Brain Waves Blog

Social intelligence tells us that prospective students seek peer guidance on social media and Reddit about if and where to go to college nearly 10x more than they did 10 years ago. The authentic and unfiltered insights from social intelligence give you a deeper understanding of the voices in your community and enable you to design and assess programs with learners at the center.

Perception is shaped by human feelings and opinions, and is dynamic in nature. Traditional research methods such as focus groups, interviews, surveys, and audience panels, often carry inherent biases and assumptions that impact the data collection process.

This spring, we hosted virtual roundtables that brought more than 300 higher ed professionals together to discuss the value of a college degree, innovative strategic planning, and growing graduate enrollment. 

The topic of graduate enrollment growth is having a moment in higher ed. With the FAFSA delays and decreasing undergraduate enrollment, expanding graduate programs feels like a quick and easy solution for many campuses.

Strategic planning is an opportunity to evaluate and prioritize resources so your institution can optimize its strengths and achieve its goals. Every campus has a strategic plan, but the process and approach for developing that plan varies. 

At a macro level, the value of a college degree is a constant topic in higher ed. At a micro level, you invariably need to consider how that value relates to your institution’s brand. There are many indicators of value, as well as internal and external factors contributing to this drop in confidence. But, as contributing expert Mallory Willsea shares, the decline is countered by research from Axios that college grads have significantly higher earning potential—indicating that perception doesn't match reality when it comes to the value of a degree. We see this same gap in perception in our latest research on rebuilding trust in higher education.