Outsourcing survey reflects new realities.
Colleges’ interest in outsourcing remains high. That’s one of several findings that stood out to me from a new survey of administrators, conducted for the first time in three years, by the organizers of P3•EDU and The Chronicle. P3•EDU is a conference on public-private partnerships (also known as P3s), the next of which will take place in September in Denver; two of my colleagues, Scott Carlson and Lee Gardner, will be moderating panels there.
Directionally, the results of the new survey don’t differ markedly from the 2019 results. Still, several responses reflect new realities that colleges now face.
Most notably, 44 percent of respondents cited “telehealth and mental-health services” as areas of interest for partnerships with outside companies — a higher percentage than for more traditionally outsourced services, such as managing online programs or developing campus infrastructure. The health category is new since the last survey, so the interest may have been there before. But my gut and plenty of other findings tell me this is a need that has grown all the more pressing since the pandemic began.
A desire for partnerships that could give students more “real world” work experiences, including internships, as part of their education also seems noteworthy. Several of the 350 respondents (the survey was sent to presidents, provosts, and chief financial officers at four-year institutions) wrote that such partnerships could enhance students’ career opportunities — a clear response to the heightened pressure colleges are under to prove their value to a skeptical public. Meanwhile, interest in partnerships to develop student housing seems to have fallen; 26 percent of respondents marked it of interest, compared with 36 percent three years ago.
I always love the comments in surveys like this. Give administrators the chance to answer anonymously, and you end up with a bit more candor. And even aside from the one respondent whose only comment was “capitalist garbage,” questions about these partnerships are still very real. Dozens of comments raised concerns about costs, the potential for losing control, and reputational risk. As one wrote, “the desire to preserve the uniqueness of the institution in the eyes of faculty, alumni, and potential students” is a lingering reservation.
Two other comments also struck me as telling. One was from an administrator who had misgivings about the length of a contract with an outside partner in “a changing higher-ed marketplace.” The other worried about maintaining partnerships “due to leadership instability in higher education.”
In the past, a lot of hesitation over P3s centered on the staying power of the outside entities. Now, it seems, concern about the constancy of higher ed itself is also coming into play.
Community college to career.
Key to responding to the enrollment crisis at community colleges is expanding “value for students in this and the future economic climate,” Tania LaViolet, a director at the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, said during a recent Chronicle virtual forum.
But how?
Obviously there’s no single answer. Student-focused advising, faculty members up on evolving industry standards, and career conversations that begin on Day 1 were among the strategies the panel — moderated by Alexander C. Kafka, a Chronicle senior editor, and Paula Pando, president of Reynolds Community College, in Virginia — discussed. The forum was underwritten by the Ascendium Education Group as part of our yearlong series on student success.
Here are two takeaways:
Refine guided pathways. The sequential nature of courses in this model can mean students have to tackle more general requirements before potentially more exciting, career-oriented material. Redesigning the intro-to-college courses typically offered in the first semester is vital, said Ava L. Parker, president of Palm Beach State College, in Florida. “Give students a taste of the experience that’s going to encourage them to continue,” she said, not just “here’s how you find your way around.”
Develop deep industry partnerships. At Washington State Community College, in Ohio, a nursing program in which students go to class and work at a local hospital has been a game-changer in integrating employment into the educational experience, said Vicky Wood, the college’s president. “If a life event comes along, and students drop out, they remain employed,” she said, and are more likely to return. And Pando quoted a peer’s words she has never forgotten: “I have no interest in dating business and industry. I want a marriage. If you are participating in the development of our curriculum, then I want you to hire our students.” —Maura Mahoney
Check these out.
Here are some education-related items from other outlets that recently caught my eye. Did I miss a good one? Let me know.
- Four out of five recently surveyed undergraduates, ages 18 to 44, said they wished colleges would spend more money on course materials and less on amenities like residence halls, facilities, and athletics. The findings contradict the thinking that amenities attract students, and that may be because the sample included older students now enrolled in two- and four-year colleges. The survey, conducted by Cengage, also found that most students are paying for their education on their own, and more than three-quarters think it’s worth the cost, “as long as college is a gateway to financial independence.”
- College affordability is especially challenging for students who are parents. Someone would need to work 52 hours a week, on average, to cover child-care costs and tuition at a four-year public college, according to a new analysis by the Education Trust.
- Just as the sports world is learning to adapt to “fluid fans,” who are less devoted to single teams, colleges should consider what it means to serve “fluid students,” argues Anne Khademian. Many students today “need to flow in and out of jobs and education, rather than pursue a degree in two or four years,” Khademian, executive director of the Universities at Shady Grove, in Maryland, writes in this essay in Higher Ed Dive. “And increasingly,” she adds, “they will seek to direct their educational experience toward personalized career opportunities, while stacking and banking credentials and experience into degrees.”
- With the Education Department’s announcement last week that it would cancel $4 billion in loans held by more than 200,000 former students at the shuttered ITT Technical Institutes, this report on the demise of ITT, from the Project on Predatory Student Lending, is all the more salient. (The report, “Dreams Destroyed,” was published in February, but I missed it then.)
- Applications to the nation’s service academies dropped significantly last year, and while that lines up with overall declines in college enrollment, this piece in Military.com notes that other trends may also be at play. Just 8 percent of young Americans have seriously considered joining the military, the article says, citing the Pentagon. Only about a quarter of them are even eligible for service, the article says, “a shrinking pool limited by an increasing number of potential recruits who are overweight or are screened out due to minor criminal infractions, including the use of recreational drugs such as marijuana.”
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