With InsightsEDU 2025 just around the corner, we’re excited to share some of the key updates and new features coming to this year’s conference, happening February 12-14, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. As the premier conference for higher education marketing and enrollment management, this year’s event promises to be our most engaging yet. Attendees can expect immersive experiences, innovative sessions, and exceptional speakers, all aimed at equipping higher education leaders with the skills and strategies needed to serve today’s Modern Learners. From the welcome reception to our new customized workshop experience, InsightsEDU 2025 is full of exciting opportunities. Read on to see what’s in store!
This year, we’re embracing the vibrant culture of New Orleans with the Bourbon Street Bash, a celebration that will give attendees the perfect opportunity to unwind, network, and experience NOLA in style. The evening will kick off with a second-line parade, leading attendees through the historic streets of New Orleans to the iconic Bourbon Vieux venue. With a live jazz performance, this event promises to be a memorable way to start an exciting conference experience with the higher ed community.
For the first time, InsightsEDU is offering a hands-on, interactive workshop led by Dr. Jodi Blinco, Vice President of Enrollment Management Consulting at EducationDynamics.
The workshop, “Unlocking Enrollment Success: A Customized Consulting Workshop Experience,” is designed specifically for higher education leaders who want to explore the complexities of enrollment models. The workshop provides an opportunity to enhance strategies for attracting, enrolling, and retaining students.
This session will foster focused discussions, tailored insights, and actionable takeaways, allowing attendees to apply the knowledge gained from the conference directly to their own enrollment strategies.
This year, we are excited to welcome Po-Shen Loh, an acclaimed entrepreneur, mathematician, and Carnegie Mellon University professor, to the InsightsEDU stage.
His keynote session, “The Power of Reinvention: Unlocking Innovation to Inspire Action,” will challenge attendees to rethink problem-solving, leadership, and innovation in the ever-evolving higher education landscape. Drawing from his diverse experiences in academia and social entrepreneurship, Po-Shen Loh will explore how institutions can apply startup strategies to innovate and create programs that resonate with students’ needs. His unique experiences throughout higher ed and entrepreneurship make him uniquely qualified to address the conference’s innovative goals and inspire strategies for institutions looking to drive meaningful change.
Expect to hear from top industry leaders at InsightsEDU, with companies such as EY Parthenon, Slate, Google, Meta, and Reddit, joining to share their expertise in digital engagement, advertising, and marketing strategies. These sessions will help institutions stay ahead of emerging trends, enhance their online presence, and develop strategies to connect with students in innovative ways. Attendees will gain exclusive insights into how leading platforms are shaping the future of student engagement and higher education marketing.
With RW Jones Agency recently becoming a part of the EducationDynamics team, InsightsEDU 2025 will feature even more expert-led sessions and strategic insights. RW Jones Agency’s expertise in public relations, crisis communications, and higher education marketing is sure to provide valuable perspectives for attendees.
Here are some of the key sessions featuring RW Jones Agency’s team:
A Roadmap to Marketing Transformation: Learn how to implement a marketing maturity model to enhance strategy, optimize resources, and gain real results for your MarCom division. This session will provide insights from experienced professionals who have successfully implemented maturity models to drive impactful results at institutions.
A Behavior-Informed Approach to Prospective Student Engagement: Discover how student personas can transform outreach efforts. Building on insights from a recent nationally representative survey of high schoolers, this session explores students’ primary motivations and factors surrounding decision making, offering key insights for higher ed marketers, communicators, and enrollment leaders.
Lights, Camera, Connections: How to Produce Compelling Videos That Connect: Join Karolyn Pearson, a former network news producer, and Morgan Aguilar, a former TV reporter, for an exciting session on crafting engaging and authentic visual storytelling to captivate student audiences and enhance your institution’s brand.
The Art and Science of Why People Care: Learn how to create audience-centered messaging that aligns with students’ values, increases engagement, and builds lasting relationships while authentically marketing your brand.
From Interest to Enrollment: Building Real Student Connections on Social Media: Explore the latest tactics and insights to address an evolving social media landscape and cater to Gen Z and Millennial audiences. This session will explore the latest trends, engagement strategies, and creative tools to foster meaningful interactions on social media that lead to enrollment.
With an impeccable lineup of sessions, RW Jones Agency’s expertise will provide valuable new perspectives at InsightsEDU 2025, ensuring that attendees leave with actionable strategies to better connect and serve Modern Learners.
With immersive experiences, groundbreaking discussions, and an incredible lineup of speakers and sessions, this year’s conference is shaping up to be the best one yet. Whether you’re looking to refine your enrollment strategy, explore new marketing tactics, or simply connect with industry leaders, InsightsEDU 2025 is the place to be for higher education professionals.
We look forward to seeing you at InsightsEDU 2025!
Fostering Interdepartmental Collaboration to Drive a More Effective and Engaging Student Journey
Achieving success in your higher education marketing strategy requires seamless collaboration between your admissions and marketing teams to create a connected, consistent student journey experience. When these teams align, they move beyond their isolated efforts and build a unified strategy that not only captures students’ attention but also drives meaningful engagement and enrollments.
Admissions teams gain critical, real-time insights from their conversations with prospective students, and marketing teams transform those insights into strategies and assets that resonate with the right audiences. By sharing their insights, both teams can better inform campaigns, conversations, and touchpoints, ensuring every interaction feels intentional, relevant, and student-centered.
However, this alignment doesn’t happen by chance. It requires deliberate collaboration, thoughtful planning, and the strategic use of data at every stage. From discovery interviews and customer relationship management (CRM) data analysis to shared campaign development, each step in the process plays a vital role in delivering a cohesive, engaging experience that guides prospective students from curiosity to commitment.
The Importance and Benefits of Collaboration Between Admissions and Marketing Teams
In an increasingly competitive higher ed landscape, having admissions and marketing teams that collaborate and communicate with each other regularly can make a meaningful difference in the experience that an institution delivers to prospective students, while optimizing its marketing efforts for maximum impact.
When admissions and marketing operate in silos, the cohesion breaks down. Collaboration prevents these gaps, ensuring every message, from the first ad to the final admissions call, feels aligned and purposeful.
Creating a Unified Message
Students don’t distinguish between “admissions” and “marketing” — they only see the institution. That’s why a unified message is so crucial to every higher education marketing strategy. A consistent and unified message — whether it’s delivered through ads, emails, website visits, or conversations with admissions personnel — builds trust, strengthens the brand, and guides prospective students smoothly through their decision-making journey.
Building a Powerful Feedback Loop
When admissions and marketing teams stay in consistent communication, they create a powerful feedback loop that strengthens the institution’s messaging and better serves its prospective students.
Admissions teams are on the front lines, having daily conversations with students and hearing their motivations, hesitations, and questions firsthand. These interactions provide invaluable qualitative insights that can flow back into marketing assets and strategies.
For example, if students frequently ask about program outcomes — such as what they can do with a certain degree — marketing can develop targeted blog content, alumni video spotlights, or landing page updates showcasing career opportunities, industry connections, and success stories related to the degree. Additionally, if there are common points of confusion that come up in students’ conversations with admissions staff, marketing materials can be created that clearly and directly address these issues.
By tapping into this feedback loop, both teams can make meaningful, real-time adjustments that align the institution’s messaging with students’ priorities, enhance engagement, and drive better outcomes.
Empowering Teams With Critical Insights and Knowledge
Both admissions and marketing teams bring something unique and valuable to the table when it comes to understanding the institution’s brand, its offerings, and its students. While there are areas of overlap, each team also has its own distinct focal points that allow it to provide useful details the other team can benefit from, creating a richer and more comprehensive appreciation of how each team can best serve the institution’s students.
