market, institutions can move “long-term” investments to short-term fairly easily—as indeed VIU seems to have done last year when it sold off some of its portfolio investments in order to recharge cash reserves. However, since it’s an official government metric, it’s probably due a little respect, so I am using it here anyway.)

    One challenge in comparing VIU and Laurentian on the working capital metric is that they don’t quite calculate their liabilities identically, mainly because their respective provincial governments don’t ask them to categorize balance sheets in the same way. Specifically, VIU does not break out “current” from long-term liabilities, and also it lists substantial sums of tuition fees owed as “deferred revenue” while Laurentian does not. My read of this is therefore that to make the two sets of data on current liabilities comparable, one has to exclude from VIU’s numbers both “deferred capital contributions” and “deferred revenue”. Which is what I have done below in Figure 5.

    What Figure 5 shows is arguably similar to what Figure 3 shows: a metric in which a) neither institution looks particularly good, but b) Laurentian’s position is on the whole worse, and c) Laurentian’s deterioration is long and gradual while VIU’s is rather sharp.

    Figure 5: Long-term Record of Working Capital Ratios, Laurentian vs VIU

    To be crystal clear: I don’t think VIU is really on the verge of Laurentian-ing. It has no long-term debt. It has had a bigger cushion to fall back on. The province is on the verge of a youth boom, which should help a bit in bringing student numbers and revenues back up. It is working for a provincial government which is far more proactive than the frequently clueless one in Queen’s Park. And in fall 2023, it adopted a fairly aggressive if not especially strategic program of cost-cutting (ten percent for all units over three years), which in theory was supposed to right the ship.

    However:

    1. Even if VIU is not Laurentian, many of its key financial indicators look awfully familiar. From deficits to cash levels, to working cash ratios, it all seems very Mark Twain: history does not repeat, but it rhymes.
    2. That aggressive deficit reduction package didn’t reckon with Marc Miller, whose cuts to visas and policy of publicly crapping on the quality of Canadian institutions is likely to result in further drops in international student numbers and therefore reductions in income in the millions of dollars. There could still be problems ahead (I assume this may be what has been behind this week’s decision to consider suspending and/or cancelling roughly twenty programs at the diploma, undergraduate and graduate levels).
    3. The VIU community appears to be only dimly aware of how bad things are. When VIU President Deborah Saucier recently resigned, it was—according to CBC at least—because the VIU community would not support further cuts because they were not “supported by evidence.” Now, there may have been more to it than that (Lord knows CBC can be pretty crapulous at fact-checking post-secondary stories), but if it is anywhere near the truth, then the VIU community is clearly having some trouble facing a pretty serious reality, and that complicates any revival plan.

    Vancouver Island needs a second, flourishing undergraduate university and that can only be achieved through a strong financial base. Best wishes, therefore, to the folks at VIU as they grapple with these issues.

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  • Decoder Replay: Australia waltzes with two superpowers

    Decoder Replay: Australia waltzes with two superpowers

    The index ranks 26 countries and territories in terms of their capacity to shape their external environment. It evaluates international power through 133 indicators across themes including military capability and defense networks, economic capability, diplomatic and cultural influence, as well as resilience and future resources.

    The portrait that emerges from its latest survey is that while China’s overall power still lags the United States, it is not far behind, even though the current economic slowdown is holding it back in the short term.

    After the two superpowers, trailing a long way back as the next most powerful countries in the Asia-Pacific are Japan, India, Russia and then Australia.

    Economic versus military power

    The index confirms that China draws its power from its central place in Asia’s economic system, while that of the United States comes from its military capability and unrivaled regional defense networks.

    Australia’s relationship with the two mirrors the dilemma facing the whole region.

    The United States is far and away Australia’s main strategic partner and has been since the Second World War.

    In a deal signed in March 2023, Australia is set to acquire a conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability with help from the United States through the AUKUS Treaty, which also involves the United Kingdom.

    This was followed by plans to station more U.S. forces in Australia, especially in air bases in northern and western Australia. There are also moves to increase cooperation between both countries in space, speed up efforts for Australia to develop its own guided missile production capability and work with the United States to deepen security relationships with other countries in the region — most notably Japan.

    This comes as Australia has been working hard to get trade restrictions eased with China after it imposed tariffs on a range of Australian products in 2020 during a standoff with the previous government.

