University of Northampton: Higher Education Challenges and the Information Environment

What Do You Consider To Be The Key Challenges Facing The HE Sector?

How Do You Feel The Development Of A Rich Online Proposition Can Add Value

To University Communications?

STEPHEN J. STOSE

Job presentation for the role of…

Senior Marketing Officer – Web & Digital Media

…at the University of Northampton

What Do You Cons ider To Be The Key Chal lenges Fac ing The HE Sector?

Part I

Ferdinand von Prondzynski

Principle and Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gorden University in Aberdeen

“Do students learn anything much at college?”

www.universitydiary.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/do-students-learn-anything-much-at-college/

“Students sometimes [see HE] solely as the route to

a formal qualification to establish their careers…

industry as a way of providing specialist and

sometimes quite narrow skills…

and governments as a way of keeping people off

the dole queues.

The educational character of education is sometimes

lost in all this and needs to be re-discovered.

[bold emphasis added]

Source: Guardian Higher Education Survey 2011

Part I

What Do You Consider To Be

The Key Challenges

Facing The HE Sector?

1. Fees and the commodification of HE

2. Education as community public good

3. The diversification of education and “business-oriented” services

4. Knowledge transfer and university-business collaboration

5. Teaching quality and teacher-researcher division of labour

6. Digital infrastructure and the digital literacy of staff and students

1.Fees and the commodification of higher education

Can classic economics in HE work?

Capping fees at 9,000 restricts market plasticity

Can government afford, given university fee average (7,500) higher than estimated

Price now a “proxy” for quality?

Repay, given post-graduation income-dependent?

Image source: R.J. Matson

1.Fees and the commodification of higher education

Incentive to work harder?

Fairness? Reduce minority/low-income students?

Marketing to “sell” educational product (business skill sets)?

Dis-incentive for potential academic stars/researchers?

Image source: R.J. Matson

*Leitch Review: Prosperity for all in the Global Economy - World Class Skills, (TSO, 2006)

2.Education as a community public good

David Cameron (2006)*:

“Improving our society’s sense of well-being is, I believe, the central political challenge of our times.

Early posturing…?

Thatcher and later the 2010 Browne Report suggest:

When not delivering clearly job-related skills, education is a mere “luxury” to “pleasure” or “entertain”…

“…the return [ROI] to graduates for studying will be on average around 400%”

[Lord Browne]

*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5003314.stm

2.Education as a community public good

What is HE really for?

Education for “the good life” and “flourishing”

Wider benefits to society* Quality goods/services, innovation Public education & the arts Safe/clean streets & housing conditions Health and self-esteem Social cohesion and community Attracts more of same (markets the city/country)

U.S. Senator Patrick Moynihan:

The best way to create a great city is “to create a great university and wait 200 years.”

Difficult to measure “good life”

Easier to measure earning potential of degree course?

*HEFCE ‘The wider benefits of higher education’ and ‘Revisiting the benefits of higher education’ (www.hefce.ac.uk).

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/

3.The diversification of education and “business-oriented” services

Conclusion: “Liberalise”? Integrate FE in HE?

Traditional “university experience” unavailable/irrelevant?

Measure ROI of course-skill sets

Can traditional research & “reading” culture adapt?

Evidence UK has overeducated workforce?*

Result in degree value inflation?

Leitch Review suggests by 2020 half job market will require graduate-level skills**

MA/MSc becoming the “new BA” to differentiate?

*See Chevalier, A. and Lindley, J. (2009) Over-education and the Skills of UK graduates Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 172.2 **Leitch Review: Prosperity for all in the Global Economy - World Class Skills, (TSO, 2006)

4.Knowledge transfer and university-business collaboration

“Student choice” Browne Review principle #2:

Misguide student perceptions? 8,000 student studying “forensic

science” 9,500 jobs (filled by chemists/biologists)

Are we marketing courses and orienting students appropriately?

Internships/professional experience opportunities?

Part-time study options/work-study options (FE)?

4.Knowledge transfer and university-business collaboration

2003 Lambert Review* Lack of business-university collaboration Coursework ≠ employer expectation Business: difficult to engage with

universities More recent surveys show ties improving

“Significant benefits of collaboration”‘National Employers Skills Survey 2007’; Learning and Skills Council, May 2008 (http://research.lsc.gov.uk).

Student innovation opportunities? Social enterprise HEIF (HE Innovation Funding) Student “spin-outs”

*‘Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration’; HM Treasury, December 2003 (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk).

http://research.lsc.gov.uk/

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

5.Teaching quality and teacher-researcher division of labour

Will research suffer?

Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) incentives: Teaching minimised Publication record glorified

Good researchers = bad teachers ? Good teachers = bad researchers?

Professors as charismatic grant-writing networkers, teaching a distraction

Academics justify “economic impact” of research, academic freedom?

Will teaching suffer?

If fees go up, the expectations of 65% of students increase*

Will KIS (Key Information Sets) help guide expectation?

“Teaching to” new model, affect evaluations?