Practical Ways to Collaborate
Now that we’ve established the importance of collaboration, let’s take a look at some practical ways to bring this strategy to life.
Coordinate and Share Learnings During a Discovery Process
The first step is discovery, the phase where both admissions and marketing teams collaborate to analyze and uncover insights that will make their work more accurate, impactful, and aligned. The discovery process includes in-depth conversations with key university stakeholders; audits of existing school resources, marketing collateral, and program materials; and market research and competitive analysis to understand the institution’s positioning and audience needs.
Each team adds unique value to the process. Admissions teams gather information about program-specific details, students’ motivations, and nuances that resonate during enrollment conversations, while marketing teams analyze the institution’s competitive positioning, audience behaviors, and key differentiators. By sharing and coordinating these efforts upfront, teams can reduce redundancies, ensure alignment, and create a more cohesive strategy that delivers consistent, tailored messaging.
Here are some tactics that can help in coordinating and consolidating discovery efforts:
Shared discovery templates
Create standardized templates for interviews, audits, and insight summaries to ensure consistency in how findings are gathered and shared across teams.
Discovery check-ins
Ensure there are opportunities to check in and share progressive findings or learnings with the other team. This not only helps ensure that what is being communicated or uncovered by each team is consistent and in alignment. It also provides each team with valuable information that will help guide deeper conversations or elicit important questions that can be addressed sooner.
Centralized insight repository
Use a shared platform (e.g., Asana, Google Docs, or Notion) to compile key findings, data points, and interview notes in one place.
Joint stakeholder interviews and meetings
Conduct some discovery interviews with stakeholders (e.g., marketing, program directors, faculty, students) jointly. This ensures both teams hear the same information and gain aligned insights.
For separate interviews, share questions between teams beforehand to ensure all interviews are exploring complementary areas.
Schedule Ongoing Check-Ins With Teams
Consistent communication is critical for collaboration. Regular monthly or quarterly meetings that include both admissions and marketing staff create space for sharing insights, identifying trends, and closing messaging gaps.
Admissions teams can spotlight common motivations, pain points, and areas of confusion among students, so marketing teams can update campaigns to address these themes in real time. These sessions ensure all higher education marketing strategies stay aligned and adaptive, making the student experience feel more cohesive.
Leverage CRM Data
Every interaction with a student leaves a breadcrumb trail of data. By tapping into call notes and CRM system data, admissions and marketing teams can track students’ questions, motivations, and hesitations.
Analyzing this data can reveal trends that marketing can address through website updates, FAQs, and ad campaigns. Sharing actionable summaries allows admissions teams to prepare for upcoming conversations and marketing teams to preemptively answer students’ concerns, creating a more seamless experience for prospects.
Share and Understand Key Resources
Developing key marketing resources, such as a Strategic Marketing Guide (SMG), and sharing them across teams can help keep admissions and marketing teams’ collaboration efforts on track.
An SMG isn’t just a document — it’s the framework that ensures every team is aligned in understanding the key components of the institution’s brand, story, and students. Personas, unique value propositions (UVPs), brand stories and positioning, and messaging frameworks outlined in an SMG help admissions and marketing teams speak the same language and tell a shared story.
Connect Your Admissions and Marketing Teams Through Collaboration With Archer
At Archer Education, we don’t just build marketing strategies — we build lasting capabilities. Our approach goes beyond campaign launches and lead generation to focus on sustainable online infrastructure that empowers universities to thrive long after our work is done. From aligning admissions and marketing teams to developing data-driven messaging frameworks, we act as a true partner in developing custom higher education marketing strategies that work.
Our collaboration is designed to transfer knowledge, not just deliver results. We equip your teams with the tools, training, and insights they need to operate with confidence, ensuring your institution isn’t reliant on outside support to maintain momentum. The result is a marketing engine that runs smoothly long after Archer’s involvement has ended, empowering your teams to lead with agility in an ever-changing higher education landscape.
Every year, EducationDynamics welcomes marketing, enrollment, admissions, and higher education leaders from across the nation for InsightsEDU—a higher education conference dedicated to uncovering emerging trends and innovative solutions that help colleges and universities enhance reputation and grow revenue. In 2025, InsightsEDU will be hosted in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Ritz Carlton from February 12-14, 2025.
With 40+ subject matter experts, and 38+ sessions, InsightsEDU is designed to equip attendees with the knowledge, tools, and strategies necessary to successfully engage the Modern Learner. Discover key benefits you will experience by attending InsightsEDU 2025.
Benefits of Attending a Higher Education Conference like InsightsEDU
1. Gain Timely Insights into the Modern Learner
There is no doubt that higher education is undergoing a shift. The Modern Learner, who increasingly values flexibility, personalization, and cost-effectiveness, is driving much of this transformation. This year’s conference theme, “The Era of the Modern Learner,” reflects this pivotal moment in education.
InsightsEDU will help higher education marketers adapt strategies to meet the needs of these students, by equipping them with practical insights on how Modern Learners interact with enrollment teams, make decisions, and engage with content. Understanding these dynamics will allow higher ed professionals to tailor marketing and enrollment strategies to better address the demands of today’s students, while demonstrating value and personalization.
2. Network with Fellow Institutional Leaders, Experts, and Professionals Nationwide
InsightsEDU is more than a learning opportunity; it is also an unparalleled networking opportunity for the higher education community. With over 100 colleges and universities represented, InsightsEDU brings together a diverse group of higher education professionals, including institutional leaders, marketers, admissions professionals, and experts from across the nation and even abroad.
Throughout the conference, attendees will experience everything from informative sessions and panels to networking events infused with New Orleans’ flair. These interactions will provide attendees with opportunities to build lasting connections with fellow professionals who share a commitment to advancing higher education initiatives. Additionally, attendees will be able to participate in discussion forums and stay connected to professional connections through the conference app, allowing attendees to stay engaged even after the conference ends.
3. Access Tailored Strategies for All Student Demographics
InsightsEDU is dedicated to helping professionals connect with today’s diverse student populations through targeted, practical strategies. For traditional students, attendees will explore ways to create personalized outreach and recruitment campaigns that highlight flexibility and value. Sessions focused on online students will uncover data-driven marketing methods and innovative enrollment strategies that address their desire for convenience and personalization. For graduate students, attendees will explore strategies that leverage career-focused messaging and a clear return on investment for advanced degrees.
Attendees will leave InsightsEDU equipped with powerful, actionable strategies tailored to the unique needs of various student demographics—empowering them to drive success and lead in a changing higher education landscape.
4. Experience Expert-Led Sessions Focused on Real-World Solutions
At InsightsEDU, attendees will engage with a stellar line-up of speakers covering the latest trends and challenges in higher education. Our conference agenda features 38+ sessions from industry experts, each with unique and data-backed perspectives on topics such as personalized digital marketing, enrollment management, and student success. With expert perspectives from organizations like Google, Meta, Reddit, EY Parthenon and more, attendees will learn how to apply the latest trends and technologies to enhance their approach. Additionally, attendees will gain exclusive insights to groundbreaking tools and data, including the latest Online College Students Report, giving them a first look at critical insights into today’s students.
Unlock the Future of Higher Education at InsightsEDU 2025
InsightsEDU 2025 is the must-attend conference for higher education professionals who are committed to staying ahead of the curve and driving impact within education. Don’t miss the opportunity to be a part of this innovative event, designed to provide you with strategies and insights for success in higher education.
We look forward to seeing you at InsightsEDU from February 12-14! Register today and secure your spot.
Let’s set the stage. You’re a sharp, focused higher education leader staring down the realities of expanding your online and hybrid learning programs. You’ve got big goals: running your online operations in-house, owning the process, and driving growth on your terms.
