Reverse the Decline
Eureka College’s split-course computer science major welcomed nine new freshmen this semester who Dr. Fulop said wouldn’t have come otherwise; before that, she says, the college was losing prospects who wanted career-focused majors. The University of Rochester in Michigan, which has 1,100 students, added seven programs through course sharing, including digital marketing, computer science and certified financial planning, programs it says have collectively attracted 78 candidates, including 32 registered.
“It can be a way of saying, ‘We’re ready to go beyond what we have here, if that’s what you want. We’d much rather you stayed here, so let’s find a way to get you on this course,” said Ben Selznick, an associate professor of strategic leadership studies at James Madison University, who focuses on innovation in business. Higher Education.
Community colleges are also using course sharing, both to restore enrollment, which has also plummeted, and to fill gaps caused by faculty departures, said Rufus Glasper, president and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College. “It could be another leg of the stool until we can stabilize our listing going forward,” he said.
HBCUs are also taking this approach.
“A student chooses a small HBCU for their overall culture,” said Roslyn Clark Artis, president of Benedict College, a South Carolina HBCU, and co-chair of the SREB course-sharing consortium. “That doesn’t mean the student shouldn’t have access to programs that can be considered vocational in nature.”
As for the benefit to the college, she said, having career-focused programs available through course sharing “is a marketing piece for us.”
And it has an effect, based on the decisions of certain candidates.
Although she wanted to go to a smaller college, Jordan Hunt had rejected the idea of applying to Adrian because she didn’t major in computer science. “Then they launched the major.” Ms. Hunt is now a second-year student at Adrian studying computer science.
Rebekah Wright went to the even smaller Emmaus Bible College in Iowa, which last year had 193 students. She and her parents “thought it would just be too small. One of their questions during my visit to Emmaus was: “What is the placement rate? How many students enter the labor market directly? ”