PLAN IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTING FOR HIGHER ED INSTITUTIONS
Now that you have your strategic planning completed, The Change Leader can help you implement it by calling on our expert advisors to guide you through putting in place the key elements of your strategies.
Strategic Enrollment Management
Creating sustainable institutions means having strong enrollment systems. Let our expert admissions and advising experts help you implement the programs that you need to ensure the right number and mix of students are admitted to and remain successful at your institution.
Registrar and Records Management
Face it. Most of us hate paperwork, but paperwork and records management, especially in the registrar’s office, are some of the most critical issues that universities must deal with. Our AACRAO experts can help you navigate the thorniest registrar issues.
Program Development
Once you’ve decided on your direction, you must implement the plan. Our expert instructional designers and course developers will build you the courses that you need when you need them.
ORGANIZATION ALIGNMENT FOR COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES
Organizations are like high-performance cars – they need all the parts assembled properly to make them run at peak performance.
The problem is, most institutions don’t hit on all cylinders – they are misaligned, don’t have all the right pieces in place, or the pieces don’t work well together, which results in missing enrollment goals, graduation goals, and/or low morale . . . the list goes on and on.
The Change Leader can help you get your institution aligned and build the capacity that you need to run on all cylinders, from developing a shared vision to implementing that vision to reorganizing to make the vision a reality, so that it will hit on all cylinders. We conduct policy and governance reviews to uncover problems unbeknownst to you. We get at the unspoken truths of your institution, identify hidden problems, and implement plans to solve them. With our help, higher education institutions have reduced hiring costs, improved innovation, and boosted employee performance.
Every institution has the potential to achieve sustainable and transformative change; the key is to increase transparency, identify necessary changes, and eliminate the pressures and resistance to change that can short-circuit your initiatives.
DISTANCE & ONLINE EDUCATION CONSULTING
There is a revolution taking place in higher education—the face-to-face (f2f) model of delivering classes, used since time immemorial, is being supplemented (and in some cases supplanted) by distance education, online learning, or a blended delivery model.
The new large demographic of students are working adults who require a more flexible schedule than being in a classroom for 7 hours a day. According to the Gates Foundation, 62% of all students are working full or part-time, 59% of them are commuting students, and nearly 67% are non-Pell Grant students who attend full time.
Enter distance education, online education, and blended learning.
In today’s education landscape, 50% of all students will take a distance education / online course during their college careers, and the number who are 100% online is approaching 20% and growing. All higher education institutions should be making changes to meet these new demands, yet many institutions struggle to break free from traditional approaches—even when they put their very existence at risk.
The Change Leader helps institutions create and implement their plans for distance education, including new programs and/or converting all or part of your current course offerings for online education or blended delivery.
It doesn’t have to be hard. Let The Change Leader help you develop and implement this “new” way of learning that has changed education forever.
MERGER & ALLIANCE CONSULTANTS FOR HIGHER ED INSTITUTIONS
In the 1980s, 90s, and early 2000’s, corporate America underwent a (painful) transformation called “restructuring,” a euphemism that meant things changed in a big way and many people lost their jobs. There were many reasons for this, including the “opening” of China for shipping manufacturing processes offshore to save money, computers running the supply chain, and the opening of the digital economy.
Higher education never went through those rough times. Until now. We find ourselves with:
- a decline in the numbers of students due to decreased birth rates and COVID,
- a change in the demographics of students – the “traditional” college-age student is in the minority, and
- a declining reputation of higher education institutions, especially with those who identify themselves as Republican.
As a result, higher education finds itself in a mature to declining market as characterized by declining enrollments, lack of differentiation in the higher ed marketplace, and an increase in market consolidation (M&A activity) and/or college closings. There are multiple reasons for this increased M&A activity, that include institutions wanting:
- New markets / customers / programs
- New technologies
- Gain efficiencies in operations
- Not go out of business / close their doors
This last reason seems to be the big driver in higher ed M&A activity, e.g., we’ve seen a number of smaller colleges and universities under financial stress that are looking for ways to solve their problems through mergers/acquisitions and alliances.
Is your institution considering a merger or an alliance? The Change Leader can help. Our experts will help you:
- Look for possible partners to partners and/or merge with
- Conduct culture surveys to see if cultures are complementary (the #1 reason for failed mergers is culture)
- Help with the accreditation and organization merging, and get the two institutions working as one
GRANT WRITING & FUNDING IDENTIFICATION SERVICES FOR HIGHER ED
Many education institutions find themselves in a perpetual funding crisis, relying disproportionally on grants and outside funding to make ends meet, or not having the adequate funds to create new programs that could better meet current and future students’ needs and make them sustainable. We help institutions improve their bottom lines, continue established practices, and pursue new initiatives by developing strong internal grant writing and funding identification processes.
The Change Leader can also help your institution with researching grant funding sources, opportunity analysis, proposal developments, grant writing, and grant management. Additionally, our Grant Writing and Funding Identification services extend into other key financial areas including:
- Developing budgets with justification
- Forms completion
- Identifying sources of financing, including traditional funding entities and alternative funding such as government loans, tax credits, and incentives
Our efforts have helped education institutions obtain funding in multiple areas, including alternative transportation, renewable energy, biomass/biofuels, solar, water infrastructure, information technologies, cybersecurity, geothermal, workforce development, agriculture, human services/housing/HUD, environmental programs, natural resources/trails, community planning/urban greening, children’s services, Tribal, and Military sectors.
Have questions on how to get started? Contact us for a free 30-minute consultation with The Change Leader.
Check out our library of blogs and podcasts about grant writing and funding identification for higher education.