Adult Student Demand Analysis is a comprehensive market assessment of adult learning that helps shape adult student recruitment, programs, and services for all types of institutions—large and small, public and private, two-year and four-year, urban, suburban, and rural.
Report findings and recommendations are straight-forward, clear, and direct in regard to next steps your institution must take to increase adult student enrollments. We understand fully that you are seeking action advice—not a "research report." We draw on our 25 years of experience in conducting market studies to enrich what we recommend for your college.
The three core studies of adult student demand for higher education include:
Optional Studies
The following optional studies offer your college additional market studies for special populations and organizations:
Employers
Interviews are conducted with businesses, government agencies, and professional association leadership to identify what they know about your institution and what services they want from you. Additional information is collected in regard to their tuition reimbursement policies and their forecasts of employee skills needed in the future.
Prospective Students
Hear from adults who inquired about your college—but did not enroll—to learn about their sources of information, the other colleges they considered, and what led them to enroll in another college or not to enroll at all. Interview findings describe college search patterns of adult prospects, identify some who remain recruitable, and pinpoint how to improve your practices in converting inquirers to students.
Current Students
Adult students currently enrolled at your college can offer advice on how to attract others like them. An online survey of your current students will describe their sources of information about you, what attracted them to your college, their satisfaction with your college, and their suggestions for improving campus practices.
Early Leavers
It costs less to keep a current student than to recruit a replacement. Interviews with those who left early can explain why they left, what you might do to attract some of them back, and how you can reduce future attrition.
Faculty and Administration
The views of your faculty members and administrators are pivotal in shaping the way your college attracts and retains adult students. Views from your college staff will be collected in regard to: (1) what policies staff members advise the college to follow in attracting, serving, and retaining adult students; and (2) practices in which staff members would engage personally to help the college carry out those policies.
Alumni
Those who know you best are those who stayed with you until graduation. By now, they have tried their skills in the workplace—perhaps in new jobs—and have worked alongside graduates of other colleges. Interviews with them will reveal their mature perspectives on your programs and practices in regard to the recruitment of adults. Studies can be tailored to also measure their interest in conducting future professional development or continuing education with their alma mater.
Institutional Audits
An in-depth examination of your college's current practices and policies helps set a solid foundation for the direction you take in the future. We will visit your campus to assess the policies and practices relevant to attracting and serving adult students to recommend how to increase your share of the adult student market. Audits may focus on your college's recruitment and marketing strategies, advertising materials and products, tracking and follow-up of prospective students, admissions and enrollment procedures, college-wide administrative structure for serving adult students, and any other policies or practices you nominate.
College Image Study
You have an image—perhaps multiple images—in the minds of adults residing in your college's service area. Images affect enrollment. A survey of residents collects impressions of your program, faculty, services, students, and campus as compared to those of other colleges. Learn which practices and outreach you should continue and which you should improve.
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