The New Horizons for Higher Education

By Karen Lindsey-Lloyd, Vice President, Edelman Southwest Education Sector

I enjoy watching the reactions of people when I tell them I work for Edelman and focus on higher education. They think I am either some boring academic type or that I do not get to do “real” public relations work. After a good laugh, I eagerly share how the landscape of higher education has changed dramatically over the past five years and that there is an increasing need for strategic public relation counsel beyond campus crisis situations. More and more university presidents have been appointed with business backgrounds, and this, coupled with the media interest in the value of a college degree, unemployment and online education, has raised interest in the education sector.

Topics such as the cost to obtain a college degree and the growing popularity of online education continue to dominate the news. As more adults and veterans return to college and traditional undergraduate students are unable to find jobs, academicians, CEOs and even the President have elevated the conversation. 

President Obama and his administration recently unveiled a plan that created a lot of buzz in the media. After a quick review of the White House fact sheet of the plan, here are a few critical elements education sector clients and others are talking about:

1) Create College Scorecards

The most talked about part of the Obama proposal is the creation of new rankings for schools based on data in a college scorecard. Among U.S. colleges and universities, the most talked about rankings game has always been the U.S. News and World Report rankings. The new angle proposed by Obama on “College Scorecards” and rankings includes information like:

• Percentage of students receiving Pell grants
• Average tuition, scholarships, and loan debt 
• Graduation and transfer rates, graduate earnings, and advanced degrees of graduates

While this sounds groundbreaking, colleges and universities constantly track this data but rarely find ways to act on it. These elements of a college scorecard address concerns from parents, students, media and accreditation organizations about access, affordability and outcomes. While there are alternative rankings that take criteria like those into account, the data are not commonly used. For example, the Washington Monthly‘s rankings are based on three categories becoming of great strategic interest to higher education institutions — social mobility, research and national service. 

2) Make the data matter to impact affordability

After a quick review of the White House fact sheet, it sounds like they are gearing up to tie federal student aid — including Pell Grants and  federal student loans — to institutional quality, as measured by the new rankings system. Currently, as long as a school is accredited its students can get federal aid. 

3) Innovation and Technology 

The plan indicates that the “rising tide of innovation has the potential to shake up the higher education landscape.” Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and “flipped” or “hybrid” classrooms help demonstrate that technology can reduce costs to increase access and affordability. The President’s plan is challenging higher education leaders to adopt practices that:

• Award Credits Based on Learning, not Seat Time. This is the idea of competency-based online universities serving large numbers of students with relatively low costs and short duration to obtain a bachelors degree. 
• Use Technology to Redesign Courses. The notion that redesigned courses that integrate online platforms (like MOOCs) or blend in-person and online experiences can accelerate the pace of student learning. The 
• Use Technology for Student Services.  Online learning communities and e-advising tools enable students from across campuses and across the world to collaborate and faculty to identify academic issues. 

Edelman Southwest education professionals stay abreast of these trends and collaborate across practices such as corporate, digital and business + social purpose to bring the education perspective to our clients. More and more, we are seeing the intersection of education and other sectors, as the evolution of education has become one of the most widely-discussed societal topics of current times. To learn more about the education sector in the Southwest, feel free to contact me, Karen Lindsey-Lloyd, or education sector lead Julia Weede.