Management Consulting
Strategic Planning
Organizational Development
Financial Performance
Student Retention
Student Engagement
Student Success Coaching
Career Services & Placement
Professional Development
Multiple Generations
Unprepared Students
Improving Your Serve
What makes College Matters different from other consulting firms is our philosophy that all colleges should run like businesses. With 20 years of proprietary background, we believe every college should be able to sustain itself financially—whether or not it is organized as a for-profit entity. Because of this philosophy, we approach every aspect of a college’s operations with the intent of making it run more efficiently and more cost effectively without sacrificing the quality of academic services.
We recognize that all colleges are not the same, so College Matters is not a solutions-based consulting firm. Instead, we focus on the process and guide you and your management team in the development and implementation of tactical initiatives that will work for your college in your market with your managers in control of the results. We believe not trying to squeeze your college into a canned solution produces sustainable results.
Coaching as a Retention Strategy
Coaching as a Retention Strategy Many higher education leaders are familiar with Tinto’s theories on student departure and student integration and Astin’s theory of student involvement. Fewer are familiar with Seidman’s retention formula. Even fewer apply the primary...
Enrollment Management
Enrollment Management covers the broad operational areas that affect the total numbers of enrolled students and graduates. Admissions and student retention, marketing and sales, and financial aid are all areas addressed under the umbrella of Enrollment Management....
Student Retention
Getting new students is an expensive proposition for most colleges—not keeping the students we admit is a costly mistake we simply cannot afford to make. It is often said that student retention is everyone’s job, but unless someone is made accountable for student...
Coaching Students
First-time college students often have a number of obstacles to overcome to be able to focus on their academics and stay in school. We have seen many schools redesign their student services programs over the years, moving from advising to counseling to mentoring and...
Enrollment slipping?
Many colleges and universities are experiencing a decline in enrollment. Often, we look to external causes, shrug, and make spending cuts to compensate for the lost revenue without taking the time to analyze the problem with the specific intention of identifying any...
Consumer behavior theory of student departure: Advancing a theory
The decision by students not to persist in their academic pursuit—is a complex phenomenon. College administrators and researchers have been relentless in their quest to understand why students who begin attending colleges drop out at notably high rates. According to...
Executive Management
College Matters specializes in turnaround operations combining the best practices learned from years of successful higher education leadership with executive coaching to help you and your team succeed at increasing enrollment, retention, and financial results....
Site Visits
Every accrediting body uses a site visit to verify the institution's self-study report. Site visits can be a tense time for everyone on campus whether or not they have experienced accreditation visits before. Knowing exactly what to expect and making sure everyone on...
Organizational Development
A schools’ ability to increase institutional effectiveness rests in its ability to create an institutional culture in which planning, reflective practice, and self-improvement are evident. The role of organizational development is to provide an intentional opportunity...
Strategic Planning
While a strategic management model encourages innovative thinking and entrepreneurial execution, strategic planning still provides the foundation for determining the future direction of our institutions. The local management team will develop a comprehensive,...
Strategic Management
Changing student demographics, increased competition, advances in technology and the globalization of higher education is creating a rapidly changing world for higher education—a world where traditional management approaches will no longer suffice. Strategic...
Self-Study
The self-study process is at the very heart of the accreditation process. It is important that as many campus constituencies as possible be involved in the process AND that the resulting report is a clear and accurate representation of the institution in the context...
Institutional Effectiveness
Every accrediting body addresses the question of assessing institutional effectiveness—essentially, the question of how the institution knows how well it is doing what it does. This critical element of effective school management centers on the process of documented...
Team Building
Intentional team building accelerates the group process and provides quick results in changing a school’s management team from individual departmental leaders to the kind of collaborative cross-functional teams that are the heart of effective strategic management....
Admissions
Keeping students engaged from the moment they become leads will ultimately increase graduation rates. How do you keep graduation in the front of your students’ minds to provide the most influence in student retention? How you’ll find your leads is an important part of...
Financial Performance
Ultimately, a school’s financial performance tells the story of its overall success. Colleges must be self-sustaining and rely as little as possible on outside sources of funding. Whether your college is classified as a non-profit or for-profit entity, a comprehensive...
Accreditation
Accreditation is critical component of college management needs to be at the center of everything you do. Develop a culture of evidence and continuous improvement that positions your college to earn initial accreditation or maintain continued accreditation with...
Professional Development
Training that better prepares individuals in the functional task related to their roles is professional development. Faculty can benefit from ongoing professional development to hone their classroom management skills, introduce them to new concepts in student...
Student Services
Student Services addresses services beyond the classroom experience that touch the lives of students. Residence halls, dining facilities, buildings and technology are the concrete elements of student services, while student satisfaction and campus culture address the...
Academics & Assessment
Academics is the key performance area around which our colleges operate. This area includes program and portfolio design, delivery and assessment methodology, academic support services (i.e. library, learning centers, writing labs), and effectiveness measurements that...
Program Design
Managing new program design in the midst of daily operations is often a difficult task. Depending on your institution’s resources, College Matters can provide full program outlines that can be personalized by your faculty for your market, serve as the project manager...
Employee Training
Employee training deals with skills that are common to all employees within an organization as opposed to the professional development that is functionally specific. Topics that are of interest to cross functional groups are delivered under the umbrella of employee...
Program Portfolios
Keeping track of all the components of a program of study can be a difficult task, but program portfolios that are well organized and contain all the vital information that comprises each degree program can be a very important tool that provides an at-a-glance look at...
Campus Activities
Student engagement is the primary reason to have activities that draw students into the college and into the learning community. Clubs, activities, study groups, sports, the arts, and a myriad of other campus activities can be used to engage students and keep them...
Career Services / Placement
There has been a huge shift even in Liberal Arts Colleges toward measuring the effectiveness of a college degree by increasing earning power. Whether or not you agree with this philosophically, research is telling us that students will use that test to measure how...
Learning Assessment
The latest buzzword in institutional effectiveness—and the featured topic of many accreditation conferences—learning assessment is a multifaceted process that requires diligent attention to details including documentation. Each institution’s outcomes are different and...
Performance Coaching
Setting clear expectations for all employees is a critical piece of HR Management. Once those expectations are set, employees can set goals and be held accountable for achieving those goals. Knowing how to have the conversations for accountability is one of the...
Why College Matters
What makes College Matters different from other consulting firms is our philosophy that all colleges should run like businesses. With 20 years of proprietary background, we believe every college should be able to sustain itself financially—whether or not it is...
Accreditation: What Is It and Why Is It Important?
ACCREDITATION: College administrators generally know what accreditation is and why it is important, but new administrators will benefit from the brief primer of this complex process in higher education. The following article is intended as a primer for those not...
Accreditation as Narrative
ACCREDITATION: The first time you experience the accreditation process, it seems almost mystical. The institution goes through an extensive period of self-examination, an accreditation review team visits the school, and the accrediting organization either approves...
Why College Administrators Should Consider Social Networks
The challenge to blogging more often is finding dynamic, thought provoking, and relevant information, because that is my personal commitment to those who follow my blog. Since I am hot on the trail of improving my social media marketing skills, it should not be too...