This is where Online Growth Enablement comes in. This isn’t a fancy buzzword. It’s the real work behind sustainable change. It’s the boots-on-the-ground understanding of exactly where you are today so you can figure out how to move forward tomorrow.
At Archer, we do this every day — rolling up our sleeves and digging deep to map out the real picture of an institution’s online learning infrastructure. Because, let’s be honest. The only way to grow is to start with the truth about your current state and your place within the landscape of the communities you serve with your programs.
Why Your Current State Matters
Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum — especially not in online learning. Enabling the growth of your online learning infrastructure takes coordination, collaboration, and a whole lot of buy-in from every corner of your university. Marketing, tech, enrollment, financial aid, the registrar, faculty, leadership — if they’re not on the same page as you, you can’t successfully move forward. Period.
Driving real growth starts with taking an unflinching look at where you stand today. Questions you should be asking about your online operations include:
Where are you strong?
Where are you struggling?
Where are the untapped opportunities you can scale?
This isn’t about a vague, feel-good assessment from 50,000 feet up. It’s about getting into the weeds. Because, until you understand the inner workings of your current infrastructure, you’re not going to build anything sustainable. You’ll just be putting a fresh coat of paint on a crumbling foundation. And that’s not going to cut it in the long run.
The Power of Deep Insights
Let’s take a look at a real-world example of why a close examination of your current online learning infrastructure matters. One of our partner universities was taking 14 days to review and process the transcripts of students applying to their online programs. This might work fine for a traditional on-campus program with two or three big start dates a year, but for an online program, the game changes. To stay competitive, you need five or six start dates annually. And that 14-day turnaround? For our partner, it meant missing out on dozens of potential enrollments.
Fixing this issue wasn’t about throwing money at the problem. It was about setting a clear benchmark and making it happen. We worked with the institution to rethink its processes, reassign its teams’ responsibilities, and streamline every single step of its transcript review.
The effectiveness of every touchpoint you have with a potential student and every handoff between your admissions, financial aid, and academic advising teams affects your ability to deliver an overall positive student experience. Deep operational insights aren’t just nice to have; they’re the key to uncovering bottlenecks so you can clear the way for real, measurable growth.
How We Help: The Growth Enablement Assessment
At Archer, we don’t do guesswork. We help our partners make sense of the current state of their online learning infrastructure through our Growth Enablement Assessment — a no-stone-left-unturned look at every department and operational variable. From enrollment workflows to marketing execution, we get into the details that others overlook to help you figure out where you are and make a plan for where you want to be.
Our approach is anchored in our Good, Better, Best methodology:
Good: Your processes are functional. They get the job done, but let’s be honest — they need improvement to keep pace in a competitive online marketplace.
Better: There’s progress. Your processes are showing alignment, but they’re not quite optimized yet.
Best: This is where you want to be. Your processes are efficient, scalable, and fully aligned with your strategic goals.
This isn’t just an audit. It’s a road map. By pinpointing exactly where you stand and where you need to go, we equip you with the insights and strategies to move your online learning operations from functional to thriving.
Why It’s All Worth It
Yes, this takes time. Yes, it’s hard work. But the payoff is undeniable.
Fully understanding the current state of your online learning infrastructure isn’t just a box to check — it’s the foundation for every initiative that follows. It gives you the clarity to enhance not only your online learning programs but also the overall health and effectiveness of your institution.
When you commit to this process, you’re building something bigger than just operational efficiency. You’re creating alignment across departments, fostering innovation, and embedding collaboration and continuous improvement into your institution’s culture. When every team is in sync, bottlenecks disappear, every touchpoint matters, and your processes deliver on the promise of a strong student experience.
It’s not just worth it. It’s transformative. If you’re ready to take the first step toward long-term success and scalability, contact Archer Education. Let’s build the online learning infrastructure your institution deserves, together.
John Goodwin is Archer Education’s EVP of Online Growth Enablement. Archer revolutionizes the student experience by supporting partners through change, helping institutions achieve sustainable growth while fostering self-sufficiency.
Applying a Strategic Framework to Your Organizational Plan
“It’s Groundhog Day … again,” said Phil Connors, a disgruntled weatherman.
In the movie “Groundhog Day,” Phil Connors knew what it was like to experience life as an endless series of tedious events that recur in the same way day after day. And many of us working in online education management — especially in a highly competitive environment — can begin to feel like Phil did.
Receive enrollment targets. Develop and launch annual marketing campaigns. Pursue prospective students. Track students’ applications to completion. Onboard students. Repeat.
But when do you have time to reflect and analyze? When do you pause long enough to identify areas in need of improvement? How do you plan for innovation, growth, or testing when all of your time is spent on the status quo?
In my recent article on building online student services, we discussed the importance of assessing your organizational design and effectiveness to identify improvement opportunities and facilitate high-quality growth. My latest article on the organizational development journey took the discussion a step further to describe the steps involved in developing a multiyear approach to stakeholder engagement around strategic initiatives.
With this article, we address the concept of escape velocity. We’ll show you how a multiyear strategic growth road map can help your organization break free from its Groundhog Day cycle and launch it into tomorrow.
Why a Multiyear Strategic Road Map Matters
In higher education, we’re accustomed to having a university-level strategic plan with broad themes and objectives. These plans are useful in that they allow academic and service units to identify areas of contribution or special projects.
Less common, however, is a performance road map for the unit-level organization itself. Specific programs and functions may have goals, targets, or expected outcomes, but do they collectively add up to something more than the sum of parts? Are teams competing against one another for resources or prospects? Have the true bottlenecks in processes and infrastructure been identified so that teams can tackle them together, or are they each working on problems in a silo?
A multiyear strategic road map aligns the work you and your colleagues are doing today with the work to be done next year — and the year after that — to reach new levels of achievement, performance, and value. This means moving beyond “keeping the lights on” to building a true organizational vision where day-to-day tasks and operations contribute to a larger mission.
The multiyear road map also works to keep everyone accountable, so that the organization can escape the gravitational pull of mere survival, instead moving up through the atmosphere into new spaces and opportunities.
Importantly, the road map is not developed by a small group of people and then handed down from organizational leadership. It requires a strategic conversation across the organization that identifies what winning looks like and how all parties will win together.
Introducing the Hoshin Kanri Strategic Framework
A simple search for “strategic framework” in your browser or artificial intelligence tool will bring up 25 to 50 options, which can feel overwhelming. As you dig into the variety of frameworks, you realize that each has a specific purpose and most are not interchangeable. For example, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis can be used to understand your organization’s general position in the current environment, while the Ansoff matrix can help you dive into your individual products and their specific markets.
In our opinion, if you want to develop an organization-wide multiyear strategic road map, the Hoshin Kanri framework is a powerful tool.
The Hoshin Kanri framework originated in Japan after World War II and was historically used in the manufacturing and technology industries (think Toyota). However, the framework can apply to any industry including higher education. The words “hoshin” and “kanri” mean direction and administration, which in this context refers to identifying the most important strategic focus areas for the next three to five years, and then managing activities and delivering against annual objectives in those focus areas.
To fully engage with the framework, there are seven steps that move from vision development to planning and execution to bidirectional feedback management, which makes this framework different from those that only focus on one of those aspects.
At its core, the framework is an iterative blueprint for escape velocity — where everyone’s contributions align and where individuals are responsible for providing direct, productive, and sometimes even uncomfortable feedback about progress, barriers, and how the plans are working. This feedback loop is one of the most powerful parts of the model for organization-wide deep listening and trust-building.
In the next section, we will discuss each part of the framework.
