The Pulse of Higher Ed

Perspectives on Online and Professional Education
from UPCEA’s Research and Consulting Experts

New Study: Third-Party Providers and PCO Units

October 20, 2022

UPCEA recently collaborated with ed2go on research related to professional, continuing, and online (PCO) education units’ relationships with third-party providers. This study, Perceptions of Third-Party Providers as a Result of the Pandemic, found that PCO units often sought assistance from third-party providers to help expand bandwidth to support existing students, diversify their portfolios, and continually…

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Innovating Off the Degree Backbone

July 22, 2022

The National Student Clearinghouse continues to report sobering statistics on higher education enrollments[i].  Their Spring 2022 report shows that undergraduate enrollment fell by 662,698, as compared to the prior year.  In addition, spring graduate enrollments were relatively flat, but still falling by 22,337.  With the predicted demographic cliff looming nearby, a decade of tuition increases…

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Marketing in a Post-Pandemic World

June 24, 2022

Marketing budgets and staffing have significantly increased from pre-pandemic levels I once heard that when faced with trauma or chaos, humans consider a number of options … fight, flight (or flee) or freeze. Institutions and their leadership make similar choices when faced with economic adversity. Based on the 2022 UPCEA Marketing Survey, institutions of higher…

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Problem Solved. Flexible, Future-Facing, Non-Degree Education Supporting Degreed Education

May 20, 2022

Beyond the health and social implications of the pandemic, the economic dominos that fell for higher education included The Great Resignation followed by The Great Interruption.  The economy in the U.S. and other parts of the world continues to be impacted by the former, as many jobs remain unfilled or where a constant churn of…

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Program Development During and After the Pandemic

May 16, 2022

Prior to the pandemic, for the UPCEA Center for Research and Strategy it was business as usual – conducting feasibility studies, environmental scans and an occasional review of a professional, continuing and online education unit’s portfolio.  During the pandemic, this flip-flopped as our unit did more portfolio reviews, market needs studies and marketing and enrollment…

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