    Dining with Joe and Jinping

    China is still Australia’s largest two-way trading partner in goods and services, accounting for almost one third of its trade with the world. Two-way trade with China grew 6.3% in 2020-21 to A$267 billion (about US$180 billion), mostly due to the coal and iron ore sectors.

    So as it stands, Australia’s security relies on the United States but its economic prosperity is heavily influenced by China.

    It’s no surprise then that Prime Minister Albanese had to walk a fine line in 2023 — going from a state dinner at the White House with U.S. President Biden on 26 October to meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping 11 days later.

    Colin Heseltine, a former Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Beijing and now senior advisor for independent think tank Asialink, said Australia is in a conundrum over China.

    “Australia’s major trading partner is also perceived as our No.1 security threat,” he said.

    Normalizing relations before an abnormal U.S. election

    Heseltine believes there is a mood of cautious optimism about the growing relationship between Australia and China since the election of the Albanese government, but expects the future will not be completely free of headwinds.

    In the end, Australia, like many other nations in the region, is pragmatically making the situation work. It has seen relations with Beijing normalize, or as some prefer to describe it, stabilize.

    As for the United States, relations between Canberra and Washington remain vibrant and strong.

    The next big issue for Australia in managing this twin policy of improving ties with the Asia-Pacific’s two diverse superpowers could well be the 2024 U.S. presidential election — who wins it and if China features in it.

    And those things are outside its control.

    Three questions to consider:

    1. What is the emerging dilemma facing most democratic nations in the Asia-Pacific region?
    2. Is China likely to overtake the United States as the Asia-Pacific’s major superpower anytime soon?
    3. What is the biggest threat to the current status quo facing nations in the region?

     

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  • Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi says "justice will prevail" after ICE release (CBS Mornings)

    Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi says "justice will prevail" after ICE release (CBS Mornings)

    Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi spoke with CBS News in his first TV interview since his release from ICE custody. He spent 16 days in detention and now awaits deportation hearings for protesting the war in Gaza.
     

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  • College students — and those not enrolled — see the value in higher education

    College students — and those not enrolled — see the value in higher education

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    Dive Brief:

    • Nearly all surveyed college students, 95%, viewed at least one type of degree or higher education credential as very or extremely valuable, according to research released Wednesday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. Among former students who had stopped out, 93% said the same.
    • The survey also found that students believed their future degrees would provide a good return on investment. Nearly nine out of 10 students, 86%, said they were confident or very confident that their degree or credential would help them make enough money to live comfortably.
    • These findings, released amid growing concerns about higher education’s ROI, suggest U.S. adults still see value in college and believe it will help them enter their desired careers.

    Dive Insight:

    Focus on the ROI of higher education has spiked along with concerns about college costs and student debt levels. Other recent surveys report student concerns about entering into a competitive job market and artificial intelligence diminishing the value of their degrees.

    However, Gallup and Lumina’s annual State of Higher Education report suggests students still have confidence in college. The report is one of the sector’s largest nationally representative surveys and offers a deep look into how U.S. adults without a higher ed credential view the sector.

    In October, researchers surveyed almost 14,000 people between the ages of 18 and 59 who had graduated from high school but had not earned a college degree. Of them, 6,000 students were enrolled in a postsecondary program, just under 5,000 had stopped out before earning an associate or bachelor’s degree, and about 3,000 had never enrolled in college.

    Across all three groups, 72% of respondents said a two- or four-year degree is just as important — or even more so — to career success today than it was two decades ago.

    “That so many adults without a degree or credential continue to value some form of education after high school likely relates to the influence they believe higher education, and particularly degrees, can have on career outcomes,” the report said.

    Among students pursuing bachelor’s degrees, 91% reported feeling confident or very confident their diplomas would teach them the skills needed to get their desired job. A strong majority of students in associate and certificate shared that confidence — 89% and 86%, respectively.

    The survey’s results also could bode well for colleges seeking to enroll nontraditional students. 

    Following 2025, the number of high school graduates is expected to begin dropping, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. This long-anticipated decline, dubbed the demographic cliff, has forced many colleges to reevaluate their enrollment pipeline and think beyond recruiting traditional-aged students.

    A third of respondents who have not attended college previously, 34%, said they were likely or very likely to pursue higher education in the next five years. That share was 57% among former students who had stopped out.

    The report also found that fewer students were weighing leaving college, either temporarily or permanently, before completing their program than in previous years.

