How university leaders can use an ‘innovation for’ mindset to drive enrolment

Nationwide, college and university enrolment continues to decline, with families pointing to affordability, accessibility and return on investment as reasons to hold back from higher education. In Chicago, only 18 per cent of the city’s high school students go on to earn a bachelor’s degree. Yet, this fall, Chicago’s National Louis University (NLU) recorded a 21 per cent year-over-year growth in undergraduate enrolment.

For colleges and universities, the key to turning this urgent situation around is to directly respond to concerns about affordability and return on investment. For example, the majority of the students we serve are from low-income backgrounds (70 per cent Pell Grant receiving), students of colour (70 per cent black and Latinx) and first-generation college-goers (about 70 per cent). Through a concerted initiative to increase accessibility to and through higher education, we were able to bolster enrolment and drive student success under challenging circumstances.

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I encourage my fellow higher ed leaders to operate under an “innovation for” mindset. Simply put: colleges should innovate for our students, with their needs firmly in mind. All colleges work to improve student outcomes, experiences and employment. But we must be willing to rethink, restructure and rebuild programmes and practices that may have worked once but no longer meet the needs of today’s students. With an arms-wide-open approach to change, paired with a clear end goal of supporting our students through and beyond their education, higher ed leaders can create transformative spaces (both physically and virtually) that directly address and alleviate the most significant barriers faced by aspiring college students today.

Accessibility and career readiness

Adopting this perspective, we identified several areas to restructure and address, but the two most critical issues were accessibility and career readiness.

Accessibility needs to be paramount to everything we do. Often when educational leaders think about accessibility, we think about affordability – how can you not? We have to make sure that students from all backgrounds can afford not only the tuition but also the living expenses that come with attending a four-year university. An example of this includes maintaining a lower tuition rate. At NLU we have strived to maintain one of the lowest tuition rates in the state of Illinois, with an annual sticker price of under $11,000 (£9,023). Most students receiving full state and federal financial aid can graduate into a quality job with no student loan debt.

But educational leaders must recognise the importance of accessibility in all its aspects. Not only should we redefine what financial access means but we must ensure students with unique learning backgrounds, diverse identities and past experiences are able to access, thrive in and graduate from their institution of choice.

Admission is only the first step in a student’s higher education journey. Often, students who have historically been marginalised by our higher education system face ongoing barriers to success throughout their undergraduate career that limit their ability to thrive. Offering an array of flexible scheduling options based on a student’s needs is essential. At NLU, this approach has been fruitful, and I’d encourage other undergraduate colleges to consider a blended educational experience that allows students to take part in face-to-face, hybrid or fully virtual classes, depending on which option works best for them.

At the same time, student advising and support services are crucial components of a student’s undergraduate experience and future success. At NLU, we pair up students with a “success coach” who provides individualised, focused guidance throughout their academic journey. We also provide comprehensive wraparound services, such as mental health counselling and an on-campus food pantry, to ensure that students are getting the support they need in their financial, emotional and social lives as well. These steps have helped NLU stay on course during a difficult period, and other schools may find that a similar approach could work for them.

Career readiness is also essential for our universities, especially as public skepticism about the value of higher education persists. If students graduate and have not transitioned to employment in their chosen field, then we have failed. Employment is not just a job for our students – it’s employment and economic mobility, and it’s something that we, as university leaders, must support our students in obtaining if we genuinely want to succeed as institutions of transformation and opportunity.

From day one, we must instil strong career readiness skills in our students, so they thrive not only during their time in higher education but continue to do so once they graduate. Career skills directly embedded within each course’s curriculum are paramount as they centre each student’s education around experiential and real-world learning. Instilling a faculty group that partners directly with leading organisations, a step we have taken at NLU, can help ensure that students have direct access to internships and recruiting opportunities. These partnerships provide networking opportunities to our students, and also connect employers to a diverse pool of ambitious talent. It’s a win-win.

Building a culture of innovation

A culture of innovation builds on itself. It’s not as though my team and I woke up one day and had every answer planned out for NLU. Our work as educational leaders is to continually assess how we can better support our students through and beyond their education, to experiment with new approaches that better meet their needs. By using the “innovation for” mentality, universities not only can improve individual student outcomes but grow enrolment, services and resources so that we can live up to our mission to provide a life-changing college education to all who want it.

Nivine Megahed is president of National Louis University.

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