Today's content will discuss a nonprofit university that, by discovering its unique position and "thinking about the job students want to accomplish," transformed itself from a near-bankrupt university on the verge of closure into the university with the most students in America and also the most innovative university.
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A Journey Starting from a Third-Tier University
This university wasn't the famous Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or MIT, but rather Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), which sounds like a diploma mill.
This university in America could be considered second-tier or even third-tier. Before 2010, it had only 3,000 students, and following the 2008 financial crisis and economic recession, the student body began gradually declining. The school's finances were barely balanced, and the entire school's vitality and prospects seemed to wither gradually following the 2008 financial crisis.
This university existed as a community-type college, primarily recruiting local high school graduates. It wouldn't attract students from across America or around the world like famous American universities such as Harvard. Such a university looked just like other universities that would gradually wither due to declining birth rates...
But starting in the 2010s, this university's student growth rate and tuition revenue both reached double digits. Even as a nonprofit university, its annual revenue approached $1 billion.
Positioning: Supporting Students Over 24 Years Old
How did a university originally accommodating only about 3,000 people become a university with over 100,000 students? Because 97% of its students are online students.
Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc constantly thought about how to continue and revitalize this university. Paul LeBlanc started by thinking about this question:
Because when students choose to attend a specific university, it's to complete a certain task in their lives. Students hope to make progress in "a specific situation," but what is this situation? If they could help students make progress in a specific situation, it would allow the university to reposition itself and attract more suitable students.
Looking at two groups of students in the university—one group being recent high school graduates, he didn't get very good answers since many students chose universities based on rankings. The other group was online courses for non-recent graduates. He discovered these non-traditional students pursued completely different goals from recent high school graduates.
This group of students wanted to earn college degrees while working full-time during weekdays. This was the progress these students wanted to achieve.
After discovering this special group of working students, Southern New Hampshire University took a closer look and was surprised to find that their online courses weren't originally designed for online learners (for example, audio and video weren't refined, sound quality wasn't good, etc.), but working students still completed their studies. So SNHU invested fully and wholeheartedly in online education.
This full commitment meant redesigning the entire admission process so that everything from enrollment to final graduation was designed for this group of students. This positioning involved several key decisions. Here are a few special ones:
1. Respond to Financial Aid Questions Within Ten Minutes
Previously, universities would take a week to formally respond to high school graduates' inquiry letters—after all, these high schoolers weren't in such a hurry. But for working students who work during the day, they don't have lots of time to wait. So they would call back within ten minutes of receiving an inquiry, allowing these time-constrained students to receive quick responses.
2. Assign Personal Advisors to Working New Students
These working students face pressure from both work and family, encountering many personal physical or psychological problems. Also, because these working students haven't been in courses for too long, they might face various difficulties with coursework and assignments. So each new student's personal advisor pays special attention to whether students show crisis signals, such as not uploading assignments before class or poor test performance, providing solutions to help working students persist in their studies.
3. Reduce Online Course Tuition
These working students face economic pressure from work and family, so they're quite budget-sensitive. Even though America is accustomed to student loans and schools can increase revenue by raising tuition, the school still insists on using relatively affordable prices to allow more students who previously gave up studies due to economic factors or have dreams of higher education to complete their degrees.
This university committed to redesigning online courses. For me personally, having busy work during the day and spending evenings trying to piece together all the information—such as financial aid programs and credit calculations—is quite difficult. If every inquiry email has to wait a week for a response, this would make me feel quite frustrated. I might even just want to give up. But this university completely overhauled past administrative processes, redesigning the organization, processes, and products around the tasks students want to accomplish.
Reflection
This university's transformation from 3,000 to 130,000 students has attracted some criticism:
The Criticisms:
- SNHU has never made Forbes' list of America's 650 best universities
- The university's bachelor's degree completion rate is 48%, below the national average of 60%
- Graduates' median salary 10 years after graduation is $45,400, compared to nearby universities' $51,400
- The university's advertising budget accounts for 20% of the total budget, with extensive national advertising, leading some to question if it's a diploma mill
I think these data-driven criticisms are valid, but they also reflect the unique aspects of this university's positioning. For a university committed to serving working students with only high school diplomas, relatively low degree completion rates and median salaries are understandable. For example, for 30-year-old working professionals who graduated high school 12 years ago, being able to complete a bachelor's degree while maintaining full-time employment is already quite remarkable.
This university might not be able to cultivate people like Jensen Huang or Tsai Ing-wen with distinguished academic backgrounds, and this university can't become a super-elite university like Harvard or Stanford. But this university gives working adults who left school the courage to step in and complete college education.
This university found its unique positioning, focusing on serving this group of working students, allowing them to resume learning and complete their education while providing at least close to a regular university experience. This is still quite remarkable.