    The share of students who considered stopping out has dropped from 41% in 2022 to 32% in 2024. But their potential reasons for leaving have remained largely unchanged, with students most frequently citing mental health and stress over the past few years.

    Among students who considered stopping out in recent months, 49% said it was due to emotional stress and 41% cited personal mental health reasons. Almost a quarter, 24%, pointed to the cost of college and a sense of not belonging.

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  • To fill “education deserts,” some states want community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees

    To fill “education deserts,” some states want community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees

    MUSCATINE, Iowa — The suspect moved menacingly toward her, but Elexiana Oliva stood her ground, gun drawn and in a half crouch as she calmly tried to talk him down.

    The confrontation wasn’t real, and neither was the gun. But the lesson was deadly serious.

    Oliva is a criminal justice major at Muscatine Community College in this largely agricultural community along the Mississippi River. She was in a simulation lab, with that scenario projected on a screen as classmates watched, spellbound.

    Just 18, Oliva is determined to become a police detective, a plan that includes earning a bachelor’s degree after she finishes her associate degree here. But she’ll have to go somewhere else to do it — likely, in her case, to a university in Texas.

    Oliva and her classmates here are among the 13 million adults across the country who the American Council on Education estimates live beyond a reasonable commute from the nearest four-year university — a problem getting worse as private colleges in rural places close, public university campuses merge or shut down and rural universities cut majors and programs.

    “It’s not our fault that we grew up in a place where there’s not a lot of big colleges and big universities,” Oliva said.

    Related: Interested in innovations in higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.

    Iowa has joined a growing number of states that are considering letting community colleges like this one offer bachelor’s degrees, or where community colleges have already started adding them, as a way of filling these so-called rural higher education deserts and training workers in rural places for jobs in fields where there are growing shortages.

    “It would be a big game-changer, especially for those who have a low income or a medium income and want to go and further our education,” Oliva said.

    Downtown Muscatine, Iowa. About an hour from the nearest public university, Muscatine could benefit from a proposal to let community colleges offer bachelor’s degrees. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    About half of states allow community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees. In Iowa, which is among the half that don’t, lawmakers have commissioned a study to determine whether it should add bachelor’s degrees in some programs at the state’s 15 community colleges. An interim report is due in May.

    A similar proposal in Illinois is backed by that state’s governor, JB Pritzker, who has said the move would make it easier and more affordable for residents to get degrees — “particularly working adults in rural communities.” Three-quarters of community college students in Illinois said they would pursue bachelor’s degrees if they could do it on the same campus, according to a survey released by Pritzker’s office.

    Kentucky’s legislature is considering converting one technical and community college into a four-year institution offering both technical and bachelor’s degrees. Some Wyoming community colleges have also added a limited number of bachelor’s degrees.

    And in Texas, Temple College will open a center in June where students at the two-year public institution will be able to earn bachelor’s degrees through partner Texas A&M University-Central Texas, including in engineering technology with a concentration in semiconductors.

    “When you can offer university classes on community college campuses, that makes a world of difference” to rural students, said Christy Ponce, the president of Temple.

    What’s been blocking many of these students from continuing their educations, Ponce said, “is the sheer distance. There’s not a public university option within an hour or more away. And affordability and transportation barriers are huge issues.”

    Fewer than 25 percent of rural Americans hold bachelor’s degrees or higher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, compared to the national average of 33 percent. And the gap is getting wider, the U.S. Department of Agriculture finds in its most recent analysis of this.

    Related: ‘Easy to just write us off’: Rural students’ choices shrink as colleges slash majors

    Significantly fewer students in rural places than in urban areas believe that they can get degrees, a Gallup survey for the Walton Family Foundation found, citing the lack of nearby four-year universities as a principal reason.

    In those states that already allow community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees, they’re often limited to certain high-demand fields, such as teaching and nursing. Even as this idea has spread, America’s 960 public community colleges collectively confer only about 1 percent of bachelor’s degrees each year, the American Association of Community Colleges reports.

    In many places, what’s stopping them from giving out more is opposition from four-year universities and colleges, many of which are increasingly hard up for students as the number of 18-year-olds begins to fall — a phenomenon enrollment managers have dubbed the demographic cliff.

    That Illinois proposal, for example, is stalled in committee after several public and private university presidents issued a statement opposing it. Negotiations are continuing.

    While community colleges in California have been allowed since 2021 to offer bachelor’s degrees, several have been blocked from adding four-year programs that the California State University System contends it already offers. An independent mediator has been brought in to resolve the impasse.

