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Three things colleges care about: 1. Enrollment 2. Retention 3. Graduation with a job. Enrollment is priority one, so they need nice campuses to get you in th

by bphogan 11y ago

Three things colleges care about: 1. Enrollment 2. Retention 3. Graduation with a job. Enrollment is priority one, so they need nice campuses to get you in the door, good facilities to entice you to come. They'll advertise small class sizes with individualized attention because the current generation loves to hear that. (Of course this means they need more faculty to be there in the room.) Graduation with a job is second because they need to show that people come out of the school. This of course becomes marketing material for #1. Retention is the one they leave up to the departments and faculty.

ssharp 11y ago
You're not entirely wrong, but due to funding models of state colleges, these priorities may be a bit different. In Ohio, for quite some time, state funding was based on enrollment, so that's what state universities did: enroll as many students as they could. Then, it was decided that enrollment was a terrible thing to incentivize because the incremental enrollees were far more likely to drop out. So the state switched to funding based on graduation numbers, so retention and graduation are far more important and universities have tightened their enrollment standards and started building stronger relationships with community colleges.
- bphogan 11y ago
  That's what the state prioritizes. But at the college level, enrollment is always prioritized because people who come in don't always complete. Attrition, transfers, etc. So enrollment must be way over 100% each year to have a shot at getting graduation and retention numbers that don't look terrible. So the state sets priorities, but the college has to meet them however they can.
- daodedickinson 11y ago
  At least with enrollment incentives, the deleterious effects on education itself are only indirect. Incentives for graduation rate directly promote grade inflation.

by bphogan 11y ago

ssharp 11y ago

You're not entirely wrong, but due to funding models of state colleges, these priorities may be a bit different. In Ohio, for quite some time, state funding was based on enrollment, so that's what state universities did: enroll as many students as they could. Then, it was decided that enrollment was a terrible thing to incentivize because the incremental enrollees were far more likely to drop out. So the state switched to funding based on graduation numbers, so retention and graduation are far more important and universities have tightened their enrollment standards and started building stronger relationships with community colleges.

bphogan 11y ago
That's what the state prioritizes. But at the college level, enrollment is always prioritized because people who come in don't always complete. Attrition, transfers, etc. So enrollment must be way over 100% each year to have a shot at getting graduation and retention numbers that don't look terrible. So the state sets priorities, but the college has to meet them however they can.
daodedickinson 11y ago
At least with enrollment incentives, the deleterious effects on education itself are only indirect. Incentives for graduation rate directly promote grade inflation.