Fewer Than 50 Percent of Institutions Plan on an In-Person Fall 2020

On Wednesday, July 29, I opened The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Academe Today” to find that their ongoing tracking of institutional plans for fall 2020 now indicates that fewer than half of institutions are planning for a fully “in-person” fall.

The way the numbers have been changing has been fascinating to watch, and the piece on Wednesday brought the data together for the first time, showing snapshots of May 8, June 24, and July 27. The number of institutions planning on a fully online fall has doubled in just a month to 14 percent, as has the number that will roll out a hybrid model. This is likely the beginning of an even greater shift, which I think will largely “cluster” in hybrid options, but even if only 14 percent of institutions opt for exclusively online (more than 600 institutions), this will be dramatic growth in online and hybrid models.

We’ve continued to be impressed with the speed at which institutions are adjusting to ever-changing public health guidelines and conditions on the ground, and our services are built to quickly enhance and expand the internal capabilities that will be required to be successful. Whether it’s our modular OPM Alternative or a very specific gap in your communication flow, we would welcome the opportunity to partner with you in any of the following ways.

1. Provide market research to answer questions ranging from program prioritization based on demand to pricing studies to ensure you are maximizing tuition revenue.
2. Cover your academic needs, from online academic course workshops for faculty to offering you the ability to quickly stand up fully developed online classes through our partnership with Purdue Global/Kaplan.
3. Comprehensive lead generation strategies to ensure you are able to retain and strengthen your market share during this time. Our digital lead generation and SEO solutions round out a robust lead gen strategy, with our digital lead gen clients experiencing 2x to 3x enrollment growth and our SEO clients seeing up to a 97 percent increase in organic requests for information.
4. Our Digital Engagement Center brings new and next technology along with an omnichannel conversation strategy engaging leads through personalized videos deployed within two minutes of a completed RFI form, as well as ongoing email campaigns, texting, and calling with visual caller ID. In this challenging time, it’s critical to maximize your conversion rates. We’ve been able to increase our partner’s conversion rates as much as 5x in the first six months of working with campus.

We know this is a difficult time and we continue to be impressed daily by the extraordinary efforts you are making for your students, staff, faculty and institution. Please let us know if we can help in any way—we are here for you.