Time for Change – Have You Asked the Right Questions?
If indeed you are considering taking on my challenge of raising the issue with your administration about making some changes to your adult student programs I will caution you to start at the beginning – find out what your students want. So often in higher education we have a tendency to roll out the program that a department is “willing” to allow us to have. Or we design course delivery modes after we see what is being done at another school, or what we can get people to buy-in to on our campus. One of the reasons we fall back on this is lack of data and hard facts. So ask yourself the question – have you asked your target audience any questions lately?
Many institutions share with me the numerous surveys they do each year with their own students. I’m not saying this isn’t beneficial. It is a nice point of reference. But in reality, these people are already sold on you. They are already paying your tuition, for whatever reason they like what you have to offer. I can nearly guarantee that you will hear great support for what you are already doing.
If you are really interested in some eye opening research, survey students who didn’t come to your program. The one’s who rejected you in favor of someone else. Find out what set the other institution above yours. Was it program, delivery, cost, schedule, customer service, or something else entirely? Did they not feel recruited by you? I wonder how many students are lost each year from the not-for-profit schools to the for-profit world, simply based on recruitment strategies. All institutions conduct research on their current students. And they should. However, the truly brave conduct research on those who rejected them!
Interested in graduated student marketing topics and concerns? Check out Stamats Integrated Marketing Graduate Student Conference, November 10-12, 2009 in Boston, MA. More information here!
Photo by Leo Reynolds
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Becky Peeling