Breaking Down the Hoshin Kanri Model Components
As we walk through the components of the Hoshin Kanri model, remember that models and frameworks are suggestions or guidelines on how to organize a strategy, not directives. Every organization is different, and you should feel free to make the model your own.
Step 1: Establish (or Revisit and Refine) Your Organizational Vision
A multiyear road map, by definition, requires a vision for where your organization could or should be three to five years from now. While it’s easy to understand what you want your organization to “escape” from in terms of the status quo, it’s more work to determine the opportunity space, the direction of progress, and the velocity at which the organization should move there.
This is often the point where organizations need external support: fresh eyes to assess the market opportunities and the organizational development opportunities (e.g., a good, better, best model). Once the organizational vision is defined, communication and socialization of that vision to every individual in the organization is critical for feedback, engagement, and buy-in.
Step 2: Establish Strategic Focus Areas (aka Stretch Goals)
Here’s where your organization places its bets. What are the three to five focus areas that define how your organization will escape the status quo and strategically move into a new level of opportunity, performance, or achievement?
Think big swings that are a stretch but still possible. Think about what would get individuals in your organization excited about the work.
Remember, these strategic focus areas flow from the organizational vision. Some of the areas will be quantitative in nature (e.g., grow enrollments by 20% year over year; improve satisfaction scores by 40%), and some may be more qualitative (e.g., develop an organizational decision-making framework and process). All areas should be measurable.
Step 3: Break Strategic Areas of Focus Into Annual Objectives
In this stage of the process, your organization works backward from those strategic focus areas to plot the annual steps of achievement and progress. These objectives are established at the organizational level.
Step 4: Cascade Annual Objectives Into Programmatic and Functional Objectives
In this stage, program and function leaders develop their annual objectives based on the annual organizational-level objectives and begin to determine the key performance indicators for their teams.
This is also the step where the organization agrees upon an objective-level primary plan owner. Which individual is accountable for progress against the objective, for escalations when progress is impeded, and for communication of wins? Does that individual agree that the resource base to support the objective is sufficient?
Step 5: Execute
In this implementation stage, plans are deployed and progress is measured.
Steps 6 and 7: Conduct Monthly and Annual Reviews
The Hoshin Kanri model builds in regular strategic road map and annual plan feedback loops to ensure bidirectional feedback and iteration are employed where needed.
The frequency of your periodic reviews within an annual cycle may depend on the size and structure of your organization. The model suggests monthly plan reviews. But for some organizations, monthly reviews are too frequent and quarterly reviews are preferred. For other organizations, such as start-ups, monthly reviews are not frequent enough and biweekly sprint-level reviews may be needed.
The core idea is to ensure that those who are implementing against annual plans have the opportunity to discuss progress, blockers, resource concerns, and more so that leadership can determine if adjustments to the plans are necessary.
The annual review is the time to consider progress against the multiyear vision. Is the organization on target? Does the team need to be even more ambitious given evolving market conditions, the competitive landscape, or technological advances? Does the organization need to adjust its resource planning or design to support progress?
Organizational Strategic Road Map: An At-a-Glance View
As you can see from the seven steps detailed above, the Hoshin Kanri model is basically a series of embedded to-do lists with metrics and owners attached to them. The plan can be created in a document that displays the action items in a sequential order with as many words as it takes to describe the holistic plan. There is nothing wrong with this approach, as long as the organization can access, understand, and execute against the plan.
However, there is a way to develop a visual tool — without fancy applications or systems — that summarizes the entirety of the plan so that everyone can see themselves aligned with both the long-term and immediate objectives. This method is called the X-matrix. It works well with a spreadsheet tool, for example. In our graphic example below, we’ve replaced the “X” with a compass visual, but an X works just as well.
Within a box in your spreadsheet, create your “X” by inserting crossed lines. This creates four quadrants. In Hoshin Kanri, these quadrants are classified with compass directions: north, south, east, and west (hence our graphical treatment).
An organization starts with the south quadrant (or bottom of the X). This is where you list the three to five strategic areas of focus. Each area of focus has its own row. In our graphic, these are the bottom three rows in the light blue, orange, and dark blue colors.
In the west quadrant, you can list the high-level annual objectives for the year. Use the spreadsheet rows to enter an “x” where the strategic area of focus (on the bottom) matches the individual high-level annual objective (shown here as columns to the left that correspond in color).
Then, move to the north quadrant. This is where you list the business-level objectives that flow from the annual objectives. What are the specific tasks for each program and function? You can use the spreadsheet rows to enter an “x” where the business-level objective aligns with the high-level annual objective. In our example here, all three business-level objectives in the top rows correspond to the strategic focus area and the high-level annual objective color-coded in light blue.
Keep the east quadrant blank for a moment. This is where key targets or key performance indicators (KPIs) will go, and again, once you complete these, you can use the spreadsheet model to put an “x” where the target aligns with the individual business-level objective. In our version, we’ve used slightly different shades of light blue to show which KPIs go with which business-level objectives.
Go to the Resources section of the spreadsheet. Here you can document the accountable owner of the business-level objective, and use the spreadsheet rows to note with an “x” which owner is aligned with the particular initiative. You can use primary and secondary owners or just stick with primary owners, depending on your organization’s size and structure. These owners can then finalize the east quadrant with the specific KPIs in coordination with organizational leadership.
Depending on your organization’s size and structure, you can develop one master-level version of this multiyear plan, or you can develop one per program or function for ease of use. If spreadsheets are not of interest, there are online applications and services (some are free; some are fee-based) that serve as an interactive platform on which you and your teams can manage the development and tracking of objectives and progress.
Build Your Multiyear Growth Road Map
Engineering your escape velocity from Groundhog Day to the future takes introspection, time, iteration, and communication in all directions. Strategic tools and frameworks, like Hoshin Kanri, are not always necessary, but they can help your teams organize against a vision with plans, processes, and performance conversations.
No matter the tool, framework, or steps you take, the payoff of using introspection and planning to achieve your multiyear targets is escape velocity from the tethers of winter doldrums into a spring of new growth.
The strategy and development team at Archer Education can help you develop and achieve your multiyear strategic road map goals. Contact us today.
Meet the thought leaders shaping the future of higher education at InsightsEDU 2025! Taking place from February 12-14, 2025 in New Orleans, LA, this conference brings together expert voices in higher education marketing, enrollment management, and leadership to discuss the evolution of today’s Modern Learner. This year, explore the future of higher education in 38+ sessions, where our speakers will share their vast expertise and unique perspectives. From higher education leaders to enrollment professionals, these speakers are vital to the InsightsEDU experience and are ready to equip you with insights to thrive in a new era of learning.
The lineup of featured speakers for InsightsEDU 2025 is still growing—stay tuned for exciting new announcements! Below are the confirmed featured speakers as of November 7, 2024.
Gregory Clayton
President of Enrollment Management Services at EducationDynamics With over 30 years of experience in the higher education space, Greg brings valuable expertise in enrollment management and performance marketing. As President of Enrollment Management Services at EducationDynamics, he leads a comprehensive team offering agency marketing, enrollment services, strategic consulting, and research, all tailored to the higher ed sector. His leadership and career position him as a visionary strategist, equipped to offer insightful commentary on the higher education landscape and enrollment solutions. Join his session to learn more about how to better serve the Modern Learner and implement strategies that drive institutional success.
Session: The Evolving Expectations of the Modern Learner: How Institutions Can Adapt and Thrive
Wendy Colby
Vice President and Associate Provost for Boston University Virtual (BU Virtual) Throughout her career, Wendy has distinguished herself as a leader in online learning and enhancing the student experience. At BU Virtual, she focuses on delivering educational and technological excellence, positioning the program as a model of high-quality online education. Wendy’s commitment to advancing digital learning solutions ensures that students receive an exceptional learning experience. With extensive expertise in strategic leadership and global engagement, Wendy brings invaluable insights to InsightsEDU, where she will speak on best practices for collaborative strategies that optimize institutional success.