New technologies change teaching/contact hours

*Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning: Blue Skies: New thinking about the future of higher education)

6.Digital infrastructure and the digital literacy of staff and students

New generation grew up with Internet, expect excellent infrastructure

Staff digital literacy < student?

Blended learning (VLEs) creates new demands/stresses on staff?

Library adapt to workspace demands and new learning styles?

Improve student-staff interactions?

Obliterate personalized “university experience”

How Do You Fee l The Deve lopment Of A R ich Onl ine Propos i t ion Can Add Value To

Univers i ty Communicat ions?

Part II

Janet Beer

Vice-chancellor, Oxford-Brooks University

Report to JISC

Key Issues Facing UK HEIs: Staff quality, experience, skills and skill gaps

www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/committees/jlt/29/08b.pdf

“ICT systems clearly have the capacity to assist

the HE sector to improve staff skills, to make

administrative processes more user-friendly,

accessible and cheaper to run, and to support

the provision of flexible and rich teaching and

learning environments that meet student

expectations and improve learning outcome.

But doing it well…?

Part II

Times Higher Education. 18 February 2010

Frankensites?

Professors, departments, students and staff posting conflicting materials

Different technologies, redundancy, no central hub, branding inconsistency, etc.

Digital governance?

Web can build or damage reputation!!

Portfolio Communications*

League table of “cyber-coverage” or “buzz”

Oxford 79th

Sheffield Hallam & Southampton Solent top of charts

*http://portfolio-web.net/UniversitiesORA/main_page.html

Part II

How Do You Feel The Development Of A Rich Online Proposition Can

Add Value To University

Communications?

Branding and the information environment

Information interactions and communication

Branding and the information

environment

Branding and the information environment, for… Potential students Current students & staff University-business & alumni

Information interactions and communication Staff Student Staff Staff University Community


environment

Website = brochure search – click – 10 sec – 30 sec – 1 min

user-friendly, interactive

Clean, simple, user-friendly, interactive, graphical

Best-practices (e.g., W3C)

Webmaster tools, SEO, keywords, <meta> tags, Google Analytics

Points of differentiation!

Branding matches corporate goals


environment

Recruitment, retention, and life-long relationship

Student satisfaction promotes itself

Student imagination! Build image of “university town” experience”!

Course structure, modules within course

Professors/instructors photos & their interests

Costs & what skill-sets gained (KIS data helps)

Accommodation & Campus facilities (sports & student centres, pub, disco)

Portfolio Centre, social enterprise, arts & fashion

Mounts music scene, Derngate Theatre, Fishmarket

With new fees,value for money important!

£


Branding and the information environment Potential students Current students & staff University-business & alumni

Information interactions and communication Staff Student Staff Staff University Community

Students

Staff

VLE Courseware (for all courses)

Reading lists, hand-in assignments, receive assessments etc.

Module student-student/student-instructor forums

Course module blogs (archived, standardised)

Syllabi of current/past course modules

Staff–student Q & A forums

University forms / processes



Staff Intranet Coordinated discussions Q & A forums (archived) Training manuals/tutorials Room booking, guest scheduling Directories (students, courses, instructors)

Project management software? OpenAtrium, Basecamp Centralised discussion/decision/feedback Case-tracking, to-do-lists, scheduling Resource allocation, cost estimate

Customer Relationship Management? “Customers” = students/alumni, donors,

faculty, business partners Integrates use across departments

*http://portfolio-web.net/UniversitiesORA/main_page.html

Staff

Staff


Visible links (front page: large images as teasers!)

Events management/calendar visible to community

Showcase student, faculty and staff achievements

YouTube Channels Flickr Photo streams LinkedIn Profiles

News feeds/widgets and events, notices, emergencies Twitter feeds

Faculty & student blogs

University-community/business special relationships?

Social Media!!Facilitates two-way open conversations

University

Community


The Conversation

Prism*

Social Media is a conversation!

“The art of

listening, learning and sharing”

*Solis, B. (2008). "Introducing The Conversation Prism." http://www.briansolis.com/2008/08/introducing-conversation-prism/


Challenges to using social media

effectively

Proper management can make or break!

Always monitor daily (content policing)

Tight coordinated governance

Let students manage? Positive and negative conversations about brand…

Consistent corporate branding

Facebook great for admissions

Web team to identify user-demand


Social Media: Key Challenges

Jadu Research Report (2009):

An Investigation into the Challenges, Application and

Benefits of Social Media in Higher

Education Institutions

Impact and benefits of social media to date

Social Media: Key Challenges

Jadu Research Report (2009):

An Investigation into the Challenges, Application and

Benefits of Social Media in Higher

Education Institutions

Current challenges for HEIs in adopting social media

Rating Average

THE END

ANY QUESTIONS?

Thank You!

Jadu Research

Respondent Profile

60 unique responses were received from 44 HEIs across the UK, with 36 English Universities; 3 out of the 9 Welsh universities; 4 out of the 19 Scottish universities and an Irish university contributing.

Responses were received from respondents representing a wide range of departments and roles including - Web management, marketing, media and communications, learning and development, business, libraries and IT management and services.