Data is deeply rooted in the world of higher education. While colleges and universities are using cutting-edge analytics tools to make the kinds of decisions that address challenges they are facing today, that’s not all that different from the work they’ve been doing for decades.
That work includes everything from setting tuition prices to making sure colleges are offering the kinds of classes that will attract students to pay that tuition. Here’s a look at some of the specific ways institutes of higher education use data to inform their decisions.
Admissions and tuition data
Jack Maguire is credited with introducing market research to the field of college admissions in the 1970s, and applications to Boston College tripled during his tenure as dean of admissions there. The school found that success by looking at the data, encouraging more students to accept admission to BC by offering discounts based the quality of the applicant. As new patterns developed based on how these strategies played out, the school continued to use new data to make other decisions.
When schools see a successful approach somewhere, they adopt it for their own use, and other schools followed the same model as Boston College did years ago. That has evolved over time to the model today, where colleges use any and all information they have about prospective students to target them, track whether the students show interest, and then figure out how they can set prices for individual admitted students.
Esports and student well-being
Schools also use data to figure out what matters to students, and they either adjust their offerings to meet those needs, or they change their marketing approach to highlight those parts of their programs. In recent years, many colleges and universities have turned their focus to health and wellness, knowing that by ensuring students feel taken care of they can be more attractive to students and also have a better shot at student retention once they come to campus.
Baylor University has put a unique spin on health and wellness by touting its esports program. Citing data that highlights increased isolation and a growing sense of disconnection among young men, Baylor’s first-ever esports director and coach points to how a comprehensive esports program can help build community, promote discipline, and create career pathways for those students. Baylor has varsity, club-level, and recreational tiers to its esports program, and it is not alone among schools recognizing the benefits of esports when it comes to student well-being and career readiness: More than 260 schools in the United States and Canada belong to the National Association of College Esports.
The right analytics solution
Having the right data is just one step of the process when it comes to analytics. Stakeholders need to ask the right questions to make the data work for them, just as Jack Maguire did at Boston College. And it takes the right analytics solution to help turn the data into actionable information that can produce the kind of results achieved by the colleges mentioned above.
Sometimes schools are addressing a specific problem that they want an answer to. After Maguire left BC he started a consulting firm which helped Boston University when it was examining whether to drop its football program. Maguire’s firm found that applicants to BU were more likely to have attended an opera than a football game, which helped inform the decision to cut the football program.
Often, though, schools have the data and aren’t sure what to do with it. The right analytics solution doesn’t just mean technology – it can also mean a support team from the analytics provider that can work with the school to produce reports that can help guide decision-makers in their work. Whether that’s tuition, program offerings, or any other aspect of campus life, analytics can be the difference that can help set a school apart from the competition.
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