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Jan11Written by:Nathan Greeno
1/11/2010 7:43 AM  Blending business acumen with educational leadership demands knowledge
of the current environment. With this knowledge, based on fact not on
desire, higher education strategy can be formed with a much greater
degree of potential success. So I ask "If your institution were a
business (which it is) what product would you put the most resources
into?" It would be the product with the greatest opportunity to be
consumed by the marketplace. One of the research sites that I frequent
is the National Center for Education Statistics.
According to NCES research: "Of the 1,524,000 bachelor's degrees conferred in 2006–07, the largest
numbers of degrees were conferred in the fields of business (328,000),
social sciences and history (164,000), education (106,000), and health
sciences (102,000). At the master’s degree level, the largest numbers
of
degrees were in the fields of education (177,000) and business
(150,000). The fields with the largest number of degrees at the
doctor’s degree level were health professions and related clinical
sciences (8,400), education (8,300), engineering (8,100), biological
and biomedical sciences (6,400), psychology (5,200), and physical
sciences (4,800)."
It is clear from this research that the demand at the baccalaureate level is the following:
1) Business
2) Social Sciences and history
3) Education
4) Health Sciences
At the master's level it is the following:
1) Education
2) Business
How does this knowledge impact your strategic decisions of resource allocation? Where are you putting your marketing dollars? For some, this becomes quite a quandary. Perhaps the mission of your institution and its historical purpose is outside of these top degree categories. It is here that a strong sense of business acumen would lead the leader into championing these degrees in order to fund mission. The two are inseparable. Resources are needed to fund mission. Resources are leveraged by listening to the market and making investment decisions with finite funds into areas to which the current market is responding. It is with the return on those resources that mission can be funded.
As you examine 2010 and beyond, think seriously about your own environmental scan. Demographics are changing as the Adult student becomes the majority. The non-traditional student becomes the traditional and this inversion is further enhanced in complexity by the demand for learning that is flexible and offered at a distance. For many, the answer will be a focus on distance learning for adults in business, education and health care.
What is your answer?
Nathan
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