Session: Bridging the Gap: Aligning Marketing & Enrollment Management for Success
Roy Daiany
Director, Education & Careers at Google With over 15 years of experience, Roy Daiany leads Google’s national team of education advertising strategists, partnering with top universities and EdTech companies to drive growth. A champion of technology-driven marketing, Roy will share valuable insights in his upcoming session, drawing on Google’s data to highlight key areas for optimizing student outreach and exploring innovative advertising practices.
Session: Emerging Trends and Priorities for Higher Education
Brent Fitch
President of Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design Brent’s extensive career and leadership in higher education provide invaluable perspectives for InsightsEDU 2025. As President of Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, he has played an instrumental role in shaping strategies that optimize student engagement. With a proven track record in developing innovative programs that enhance faculty, employee, and student outcomes, his strategic leadership offers InsightsEDU attendees exclusive access to tried and true best practices within higher education. Learn from Brent to gain a deeper understanding of how to navigate institutional challenges and embrace new strategies for ongoing success.
Session: The Era of the Modern Learner: Redefining Higher Education
Andrew Fleischer
Head of Industry, Education at Google As Head of Industry for Education at Google, Andrew Fleischer leads a team dedicated to transforming how institutions and EdTech companies approach enrollment and brand positioning. With a background spanning strategic roles in Google’s App and Retail sectors, Andrew brings expertise in using data-driven advertising to address complex business goals. In his session at InsightsEDU 2024, Andrew will explore Google’s latest insights on the role of AI in higher education and share valuable strategies to navigate the evolving student journey.
Session: Emerging Trends and Priorities for Higher Education
Stephen Horn
Chief Marketing Officer at The College of Health Care Professions (CHCP) Stephen Horn is an award-winning marketer known for his inventive strategies that drive growth and expand market share. With a strong background in brand-building and nurturing marketing talent, Steve has a proven track record of success. As Chief Marketing Officer for CHCP in Houston, his role has been critical to program success. InsightsEDU attendees can anticipate gaining valuable insights into effective strategies for enhancing student engagement and aligning marketing with cross-functional departments.
Session: Bridging the Gap: Aligning Marketing & Enrollment Management for Success
Dr. Melik Khoury
President of Unity Environment University Gain fresh insights and practical strategies for engaging Modern Learners with Dr. Melik Khoury, a pivotal leader in higher education. As President of Unity Environmental University, Dr. Khoury prioritizes student success and has spearheaded transformative initiatives to increase enrollment and retention. His commitment to affordability, accessibility, and flexibility are paramount to the university’s enduring success. Dr. Khoury’s tenure at Unity Environmental University has established him as an innovative and adaptable leader, making him an ideal expert to address today’s new era of learning and the unique needs of Modern Learners.
Session: The Era of the Modern Learner: Redefining Higher Education
Dr. Andy Miller
Senior VP of Strategic Enrollment & Partnerships at Indiana Wesleyan University Andy Miller, PhD, brings a wealth of experience to InsightsEDU 2025. In his role as Sr. VP of Strategic Enrollment & Partnerships at Indiana Wesleyan University, Andy oversees enrollment and partnership initiatives, serving over 12,000 students. With expertise in building cross-industry partnerships and creating training pathways for adult learners to meet workforce demands, Andy is a pivotal leader in the field.
Session: Bridging the Gap: Aligning Marketing & Enrollment Management for Success
Dr. Joe Sallustio
Vice President of Industry Engagement at Ellucian & Cofounder The EdUp Experience Podcast Dr. Joe Sallustio is a leading authority within the higher ed sector, recognized for his expertise in operations, finance, and academics. With over 20 years of experience, he has led teams across various institutional functions, including marketing, enrollment, finance, and student services, equipping him with the skills to successfully navigate the modern landscape of higher education. Dr. Sallustio leverages his extensive knowledge as co-founder and host of The EdUp Experience, a podcast that explores timely topics in the higher ed industry. Join his session to learn more about innovative strategies for addressing challenges and uncovering opportunities for student success amid changing times.
Sessions: The Era of the Modern Learner: Redefining Higher Education
Katie Tomlinson
Senior Director of Analytics and Business Intelligence at EducationDynamics Prepare to unlock insights with Katie Tomlinson. As the Senior Director of Analytics and Business Intelligence, Katie expertly manages data and reporting, uncovering key trends to support EducationDynamics in delivering data-driven solutions for the higher ed community. Learn from her as she discusses findings from EducationDynamics’ latest report, where attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the evolving learning environment and the significant factors that influence Modern Learners’ educational choices.
Session: The Evolving Expectations of the Modern Learner: How Institutions Can Adapt and Thrive
Engage with the Leaders Shaping Higher Education
InsightsEDU 2025 promises to be another impactful conference, offering a forum for thought leadership, best practices, and meaningful networking among higher education professionals. This conference unites industry leaders and institutions to explore the key challenges and exciting opportunities facing the higher ed sector today. Taking place in early 2025, InsightsEDU is the perfect change to gain insights that will strengthen your institution’s foundation for the year ahead and beyond. Don’t miss out–Register today to secure your spot.
How to Strategically Expand Your Online Adult Degree Programs
So you’ve built a successful online adult degree program. No small feat. Now you need to keep your foot on the gas to keep the momentum going.
Your first instinct might be to “go wide” with your program expansion strategy by launching a variety of new, unrelated programs to pair with your successful offering. While this diversification strategy might reap great rewards for consumer packaged goods giants like Unilever and Procter & Gamble, higher education is different. Your institution is different.
I find myself making the following recommendation over and over again when it comes to expanding online degree programs: Go deep, not wide.
This means building upon the success of your existing program by developing specialized offerings within the same field. The “go deep” method might not be the most popular, but in my experience, it’s often the most effective. Let’s break it down further — or should I say, dig deeper — to see if this approach is right for your school.
What Does Going Wide Mean for Your Online Adult Degree Programs?
Let’s start with a hypothetical example: You have established a successful online Master of Business Administration (MBA) program with a positive reputation in the region.
Recently, you’ve heard cybersecurity and nursing degree programs are experiencing industry growth, so you decide to pursue programs in those areas next to build out a wider range of offerings.
Unfortunately, this strategic path can be a mistake. Here’s why:
Lack of synergy among programs: When universities add new, unrelated programs, they often fail to create synergistic relationships among all their programs. Each program operates in isolation without benefiting from the shared resources, expertise, or cross-promotional opportunities that could exist if the programs were more aligned.
Missed opportunities to leverage existing brand equity: Diversifying into new areas causes institutions to overlook the strength of their existing brand. A well-established program, like a thriving online MBA program, comes with significant brand recognition and trust that new programs lack.
However, expanding within the existing framework of business administration can allow for the amplification of this established brand equity, rather than starting from scratch with each new offering.
Why Going Deep Is More Effective
In higher education, the smart, strategic allocation of resources is crucial. You could put your institution’s limited resources toward a whole new program, such as a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program or a Master of Science in Cybersecurity program. Or, you could just attach a new or adjacent offering to your successful online MBA program to channel your resources into an established program realm.
Forget efficacy for a moment. Which strategy sounds more efficient?
The good news is that going deep in one area of program offerings is often more effective and efficient. Instead of developing an entirely new adult degree program from scratch, you can simply add value to your existing online business program.
This might come in the form of added concentration options, such as MBA concentrations in entrepreneurship, accounting, finance, marketing, management, or strategic communications.