    Related: Fewer students and fewer dollars mean states face closing public universities and colleges 

    And while the two-year, public College of Western Idaho will launch a bachelor’s degree in business administration in the fall, it’s doing so only over the objections of Boise State University, which said it “could hurt effective and efficient postsecondary education in Idaho, cannibalizing limited resources available to postsecondary education and duplicating degree offerings.”

    Community colleges also need more students; their enrollment declined by 39 percent from 2010 to 2021, and they face that same impending demographic cliff. Those that add bachelor’s degrees increase their full-time enrollment from 11 percent to 16 percent, research conducted at the University of Michigan has found.

    The Norbert F. Beckey Bridge, seen from the Mark Twain Overlook in Muscatine, Iowa, which links Muscatine with Rock Island County, Illinois, across the Mississippi River. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    The principal impetus for the largely bipartisan push to offer bachelor’s degrees at community colleges, however, is to train more workers for those fields in which there are shortages.

    “What I think is misunderstood is that, in general, these are not like the baccalaureates that conventional four-year institutions offer,” said Davis Jenkins, a senior research scholar at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. (The Hechinger Report, which produced this story, is an independent unit of Teachers College.)

    Related: In this tiny and shrinking Mississippi county, getting a college degree means leaving home behind

    Bachelor’s degrees at community colleges, said Jenkins, “meet an economic need for bachelor’s degree graduates that isn’t being met by other institutions.”

    That includes by helping rural workers move up in their jobs without leaving home. “It’s all about serving our workforce needs,” said Iowa state Rep. Taylor Collins, Republican chair of Iowa’s House Committee on Higher Education, who requested the study into whether bachelor’s degrees should be offered at community colleges in that state. “It’s a way to upskill our workforce.”

    In his own district, south of Muscatine, “we’re kind of on an island where we only have the community college” — especially since the closing of nearby private Iowa Wesleyan University in 2023. “There are a lot of students who are place-bound. There are a lot of students who want to live locally” and not move away to get a bachelor’s degree.

    That’s a focus of the ongoing study, said Emily Shields, executive director of Community Colleges for Iowa, which is conducting it. “Sometimes people have ties, responsibilities, jobs, family things, where moving to where there is a degree available isn’t an option for them,” Shields said.

    Sure, she said, rural students can take courses online. But “you’re not getting the student services, you’re not getting activities, you’re not getting the other sort of enrichment support and belonging that a lot of our students, I think, are looking for.” 

    Many also say they’re looking for the kind of individual attention they get in their hometown and at a community college such as the one in Muscatine, which has an enrollment of 1,800.

    Related: Tribal colleges win reprieve from federal staff cuts

    Shiloh Morter stayed in his hometown of Muscatine, Iowa, to go to community college. Among the advantages, he says: “The sunsets here are pretty nice. I can tell you, there’s not a whole lot of other places that have clouds like we do.” Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    Shiloh Morter bikes to campus on all but the very coldest days. He plans to become an engineer, but “figured I would save the money and go to community college and try and branch out and develop better habits” first, said Morter, who is 20.

    In the automotive technology garage off the main corridor of the small school, cars were lined up neatly with their hoods popped. Nursing students worked on anatomically correct crash test dummy-style “patients.”

    Twenty-year-old Mykenah Pothoff enrolled at the college when it debuted a registered nursing program, saving herself money on tuition and a nearly hourlong drive, each way, to the University of Iowa. She also was worried about “just, like, finding my way around” the university, which has more than 30,000 students.

    Jake Siefers is majoring in psychology at an Iowa community college. If he could stay and get his bachelor’s degree in the same place, “it would be huge,” he says. “There’s a lot of untapped human potential” in rural places that could benefit from more access to higher education. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    Jake Siefers, 32, is a psychology major planning to go on to get bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Siefers said he hopes to help other people who, like him, are recovering from alcoholism, and for whom he said there are too few services in Iowa. So he came home to Muscatine to start working toward an associate degree at the community college.

    “I could afford it, and it was close and I actually know a lot of people that work here,” said Siefers. “It’s great coming in here and being, like, ‘Hey, I went to high school with you, and you work in the office.’ I mean, that’s everyone in Iowa, right?”

    If he could stay and get his bachelor’s degree in Muscatine, “it would be huge,” he said. “There’s a lot of untapped human potential” in rural places that could benefit from the kind of access to a higher education that is now more limited, said Siefers. 

