A tough economy, rising college costs, and a new generation of digitally adept students are all reasons colleges should look for new ways to serve their students, college presidents and other speakers said at a conference here Monday.
The conference, “Reinventing the University: New Models & Innovations for 21st Century Realities,” was held by the New England Board of Higher Education and featured speakers from for-profit and nonprofit institutions, as well as leaders from national policy groups.
Their main message was that colleges must find ways to educate more students and help them complete their degrees.
And with state financial support unlikely to return to previous levels, and families growing leery of taking on debt, colleges will have to do that in less costly ways.
Speakers emphasized flexible approaches, including offering hybrid online and in-person courses, trying different modes of technology (including mobile phones) to deliver instruction, and rethinking four- or six-year degrees for students who aren’t interested in following the traditional higher-education model.
Students starting college now “don’t want to be bound by time and place and stuck in passive learning modes,” said Michael K. Thomas, president of the New England Board of Higher Education.
One idea was to offer students a variety of ways to get a degree. Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, described how students pursing bachelor’s degrees there can save money by doing a traditional four-year program in three years. They can also save money by taking their first two years of classes for a four-year program at no-frills satellite campuses, or they can take classes online, he said.
The three-year program is so popular that the university is talking about changing all of its four-year programs to that model.
The online program, which employs a call center for student recruiting, much like a for-profit college’s, is also a money maker for the university, Mr. LeBlanc said. It brought in $22-million last year and continues to grow.
Another college focusing on its growth in online offerings is Brigham Young University-Idaho. The institution, a former junior college in Rexburg that now offers four-year degrees, operates year-round and allows students to take classes online or in a traditional setting. Its goal is to operate a university at a junior-college price, and the college is working to lower the costs of an online credit hour, said Henry Eyring, advancement vice president for the institution.
Arizona State University, which already has about 68,000 enrolled, is looking to expand. It wants to grow to 85,000 students on its campuses and 100,000 online, its president, Michael Crow, told the gathering. Mr. Crow, who is well known for his work with new models of higher education at Arizona State, said the university is planning to review its entire curriculum in order to serve those new students.
“You have to rethink everything,” Mr. Crow said, “every single aspect of the university.”