It could also involve adding another relevant degree program within the same area of study. For example, since you’re seeing a lot of success with your MBA program, you could add a finance or accounting degree program to build on the success and reputation of the established program.
Key Benefits of Going Deep With Your Online Adult Degree Programs
I’ve had experiences both ways: some institutions go wide, others go deep. For those that go wide, I’ve often seen siloed marketing efforts, inefficient allocations of resources, and sporadic and unpredictable enrollment. For those that go deep, I see the following benefits:
More Students Attracted
Broadened appeal for students already interested in the primary program: By offering more concentrations within a well-established program, or adjacent degrees within the same field, your institution can appeal to a broader range of interests and career goals within your current student audience base.
More options for prospective students due to increased specialization: Specialized degrees and concentrations allow students to tailor their education to their specific interests and career paths, making the program more attractive to applicants seeking focused expertise.
Increased Marketing Efficiency
Ability to leverage existing web pages and SEO for the main program: Concentration pages can be added as subpages to the main program’s page, which likely already has a strong search engine optimization (SEO) presence. This setup benefits from the existing search engine rankings and requires less effort than starting marketing from scratch for a new program.
Faster path to high search rankings for new concentrations, creating a marketing loop: The SEO efforts for the main program boost the visibility of the new concentrations, which in turn contribute to the overall authority and ranking of the main program’s page. This synergy creates a self-reinforcing cycle that enhances the visibility of all offerings.
Enhanced paid marketing efficiencies: Adding concentrations in areas where significant traffic already exists for broad terms — like “MBA,” “business degree,” or “finance degree” for an MBA program — allows institutions to more effectively utilize their paid advertising budgets. Expanding the program options for your existing traffic allows you to improve your click-to-lead conversion rates, increase your number of leads, and enhance your downstream successes in areas such as enrollments and completions. This approach allows for a more efficient use of marketing investments, providing more options for prospective students within the same budget.
Faster Accreditation Process
Streamlined accreditation process by expanding within an already accredited program: Adding concentrations within an existing program simplifies the accreditation process. Because the core program is already accredited, expanding it with concentrations requires fewer approvals and less bureaucracy than launching an entirely new program.
Ready to Go Deep With One of Your Online Adult Degree Programs?
If you’ve seen success with an online adult degree program offering, you’ve already taken a momentous step toward growth — which is something to be proud of. It also creates massive opportunity, and Archer Education is poised to help you capitalize on it.
Archer is different from other agencies. We work as your online growth enablement partner, helping you to foster self-sufficiency over the long haul through collaboration, storytelling, and cutting-edge student engagement technology.
We’ve helped dozens of institutions increase enrollment and retention through a going deep approach, and your institution could be next. And once you’ve solidified the reputation and success of your core online offering by going deep, we’ll be ready to help you pivot to a wider approach to expand your position in online learning.
Contact us today to learn more about what Archer can do for you.
Embracing a “One School” Approach for a Better Student Experience
Let’s draw a line in the sand. On one side, we have a university campus and its on-ground offerings. On the other side, we have the digital higher education space and the online programs that live within it.
Traditionally, this line has been stark and rigid, with universities treating the two modalities as separate entities with dedicated teams, technology, systems, budgets, and strategies.
The initial separation was, in part, driven by the perception of online education as a lesser counterpart to its on-ground equivalent. This view may have held some truth in the early stages of digital learning. But the division has come with a cost, as institutions have had to do double the work, which is inefficient.
We can all see that significant changes are underway. Traditional educational boundaries are fading, with online learning gaining respect and sophistication. There are online programs that outpace their on-ground counterparts in quality and rigor. We’re looking at a future where traditional, hybrid, and online modalities are integrated, balancing both quality and accessibility.
As we leave the comfort of land and head out to sea, embracing a holistic approach is the way forward for universities.
Separation Comes at a Cost
The traditional division between on-ground and online learning modalities increases costs and complicates operations for institutions, weakening their ability to present a unified, powerful brand to prospective students. Here are a few of the pain points:
Fragmented Systems
Multiple Platforms: Utilizing different customer relationship management (CRM) systems, student information systems (SIS), and learning management systems (LMS) introduces inefficiencies. Each platform requires its own set of training, maintenance, and integration protocols. Those protocols often don’t integrate well, either.
Increased Costs: The need to support various tech stacks and administrative systems significantly drives up operational costs, as resources are duplicated across the board.
Conflicting Marketing Strategies
Brand Fragmentation: With separate marketing teams for its on-ground and online programs, an institution risks sending mixed messages to potential students. This can lead to brand dilution and confusion about what the university stands for.
Measurement Challenges: Disparate strategies make it difficult to track and analyze the effectiveness of marketing efforts. This makes the decisions on where to invest marketing dollars effectively difficult.
Diluted Resources
Split Focus: Dividing an institution’s time, talent, and budget between its on-ground and online initiatives means neither receives the full investment needed to thrive. This can result in underperforming programs that fail to meet their potential.
By managing resources under one unified strategy, universities can maximize the impact of their educational offerings, ensuring that both online and on-ground programs benefit from full institutional support and cohesion.
Advances in Online Learning Have Closed the Quality Gap
Technology is rapidly advancing, and higher ed is keeping pace with the changes. As institutions become more skilled at applying learning technologies, the following shifts have occurred:
Tech Innovations: Cutting-edge technologies have enabled more interactive and engaging learning environments. Tools such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence (AI) are being used to enhance classroom interactions and provide personalized learning experiences at scale.
Instructional Design: Modern instructional design tailors course content for digital consumption, optimizing learning outcomes. This involves structuring courses to leverage digital tools effectively, ensuring that the quality of online learning is equal to that of traditional classroom learning.
Faculty Training: Universities have increasingly invested in training faculty to excel in online settings. This includes equipping them with the skills to use digital tools effectively and to engage students who are not physically present.
Today, online courses match on-ground courses in their rigor and depth and offer the flexibility and accessibility that modern students demand. It’s a win-win. The shift isn’t just about maintaining academic standards; it’s about enhancing them to make education more inclusive and adaptable to students’ varied lifestyles.
The Case for a “One School” Strategy
As the distinction between online and on-ground academic quality becomes murkier, more universities are beginning to embrace a “one school” strategy. This holistic approach integrates online and on-ground modalities into a single, unified brand, ensuring a seamless and coherent student experience.
It’s kind of like how my son doesn’t see the athletics department, student advising, and his faculty members as being on different teams with different budget sources. They all make up one thing — his university and the way it feels to be a student.
By operating under a single brand, universities can streamline their processes, unify their messaging, and bolster their identity, enhancing their appeal in a competitive educational market. The unified brand experience provides students with a consistent set of resources and support mechanisms, which proves crucial in building trust and satisfaction.
The shift toward a one school strategy also aligns with the evolving preferences and expectations of students, particularly their growing desire for flexible learning environments. Modern students increasingly favor hybrid experiences — asynchronous learning modules combined with synchronous meetings. This allows them to manage their schedules while benefiting from real-time interactions.
Adopting this approach not only improves the overall experience for students but also positions institutions to more effectively manage their resources, enhance their operational efficiency, and strengthen their academic offerings across the board, redefining the educational experience to be more inclusive and adaptable to today’s learners.
Adopting a one school approach helps universities accomplish goals such as the following:
1. Establish a Unified Systems and Technology Stack
Currently, the existence of different application systems for different modalities often leads to disparate experiences and management challenges, increasing the risk of students falling through the cracks. A unified technology stack can address these issues, fostering a more integrated and seamless educational environment.
