Urban Legend on Adults Returning to College

Ok, are you sick of reading emails on "Recession Strategies" or receiving discounts called "Your Economic Stimulus Discount?" I am. What also seems to be overkill is the belief that with this economic situation, that adults are going to enroll in masses to complete or seek their degrees. Continuing education is supposed to benefit from times like these ... don't buy it! Times are different and history doesn't necessarily always repeat itself. Until someone produces some hard data that adults will return to college in masses, consider it a myth of the past and not for the future. Let me offer up why we are in a different situation:

• We happen to be in a war right now ... which makes economic factors for the nation different, as well as with individual attitudes and perspectives, as compared to the recession in early 2000's and in the 80's.
• While we had a recession in the early 2000's, we as individuals, as corporations and as a nation also were not carrying anything close to the level of debt we are currently carrying. Much of this recession was caused by a loss in manufacturing jobs and the dot-com bubble burst.
• For education, we have greater competition. Ten years ago, we had different avenues for revenues and differentiation ... we could offer distance education courses. We had a magic bullet if we needed it. Also, our universities as a whole were more financially stable.

For this recession, there's not a lot of extra money floating anywhere. In the recession of the 2000's, colleges and universities could find it. If it wasn't coming from the companies, it came from the individuals. The same held true for the recession of the 80's. Not today though. Both wells have run dry.

So, what's my point or how can I help. My earlier threads point to fixing the internal house and CRM. My presentation at UCEA this week pleads to colleges and universities to focus on better marketing and operations and not to chase the gadgets. Social networking, such as Facebook, mySpace, Twitter and blogging are great, but will they generate new enrollments? For the most part "no."

You need to focus your marketing on areas of strength. You need to do a better job at closing the deal with inquirers ... stop putting your least trained people on the other end of the telephone call and don't push them back to the web if they have questions.

Download my latest presentation at UCEA. Also, keep an eye out for my next whitepaper that further addresses the needs and expectations of marketing managers with their deans and vice versa.