Industry Insights

Valuable insights from UPCEA's trusted corporate partners.

Corporate Learning Partnerships Part 1: Position Your School to Market to Businesses Effectively

July 26, 2023

How to establish successful corporate partnerships Corporate learning partnerships are effective revenue generators for many higher education institutions. These partnerships can also help schools better serve their missions by expanding access to higher education for adult learners. But developing successful higher education marketing initiatives to establish relationships with corporate partners can be challenging. At MindMax,…

Paid Search & SEO in Higher Ed: Are Our Search Marketing Priorities Right?

July 6, 2023

Key Insights The majority of Professional, Continuing, and Online Education units prioritize paid search advertising. This shows that institutions view search as an important part of a prospect’s journey — but a much smaller portion invest in SEO. Search engine optimization is worthy of ongoing investment. However, university marketing units and outsourced marketing providers don’t…

How to Quantify Higher Education SEO ROI — “Show Me the Money,” Says the Dean

June 23, 2023

For higher education marketing strategies, SEO ROI is tricky to define. What is the return? What is the investment? Whose numbers do we even use? And how long do we have to wait to see that return on SEO investment? Higher education websites house tremendous “unseen treasure,” which adds value for SEO. ROI is the…

Getting the Attention of Employers to Scale Your Microcredential Program

April 3, 2023

We read almost daily about the need for upskilling and reskilling the workforce and the opportunity for higher education institutions to provide training through microcredential programs. While a recent survey by Collegis Education and UPCEA confirms this need, the fact is many colleges and universities who offer microcredentials have realized only meager enrollments. For microcredential…

Is Your Enrollment Management Function Set Up for Success?

March 9, 2023

If your school is investing heavily in creating brand awareness and generating leads at the top of the funnel (TOFU) but getting lackluster results, enrollment management issues lower in the funnel may be to blame. To achieve enrollment goals, you need a strong enrollment management foundation—a system for guiding prospective students beyond the initial awareness…

Other Blogs and News:

How Institutions Build Strong Noncredit and Professional Education Portfolios

Noncredit and professional education has moved from the margins of the institution to the center of enrollment and workforce strategy. As traditional pipelines tighten and adult learners look for faster, skills-focused options, colleges and universities are rethinking what they offer beyond the degree. Yet a scattered collection of one-off courses often do not deliver lasting…

When Leadership Leaves a Mark: Moving Forward After a Difficult Institutional Experience

Leadership is not defined only by the circumstances we encounter, but also by how we learn from them and determine what comes next.  Higher education leaders often accept positions because they believe in an institution’s mission and see opportunities to make a meaningful difference. They bring experience, professional judgment, and a commitment to supporting students,…

UPCEA Announces Indiana State University as 2026 Jim Fong Grant Recipient

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 10, 2026 — UPCEA is pleased to announce that the 2026 Jim Fong Grant for Advancing Online and Professional Education has been awarded to Indiana State University. Indiana State’s project will use a landscape survey and regional data analysis to find where the university is best positioned to build stackable, non-credit-to-credit credential…

COLO Compass | Who Leads Next? Building the Pipeline of Online Leaders

COLO Compass: Evidence and practical direction for chief online learning officers. Throughout National Distance Learning Week, I’ve written about how much online learning leaders are now expected to handle: AI governance, the financial case for online education, relationships with policymakers, financial aid fraud, and operations that extend well beyond their own units. The question for…

COLO Compass | The COLO’s Job Got Bigger. Has the Authority Kept Up?

COLO Compass: Evidence and practical direction for chief online learning officers. When UPCEA published its 2016 Hallmarks, online education was still moving from innovation to mainstream adoption, and a central challenge was legitimizing it. The 2026 Hallmarks of Excellence in Digital Learning Enterprises begin from a different premise. As Vickie Cook, a contributing editor of…

COLO Compass | Sustaining Online Learning Takes Evidence Inside and Out

COLO Compass: Evidence and practical direction for chief online learning officers. National Distance Learning Week runs November 2 through 6, and one of USDLA’s themes this year is the “Sustainable Future of Distance Education.” For those responsible for online enterprises, sustainability means having the financial resources, operational capacity, and institutional support to continue serving learners. …