    Letting students like them finish bachelor’s degrees near where they live “would make it easier for everybody,” said Jaylea Perez, 19, another psychology major who also plans to earn one.

    Jaylea Perez is enrolled in community college in Iowa but eventually hopes to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Adding bachelor’s degrees at community colleges “would make it easier for everybody,” she says. Credit: Mike Rundle for The Hechinger Report

    Simply having bachelor’s degrees available would make rural students aspire to them who otherwise might not, said Naomi DeWinter, president of Muscatine Community College.

    “Everything opens up to them,” said DeWinter, in a coffee shop across the highway from the Walmart.

    She sees the most potential among people already working, such as paraprofessionals in schools who want to become teachers; a state job board lists nearly 1,000 vacancies in Iowa for teachers.

    DeWinter recalled a graduate so exemplary that he was featured in a promotional video, who after earning his associate degree started substitute-teaching while commuting in his free time to the University of Iowa to get his bachelor’s degree — one course at a time.

    “He said, ‘That’s how I’m juggling my work, my family and the affordability,’ ” she said. “His whole career is going to be over before he’s a [full-time] teacher. I feel as though we failed him.”

    Like the substitute teacher, students said they want to stay in Muscatine, despite those limits. They like the peace and quiet compared to cities — hardly anyone ever honks, they noted — and the sense of community evident among the friends who run into each other at the Hy-Vee.

    “We don’t have the best view of the Milky Way, but we for sure definitely don’t have a bad one,” said Shiloh Morter, ticking down a list of advantages to living on the sweeping plain carpeted with cultivated fields and dotted with barns and silos. “And, yeah, the sunsets here are pretty nice. I can tell you, there’s not a whole lot of other places that have clouds like we do.”

    Contact writer Jon Marcus at 212-678-7556 or [email protected].

    This story about rural higher education and community college bachelor’s degrees was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter. Listen to our higher education podcast.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • Columbia Lays Off 180 Amid “Intense” Financial Strain

    Columbia Lays Off 180 Amid “Intense” Financial Strain

    Columbia University is laying off 180 researchers after the Trump administration cut the university’s research funding by more than $650 million.

    “Columbia’s leadership continues discussions with the federal government in support of resuming activity on these research awards and additional other awards that have remained active, but unpaid,” university leadership wrote in a memo Tuesday morning. “We are working on and planning for every eventuality, but the strain in the meantime, financially and on our research mission, is intense.”

    While federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy have cut research funding at universities across the country, the Trump administration has specifically targeted a handful of high-profile universities, including Columbia, for allegedly failing to curb antisemitism on campus. 

    Columbia is taking a two-pronged approach to navigating the sudden deep cuts to federal research funding. The first focuses on “continued efforts to restore our partnerships with government agencies that support critical research,” and the university said the second prong is about taking “action to adjust—and in some cases reduce—expenditures based on current financial realities.”

    Despite Columbia’s previous president acquiescing to Trump’s demands to enact numerous policy changes to address alleged unchecked antisemitism if it wanted its funding back, the university is still negotiating to recover it. In the meantime, the layoffs announced Tuesday represent about 20 percent of researchers who are funded “in some manner by the terminated grants,” according the statement signed by Claire Shipman, Columbia’s acting president; Angela V. Olinto, provost; Anne Sullivan, executive vice president for finance; and Jeannette Wing, executive vice president for research. 

    And the layoffs this week likely aren’t the end of the financial repercussions of the cuts to Columbia’s federal research funding. 

    “In the coming weeks and months, we will need to continue to take actions that preserve our financial flexibility and allow us to invest in areas that drive us forward,” the statement said. “This is a deeply challenging time across all higher education, and we are attempting to navigate through tremendous ambiguity with precision, which will be imperfect at times.”

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  • Students Without a Degree Value Higher Ed

    Students Without a Degree Value Higher Ed

    Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed in 2024 said they’d considered pursuing at least one degree or credential in the past two years.

    Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | FG Trade/E+/Getty Images

    American adults who don’t currently have a college degree see value in pursuing higher education, but the cost of a credential, mental health challenges, emotional stress or the flexibility of classes can prevent some from enrolling in and completing a program, according to the results of a survey released today.

    The Lumina Foundation and Gallup surveyed nearly 14,000 adults in October to learn more about their views toward higher education and the barriers they face in attaining a credential. This latest report is part of the State of Higher Education study, which began in 2020.