Using the same CRM and SIS systems across an organization can significantly streamline operations in all areas, from marketing through student retention. This unification not only reduces operational costs but also consolidates institutional data, enabling more effective tracking and support of student activities.
2. Create an Integrated Marketing Strategy
Universities often work with multiple marketing agencies that compete against each other using similar keywords but with slightly different visuals and landing pages. Bad idea. This not only dilutes the marketing efforts but also creates confusion for students who are comparing programs.
An integrated approach helps streamline these efforts, ensuring a cohesive, clear marketing message that effectively attracts and retains students.
3. Align Academic and Enrollment Calendars
A particularly troubling symptom of separate identities within a university is differing enrollment calendars for online and on-ground offerings. Online programs typically offer more start dates throughout the year.
With a single enrollment calendar, however, universities can eliminate this confusion and simplify the experience for students who might engage in both modalities. Additionally, as faculty members frequently teach in both online and on-ground formats, a unified calendar ensures that all students have equal access to faculty resources, regardless of the learning format.
A Note on Organizational … Resistance
While the theoretical benefits of integrating online and on-ground educational modalities are clear, the practical implementation can face organizational resistance. This stems from the “this is the way we’ve always done it” mindset, presenting real challenges in terms of system integration and cultural adaptation.
Addressing these challenges requires a strategic approach and readiness to tackle potential roadblocks. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Data migration from separate systems can quickly become a miserable task. Institutions should consider a phased integration plan with substantial buy-in from technology teams. Prioritizing key areas and establishing a unified data strategy can streamline this process.
Faculty and staff who are accustomed to operating within separate models may have concerns about changes to their job roles, security, workload, and work quality. That’s natural. Engaging stakeholders early, providing clear communication, and offering comprehensive training are important for easing this transition.
Merging marketing strategies might initially increase confusion. A deliberate process beginning with a comprehensive brand audit can help align key messages and value propositions. Starting with a unified marketing plan that leverages institutional strengths can facilitate smoother consolidation, guiding teams toward a cohesive strategy.
You Don’t Have to Implement the One School Model Alone
Starting the journey toward overhauling the outdated model and creating a unified experience can be complex and challenging, but you don’t have to navigate it alone.
Archer Education is equipped to empower your institution at every step with our growth enablement approach, offering expert guidance in storytelling, technology, audience insights, and data analytics to support a seamless transition to the one school model. Then, once things are up and running, you’ll have the internal knowledge and capacities you need to cast us out to sea.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help you integrate your educational offerings and maximize the potential of your institution.
As higher education navigates demographic shifts, new technologies, and economic challenges, institutions face a complex landscape when optimizing enrollment and meeting the evolving needs of students. The 2025 Landscape of Higher Education Report provides actionable insights that empower educational leaders to improve learning pathways and better serve the Modern Learner.
Challenges such as the rising education costs have led to increased scrutiny of a college degree’s value, with only 47% of Americans considering it worthwhile without loans. When loans are involved, this number drops to 22%, underscoring the imperative for institutions to adapt to more cost-effective pathways.
The 2025 Report offers a future-oriented outlook, equipping institutions with data to address gaps and better understand the evolving profile of the Modern Learner. Themes include shifting student preferences, an increased emphasis on career-aligned programs, and the need for more flexible learning pathways. In this article, explore six key findings that are molding students’ educational journeys and how these trends can enable education leaders to adapt.
Spring 2024 saw a 2.5% increase in undergraduate enrollment, particularly within community colleges, public institutions, and associate degree-granting baccalaureate institutions (PABs). Graduate programs also saw enrollment increases, with a 3% rise. The highest areas of growth occurred among private, for-profit four-year institutions. These trends indicate a growing demand for flexible learning pathways that accommodate different student preferences and career aspirations.
The age profile of part-time students has shifted as well, with the median age of part-time undergraduate students decreasing by nearly 2% across all sectors since Spring 2020. The shift was most pronounced at public two-year institutions, which saw a 4.2% decrease, and private accredited bachelor’s programs, which experienced a 2.8% decrease. As the age of part-time students continues to trend younger, it reaffirms that age is no longer a reliable predictor of learning modality. Furthermore, these shifting demographics emphasize the importance of embracing a Unified Enrollment Strategy that engages with Modern Learners based on their preferences and behaviors to meet them where they are with the right message, in the right place at the right time.
Finding #2: Modern Learners are Prioritizing Practical Skills and Career Outcomes
The emphasis on practical skills and career-readiness is reshaping Modern Learners’ educational preferences. With nearly half of Americans questioning the value of a traditional college degree, the demand for flexible, affordable, and industry-aligned options is growing rapidly. Apprenticeships have emerged as an appealing pathway for Modern Learners, offering paid opportunities for hands-on learning and gaining practical skills without the burden of taking on additional debt.
Over the past decade, the number of apprenticeships in the U.S. has more than doubled, from approximately 317,000 to 640,000. Sectors such as Construction and Public Administration have led this growth with 34.5% and 22.4% increases, respectively. High-growth fields like Healthcare, Finance, and Technical Services present additional opportunities for expanding apprenticeship programs, aligning well with workforce demands and students’ increasing preference for practical, job-ready experience.
Despite apprenticeships’ increasing appeal, accessibility poses a challenge. While 75% find apprenticeships appealing, only 29% find them accessible. Geographic location, program availability, and a lack of awareness remain barriers that can prevent students from participating. Institutions can remove these barriers through strategic partnerships with industry leaders to expand opportunities, integrate practical skill-building in program curriculums, and market available programs to raise awareness. These efforts not only meet the demands of Modern Learners by providing them with relevant skills, but also enable employers to recruit qualified candidates, making apprenticeships valuable for both higher education and the economy.
Finding #3: Student Demand for Alternative Credentials Continues to Rise
Much like apprenticeships, the rising demand for alternative credentials like certificates further underscores the shifting preference towards more flexible and affordable learning pathways. As students continue to seek programs that offer practical skills and immediate benefits for their careers, certificates have increasingly become an attractive alternative to traditional degree paths. With the cost of higher education on the rise, Modern Learners are turning to certificate programs as a focused and affordable way to gain relevant skills for their desired career industries.
Spring 2024 saw significant growth in certificate enrollments, with graduate programs seeing a nearly 10% increase and undergraduate certificates growing by nearly 4%. This growth reinforces that Modern Learners are increasingly prioritizing education opportunities that yield a high return-on-investment. Institutions can capitalize on this interest by expanding certificate offerings and making them more accessible to students through diverse modalities, competitive pricing, and aligning programs with job demands.
Finding #4: Dual Enrollment Programs Gain Momentum Among High School Students
Dual Enrollment programs are becoming increasingly popular pathways, as more young learners seek flexible avenues for higher education. The popularity of these programs aligns with the growing trend of younger students engaging in part-time studies, demonstrating a trend towards more adaptable educational modalities. Dual enrollment has increased over 10% over the last year alone, adding approximately 100,000 students and accounting for nearly 28.1% of undergraduate enrollment increases. This growth presents a crucial opportunity for institutions to leverage this interest as they develop enrollment strategies going into 2025.
Finding #5: The Some College, No Credential (SCNC) Population Presents a Growing Opportunity for Re-Engagement
The Some College, No Credential (SCNC) population, now at 36.8 million and growing by 2.9% from the previous year, represents a significant opportunity for enrollment growth. With re-enrollment rising by 9.1% in the 2022-2023 academic year, institutions have a chance to attract students who left before completing their degrees.
