Selling a Community College Education: IHE article

[polly_mer]

Matt Reed outlines the problems facing community colleges in not having enough funding so they must advertise and yet not having the budget to advertise to the extent necessary to get enrollment: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/marketing-conundrum

[marshwiggle]

Interesting quote from the article:

When I was at DeVry, I saw a very different model.  There, far more of the budget went to advertising and recruiting, and far less to instruction.  DeVry could do that because it was a publicly traded corporation.  It didn't have to observe county lines, so it didn't.  It blanketed daytime television with ads, drawing from all across media markets.  And it could eliminate programs that didn't turn a profit, rather than carrying them as part of a public service mission.  Over time, that meant that quality control became an uphill battle; eventually, even aggressive marketing can do only so much.  At some level, quality still matters.



If we had reasonable funding, we could do more conspicuous marketing.  Or, if we had reasonable funding, we wouldn't have to market much at all.  But we're in that annoying in-between space, where we can't afford an ad blitz and can't afford anonymity.  That's the conundrum.

Probably some (if not most) of the unprofitable programs wouldn't benefit from lots of advertising, since they're probably offered at a zillion other places. The only real payoff to advertising will be for what is unique.

[Aster]

My eyes began rolling after the author penned "When I was at DeVry..."

Eh. At least the author was honest about his employment experiences there.

[polly_mer]

My eyes began rolling after the author penned "When I was at DeVry..."

Eh. At least the author was honest about his employment experiences there.

"At least the author was honest"?  Yes, Dr. Reed has written for decades about life at the lower end of the academic food chain as a faculty member, an administrator, and now a top official at his institution.

How good of you to only roll your eyes about a well-written piece on the realities by someone who has devoted his career to helping solve the issues.

[ciao_yall]

It's not just marketing and advertising.

The decision to go back to school is complex. One ad saying "Have a college certificate!" is not the same as an ad for a Snickers bar or a Coke.

After showing a series of ads (it takes 3-7 times for someone to see your message and respond), DeVry has a whole machine prepared to convince students to:

• go back to school,
• figure out their financial aid,
• build an education plan,
• sign up for classes,
• check in when they have problems,
• continue on the following semester,
• graduate,
• start yet another program...

Until they die.

CC's rely a lot on student motivation to find the college, figure things out, find the right office, etc.

We say that our students are the smartest and fittest in the state, what with being able to figure out our systems and run up and down our steep and hilly campus to get to their different classes!

[Aster]

My eyes began rolling after the author penned "When I was at DeVry..."

Eh. At least the author was honest about his employment experiences there.

"At least the author was honest"?  Yes, Dr. Reed has written for decades about life at the lower end of the academic food chain as a faculty member, an administrator, and now a top official at his institution.

How good of you to only roll your eyes about a well-written piece on the realities by someone who has devoted his career to helping solve the issues.

Well written article? Perhaps I clicked the wrong article by mistake. What I read was a promising little warm-up of standard operating practices of community colleges, that sort of dropped off at the end, making me wonder what readers were supposed to get from it. Yes, community colleges are local. Yes, they market locally to the local demographic that is their almost exclusive target audience. Yes, they offer a lot of different educational services. Thanks man for that Cracker Jack box insight. I could get that same info from polling a random 12th grade high school student.

But going off the rails with that sort of randomly inserted paragraph about Devry University was a nice touch. I can see that the author sort of just typed up whatever popped into his head from his personal Walkabout down memory lane, sort of half-assed connected that Walkabout to the rest of the article as a possible alternative model, but then sort of ramble-bashed that alternative model. Maybe. I can't tell what exactly readers are supposed to get out of that second to last paragraph, since it's all over the place. But even though it bashed the predatory edu-business as a side note comment, it did bash it, so I can take that warm feeling home with me.

So I guess that community colleges need more money for marketing? Maybe? I'm not really sure from reading this article. Why do they need more money for marketing, exactly? Or are they losing their marketing money? Maybe? Or maybe we're just comparing a local community college to a ginormous corporate for-profit university for giggles?  Cool, I'm hip with that dope.