    Those surveyed include 6,000 adults who are currently enrolled at a college or university, nearly 5,000 people who have some college but no degree, and 3,000 adults who have never enrolled in a college program.

    Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed in 2024 said they considered pursuing at least one degree or credential in the past two years. That’s down two percentage points from the 2023 survey, but significantly up from 44 percent of those surveyed in 2021.

    Most respondents said some form of postsecondary credential was valuable, though bachelor’s degrees, industry certifications and graduate degrees ranked the highest. Among those who aren’t enrolled in college, 24 percent said they’re interested in pursuing an associate degree, while 18 percent have considered a bachelor’s degree. About 22 percent are interested in a certificate program, down slightly from 23 percent in last year’s report.

    Over all, 48 percent of those not currently in college said they are either very likely or likely to enroll in a postsecondary program, though those who stopped out are more likely to re-enroll compared to those who never started in the first place. Additionally, white adults are the least likely to consider some form of higher education in the next five years.

    For those currently enrolled or who stopped out, expected future job opportunities and confidence in the value of the degree or credential were key motivators in their decision to pursue higher education, though those were not the only factors.

    “The consistent link between perceived value and career outcomes underscores the importance of affordability, flexibility and student support—especially for those balancing work, caregiving or mental health struggles,” the report concludes. “To sustain this momentum and close remaining gaps, higher education institutions and policymakers will need to focus on removing barriers and reinforcing the connection between credentials and meaningful, well-paying jobs.”

    Zach Hrynowski, a senior researcher at Gallup, said the survey results show that while adults in the United States are less confident in institutions of higher education, a majority still see “the actual product that they receive from it” as beneficial, and that perceived value drives students to overcome barriers such as cost and flexibility for students who are in rural areas or are caretakers.

    “If people think it’s valuable, they’re going to still go after it. They may hem and haw, say, ‘Is this really worth it? Do I have the money? Why can’t I surmount the barriers?’” he said. “But we haven’t seen a widespread exodus away from higher education as a result of that, and that’s a testimony to the belief and the value of the credential itself.”

    But Hrynowski cautioned that if there was another way for adults to get a good job and socioeconomic improvement, prospective students might choose that option over pursuing a higher education.

    “If there was a paradigm shift and suddenly bachelor’s degrees were not the only pathway, and more and more industries had, for example, an industry certification that could be used in place of a bachelor’s degree, I’m not sure how many people would continue to chase that very expensive degree awarded by the institutions that they don’t trust very much,” he said.

    “I think right now, for a lot of people, pursuing bachelor’s degrees—especially if they’re doing it because it’s the only option—they acknowledge that if they want the benefit, then that’s the price they have to pay.”

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  • Campuswide Showcase Highlights Student Learning, Achievement 

    Campuswide Showcase Highlights Student Learning, Achievement 

    On Wednesday, April 30, the University at Albany’s campus buzzed with energy as students, faculty and staff bounced between poster fairs, musical performances, student presentations and other exhibitions. Showcase Day, a newer campus tradition, reserves one day in the spring term to celebrate various student achievements from the year, including dance performances, internship experiences and scientific research.

    In addition to boosting campus engagement, the initiative highlights the important work of the University at Albany and invites outside groups to partner with the institution, Provost Carol Kim said.

    The background: Kim was inspired to create Showcase Day after kick-starting a similar initiative at her previous institution, the University of Maine. After a few delays due to COVID-19, the University at Albany launched Showcase Day in 2023.

    “Post-COVID, our campus felt an ennui,” Kim said. National research shows decreased levels of student participation in campus activities, including faculty-led research, since 2020. “How do we energize or develop more engagement on campus, get people excited again? This event has made a huge difference.”

    Many colleges and universities host research symposia in the spring to honor and demonstrate student achievement throughout the academic year, typically in STEM courses or faculty-led research.

    UAlbany’s event, however, engages undergraduate and graduate students across colleges, exposing students to opportunities within their discipline and beyond, as well as in graduate studies. Around 37 percent of UAlbany students are first generation, and they may be unaware of the various avenues of experiential learning or research at the institution, Kim said.

    The initiative also breaks disciplinary silos, exposing individuals to different kinds of academic work in ways that build campus culture, Kim said. “It’s natural for many faculty, staff and students to stay in their college, in their departments, and many times they don’t know what their colleagues and peers are doing.”