Understanding the educational preferences of SCNC students is key to tailoring outreach and support services. Popular fields of study for this group include Business and Liberal Arts at the bachelor’s level, Liberal Arts and General Studies for associate degrees, and Health professions and Business for undergraduate certificates. These areas indicate a clear demand for programs that offer clear pathways to employment. To effectively engage this population, institutions should focus on building accessible options that allow students to build upon previously earned credits, prioritize transfer credits, and offer support that enables students to advance in their chosen career fields.
Finding #6: International Student Enrollment Boosts Institutions’ Global Appeal
The growing population of international students enrolled at U.S. schools presents a valuable opportunity to enhance universities’ presence and grow enrollments. These students comprise of a significant share of enrollments, particularly in Massachusetts, Hawaii, New York, and California, where they account for 4.5% to 7.8% of the student population. Most undergraduate international students are enrolled within the public sector, underscoring its position to support higher education on a domestic and international scale.
To maximize the benefits of international student enrollment, institutions should focus on strategies that attract and retain international students while providing support services tailored to their unique needs. By integrating a comprehensive enrollment and student support system with resources like language assistance, housing support, and financial aid, institutions can boost their global appeal, create more culturally diverse campuses, and enhance their enrollment by positioning themselves as a top choice for students worldwide.
As institutions look ahead, the ability to attract and retain students across a range of educational paths requires a holistic approach to enrollment and student support services. By focusing on creating accessible, cost-effective, and relevant learning opportunities, institutions can position themselves for success in 2025 and beyond, while meeting the diverse needs of Modern Learners and driving sustainable enrollment growth.
Next Steps to Empower Your Multiyear Growth Road Map
In higher education organizations, enrollment management plans can be like the weather: short term, ever changing, and subject to the whims of the seasons each year.
But for your organization and programs to thrive no matter the conditions, a multiyear growth road map is needed to keep all parts of the organization aligned and moving toward a strategic set of goals.
In my last article, I discussed the importance of taking a step back to assess the people, processes, and technology of your organization to identify opportunities for improvement and high-quality growth. This critical first step results in an organizational development plan that moves your institution from good, to better, to best in class.
With this article, we’ll dig deeper to outline how you can build a multiyear growth road map that allows you to weather everything from regulatory storm clouds to enrollment droughts, keeping your focus on a longer-term strategy. You’ll learn how to get started, measure your progress, and ensure that feedback loops are in place for continuous improvement.
A multiyear growth road map helps your teams move beyond term-to-term thinking to develop activities that ladder up and contribute to a true organizational vision. Everyone has a part to play that is specific, measured, and celebrated.
The First 90 Days
As with any effective plan, laying a strong foundation can lead to long-term success. In the context of your multiyear strategic road map, building the foundation involves these steps:
Hold discovery sessions: Engage with individuals and teams across your organization and open up space for productive — and sometimes uncomfortable — conversations. You are looking for concerns, challenges, and hopes for the future. This phase isn’t about problem-solving. It’s about understanding the existing culture and building trust.
Complete an internal readiness assessment: This critical component looks at your institution’s existing strengths, weaknesses, and roadblocks. The readiness assessment process ensures that any proposed changes are offered within the context of your institution’s culture and helps you paint a realistic picture of what you’re ready to take on.
Conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis: Once you have identified your internal current state, you can then compare that to the broader market and competitive landscape. Where is your organization or portfolio strongest, and where is it at greatest risk? Where are the potential market opportunities that you can begin to assess? Where are the most likely threats from competitors, regulation, resource shifts, or other market trends?
Prepare for action: As the first 90 days close, you’ll have developed a much clearer image of a business case and action plan. This could mean starting with centralizing marketing efforts, for example, or it may involve planning for a technology tool or system and data mapping for eventual migration. Each institution is different.
Year One: The Blueprint
With a solid understanding of your institution’s current landscape — both internally and externally — it’s time to launch into the first year of your strategic road map. These 365 days are about implementing basic changes to boot up the structures, systems, and processes that will support growth in later years.
Build your blueprint: Your blueprint is your North Star for change. It’s a clear vision that outlines your key goals, timelines, and measures of success. Think of it as a collection of SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Take simple steps: This is where you implement the first round of changes, which should be relatively achievable. This could be adopting a new customer relationship management (CRM) system, refining a marketing strategy, or establishing new faculty support systems. The goal here is to get the basics right, then let these efforts evolve over time.
Gather feedback: This may be the most important part of your first-year efforts: garnering input on the efficacy of the changes made from stakeholders from all levels and departments at your institution. Feedback loops help you gauge your progress and identify areas that need adjustments.
Year Two: Optimize and Accelerate
With a firm foundation now in place from your first year’s efforts, the focus shifts toward refinement, optimization, and acceleration of your growth initiatives. This phase is crucial, as it’s where you begin to see the fruits of your labor blossom.
Double down on success: Now is the perfect time to capitalize on what’s working. Your teams are eager for a win, so identify any initiative that has shown promise — be it a marketing strategy that’s driving higher engagement or an educational program that’s exceeded enrollment expectations. By scaling these successful ventures, you can ride the momentum and amplify your results.
Refine with data: Use the data accumulated from the initial implementations to tweak and improve your systems and processes. Engage in conversations with your teams to pinpoint any bottlenecks or slowdowns in the student journey. Experiment with new approaches based on these insights, and critically evaluate the impact of these changes. This iterative process is key to continuous improvement.
Celebrate and share visible wins: Success is a powerful motivator. Make it a point to regularly share and celebrate each tangible achievement — whether it’s a surge in student enrollments, heightened faculty engagement, or the seamless adoption of a new process. Publicizing these wins not only builds internal momentum but also reinforces the collective commitment to your strategic goals.
Years Three and Four: Knowledge Sharing and Independence
As your strategic initiatives mature, the focus will naturally transition toward sharing knowledge and strengthening your internal teams. This critical period in years three and four is about empowering your staff and shifting your role from hands-on implementer to guiding coach.
Empower through ownership: Encourage teams to take full ownership of the implemented processes and changes. This allows you to step back and adopt a coaching role, guiding your teams through challenges and ensuring they have the confidence and skills needed to manage and refine these new systems independently. This is also the time to ensure your organization has strong documentation on its processes and training both for knowledge sharing and to support future hiring and onboarding.
Build internal capacity: Looking ahead and preparing for a future where your organization can operate and evolve without the need for external partnerships is essential. This requires a dedicated effort and a commitment to providing ongoing training, resources, and support to build a robust internal capacity. Invest in these areas to develop a self-sustaining system that thrives on its own merits.
Celebrate the milestones: After your extensive efforts over the past few years, taking the time to celebrate is not just rewarding but necessary. Highlight the significant impacts made by your teams, and take a moment to reflect on the growth, changes, and obstacles that have been overcome. This celebration not only acknowledges the hard work but also reinforces your institution’s positive culture and its commitment to continuous improvement.
The Journey to Sustainable Development Starts Today
Successful organizational development requires a multiyear effort that encompasses careful planning, precise execution, and a dedicated team of leaders. From the initial 90 days to the subsequent years, each phase of the process moves your institution closer to becoming stronger and more agile.
Our team at Archer Education has helped dozens of institutions build and execute comprehensive multiyear strategic plans. These plans are tailored to enhance enrollment and retention, setting each institution on a path to long-term success.
If you’re ready to transform your organization and achieve remarkable results, reach out to us at Archer Education. Let’s make your educational vision a reality together.
Melanie Andrich is vice president of strategy and development at Archer Education. Melanie is a results-driven higher education leader with 20-plus years of experience in developing and supporting high-quality, accessible, and scalable academic programs and services. She spent the first half of her career at Rutgers University running study abroad programming and leading the first fully online professional master’s degree program for the university. She then moved into management consulting to help colleges and universities with academic innovation, enrollment management, and organizational transformation initiatives.