There is a central concern that I hear from college
presidents about academic customer service. “Does it work to increase student
satisfaction and retention?"
Does academic customer service work? If increasing a graduation
rate by more than 11%, increasing enrollment by over 2,500 students, increasing
applications by 31%, having the funds to more than double the faculty,
obtaining investments to start three more schools of study and four new
buildings, and jump from 15 to number one in the US News and World
Report rankings, then academic customer service works.
High Point University in North Carolina under the
leadership of Nido Qubein has proven that academic customer service, seeing to
the reasonable needs and responsible expectations of students and parents in
the classroom and across the campus, works.
When Qubein took the helm of High Point, it was a
decent enough school with the same sorts of problems most other universities had.
The economy was in the deepest recession it had seen since the great depression
eight years ago. Its enrollment was down
bringing its revenue with it. It was not able to invest in new teachers because
the school’s population did not support the expenditure. Enrollment was down to
1,450 students and getting to the point of cuts in the school’s programs and
employees. Its graduation rate (the real retention rate) was at 51.4% (6 year
rate) and is now at 63% for the first cohort to go through the academic
customer service changed university and expected to rise considerably with
future cohorts. There were 107 faculty
before Qubein introduced an academic customer service culture into the school.
Now there are 260.
What High Point did was change the university from a traditional
”enroll ‘em and let them sink or swim” indifference to students, to a university
fully focused on students and their academic success. He made the students one of
the primary centers of everything the University did and does. He not only met
their expectations to be treated with dignity and concern, he exceeded it. And he expects them to respect the protocol of the academy and its traditions.
He began with recognizing that the students and their parents were indeed customers of HPU who had needs and expectations. They
needed a solid education and meaningful success. They expected an energetic campus
life. So he focused on both. After he did an audit of the campus and its
academic programs, he saw for example that the grounds and facilities were not
up to the standards of students and employees to make them proud of going to
HPU. This is looking at the objective correlative of a university, the setting
in which learning takes place. He knew if his motto of “be extraordinary” was
to take hold at HPU everything about the school had to be exceptional. So he
went ahead and upgraded what was there and added three new buildings. The construction was led by $230 million in
gifts that Qubein secured. Yes, he made the school leveraged by borrowing the
money for the buildings but he knew that to fulfill student’s affective ROI,
they had to feel proud of the school’s facilities and grounds. In addition he
had the campus grounds enhanced to now have 300 types of trees, 2,000 types of
plants, 22 gardens for students and others to plant and adds about 600 plants a
year now. What is important to note is that the plantings have become part of
the learning environment. For example, classes in botany, biology,
environmental science, plant taxonomy and other courses use the plantings as a
living laboratory.
This is an important point here. Qubein did add student
focused amenities such as a concierge service for students, free ice cream
delivered in a truck that serves as a community outreach experience for student
volunteers, and live music during meals to increase student engagement at HPU
among other things but he more importantly realized that a great part of
customer service for students happens in and for the classroom. The school was
selling that to potential students and Qubein realized they had to come through
with great learning for the world ahead of graduation.
He further realized that one of the important things
that students needed and fully expected was success. They came to school to
learn and graduate to get jobs after college. So he had HPU first focus on
making certain that students succeeded. He was not going to take the point of
view that they are adults who can have the right to fail. He realized they paid
to get an education and diploma so he was going to do all he could to assure
they received them. Not by coddling,
grade inflation or having faculty dumb down their classes as critics of academic
customer service believe customer service causes but by devising an effective
Early Alert system to assure success in the classroom and in life. The assistance and cooperation of faculty made
the program effective.
He insisted that classes be conducted at their highest
level. That students be challenged and that if any indicator of a student not
doing well occur, they be entered into the Early Alert system. That system is similar to the ones we have discussed earlier and suggested for schools. It can
be accessed by anyone on campus but especially by faculty. If a student misses
classes, faculty are called on to immediately notify the early warning advisors
that this has occurred. If a student seems to not be doing well, the faculty
member is called upon to approach him to offer help as well as enter that into
the Early Alert system so an advisor can contact the student. Moreover, Early
Alert is conducted the fourth week of the semester and attendance and
any grade information that might suggest a student to be at risk is to be
reported. Freshman tutors, and Learning Excellence experts aid in the process. Advisors
and students are requested to follow up with a conference and course planning
to improve performance and attendance.
The Early Alert system has counselors and advisors who
then reach out to students who are at risk and do all they can to help them
resolve any problems and gain the learning they need. This system is an
intrusive service the University provides to assure that students are fully served
and their expectation of being successful can be met if at all possible. The
University does not withhold services at all and let the student sink or swim
on her own. They make sure that all the services of the institution are brought
to into play to assure student success.
President Qubein credits the Early Alert system for
much of the University’s retention success. “The best ROI (financially &
behaviorally) comes from the Early Alert program in the classroom where every
professor watches and reports each student’s success patterns (and we follow up
to ensure each student attends class, does work, gets tutoring, etc) and the
Excellence In Learning program which provides significant personalized
attention to students who need it.”
As we have suggested many times, the University asks
faculty to be the last ones out of a classroom and be assertive with students
as the exit to be sure they understand the materials covered. Learning is not
just a selling point but a promise at HPU. This is just an additional customer
service that helps assure students succeed.
These are all academic customer services that can be
implemented at any school that wants to be more successful. These are a large
part of HPU’s success though the free ice cream, live music and student
concierge get most of the attention. They too are obviously customer service
that make High Point a university that students want to stay in. The total
package makes the students believe they are receiving a full return on their
investment.
And does it prove that academic customer service works?
An
11.6% jump in graduation rates
Enrollment
increasing by 2,850 students
A
31% increase in applications
A
more talented student body
3
new academic schools
46
new buildings
A
reinvigorated campus
A
jump of 15 places in the US News Report rankings to be ranked number 1
A
better and greater revenue stream to afford new initiatives and growth
And
national recognition for the University…
I’d
say that academic customer service works very well indeed.
IF
THIS ARTICLE MAKES SENSE TO YOU, YOU WILL WANT TO OBTAIN A COPY
OF THE BEST-SELLING BOOK ON RETENTION AND ACADEMIC CUSTOMER
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N.
Raisman & Associates is the leader in increasing student
retention, enrollment and revenue through workshops,
presentations, research, training and academic customer service
solutions for colleges, universities and career colleges in the
US, Canada, and Europe as well as businesses that work with them
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