    How it works: Showcase Day is a one-day event that unites various student presentations, including posters, artistic performances and demonstrations, under one umbrella.

    The day is integrated into the calendar as a no class academic day, which means that while classes are not canceled, professors typically assign students work related to Showcase Day. That could include a review of a theatrical demonstration or a summary of a poster presentation.

    One of the most important elements of establishing a campuswide symposium was getting buy-in from campus leadership and the University Senate, Kim said. The event requires the support of hundreds of volunteers, making outside support through sponsorships and community partners another essential element.

    Photos by Brian Busher/University at Albany

    This year, 2,200 students participated in the event, with over 1,300 unique presentations delivered to an audience of faculty, staff, prospective students, donors, legislators and industry leaders, as well as middle and high school students.

    Student projects ranged from research presentations on air quality and native plants to an orchestra performance and robotics demonstration. Many colleges assign an end-of-term project within courses or majors that lend themselves to a Showcase presentation, Kim said; others are student-prompted creations such as internship work experience reflections.

    Showcasing Student Success

    Other innovative approaches colleges and universities have taken to highlight student achievement include:

    • At the University of Dayton, an interdisciplinary partnership between graphic design and biology students produces high-quality research posters.
    • A centralized hub breaks barriers for students interested in experiential learning and research opportunities to identify open positions and engage at San Francisco State University.
    • A statewide research journal for undergraduate students in Florida provides greater opportunities for learners to share their research beyond institutional journals.
    • A research festival at Tennessee Tech University celebrates student work in English composition courses.

    What’s next: Since Showcase Day launched in 2023, hundreds of students have participated in the event. Student and staff feedback shows that the event has been a positive influence on campus culture, inspiring pride in the participants and the work being done at the institution, Kim said.

    “From facilities to student affairs and academic affairs, they’re very proud of their part in contributing to this showcase,” Kim said.

    In the future, university leaders would like to see more engagement with potential employers, embedding career development or engagement as a piece of the event. Kim also sees potential in extending the event to multiple days, allowing campus members to participate in a greater number of activities.

    Do you have an academic intervention that might help others improve student success? Tell us about it.

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  • Universities Sue NSF Over Indirect Research Cost Policy

    Universities Sue NSF Over Indirect Research Cost Policy

    A coalition of universities and trade groups is suing the National Science Foundation over the independent federal agency’s plan to cap higher education institutions’ indirect research cost reimbursement rates at 15 percent. 

    In the lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the same day the NSF’s new policy went into effect, the coalition argued that a cut would risk the country’s standing “as a world leader in scientific discovery” and “the amount and scope of future research by universities will decline precipitously.”

    It warned that “vital scientific work will come to a halt, training will be stifled, and the pace of scientific discoveries will slow” and that “progress on national security objectives, such as maintaining strategic advantages in areas like AI and quantum computing, will falter.”

    Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and 13 universities, including Arizona State University, the University of Chicago and Princeton University.

    They attest that the NSF violated numerous aspects of the Administrative Procedure Act, including bypassing Congress to unilaterally institute an “arbitrary and capricious” 15 percent rate cap and failing to explain why it’s only imposing the policy on universities.

    The NSF awarded $6.7 billion to some 621 universities in 2023.

    Indirect costs fund research expenses that support multiple grant-funded projects, including computer systems to analyze enormous volumes of data, building maintenance and waste-management systems. In 1965 Congress enacted regulations that allow each university to negotiate a bespoke reimbursement rate with the government that reflects institutional differences in geographic inflation, research types and other variable costs.

    Typical negotiated NSF indirect cost rates for universities range between 50 and 65 percent, according to the lawsuit.

    And while the Trump administration has claimed that indirect cost reimbursements enable wasteful spending by universities, the plaintiffs note that an existing cap on administrative costs means that universities already contribute their own funds to cover indirect costs, “thereby subsidizing the work funded by grants and cooperative agreements.” In the 2023 fiscal year, universities paid $6.8 billion in unrecovered indirect costs, the lawsuit read.

    The NSF is the third federal agency that has moved to cap indirect research costs since President Donald Trump took office in January; federal judges have already blocked similar plans from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy.

    “NSF’s action is unlawful for most of the same reasons,” the lawsuit read, “and it is especially arbitrary because NSF has not even attempted to address many of the flaws the district courts found with NIH’s and DOE’s unlawful policies.”

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