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June 13, 2024
Faculty and Staff,
Last week in my enrollment message, I shared some thoughts about how we can improve
UAF’s retention and graduation rates. This week I want to talk about recruitment.
To inform that conversation, though, there are two important questions for us to consider.
First, what is our target enrollment? That is, what number of students ensures that
UAF is a vibrant and financially stable institution long into the future? And second,
what is the right mix of students to achieve our educational mission in a fiscally
sustainable way? That is, what is the mix between technical training, undergraduate,
and graduate students, between the research campus (Troth Yeddha’), the rural campuses,
and CTC, or in-state vs. out-of-state students? We are an open enrollment university
and we warmly welcome every prospective student! But we don’t have unlimited recruiting
resources, so where can we best invest our recruiting dollars to help the right balance
of students to achieve their educational goals, achieve a return on the state’s investment,
and maintain UAF’s long-term vitality and financial stability?
In a Friday Focus from spring 2023, I wrote about some of the considerations that go into identifying a target enrollment
number - “optimal enrollment”. Since weathering recent challenges (budget fluctuations,
COVID-19, etc.), UAF is seeing positive enrollment numbers and this enrollment growth
is good for our university. But setting an intentional enrollment goal is even better.
If we can identify a number, say 10,000 (but maybe more or maybe less), then we can
focus on the things we must do to recruit and retain those students, give them a modern
student experience, and support a positive work environment for our faculty and staff.
This sort of deliberative thinking is a path towards financial sustainability and
allows us to focus on reducing our reliance on state funding.
So what balance of students do we need to get in the pipeline now to reach an optimal
goal in the coming years? We don’t know exactly what the optimal number is yet, but
we know we need to act now to grow and maintain enrollment numbers. In order to achieve
enrollment growth-then-stability, it seems like a focused two-pronged approach of
in-state and out-of-state recruitment – both for CTC and Troth Yeddha’ – is needed.
Building the in-state half of this approach requires us to invest in recruiting more
Alaskans to attend UAF. Serving Alaskans will always be a priority for UAF, and it
is our goal that every Alaskan student sees UAF as a first choice for their education.
Toward this end, we are currently engaging young Alaskans who will become future Nanooks.
The dual-enrollment North Star Middle College and the online dual-enrollment Alaska
Advantage program are two ways that we are building this pipeline. The North Star
Middle College currently has over 200 local students and Alaska Advantage is serving
over 1,000 students from across Alaska. These are students who graduate high school
already on the path to a UAF degree. Other programs, such as Teaching through Technology,
Upward Bound, Ed Rising, Rural Alaska Honors Institute, Science Olympiad, Geoforce,
and others are doing their part as well. Recruiting high school students into these
programs is money well invested.
Another recruiting tool is our use of free massively open online courses (MOOCs),
on the edX platform (also known as AlaskaX.) This program has now served more than
100,000 learners across the globe. These students are taking UAF short courses/programs
in areas where we specialize – GIS technology, energy, drones, and climate change
to name a few. They can take the course or program for free or receive a certification
(a microcredential) for a fee. Microcredentials help learners clearly communicate
the work-based skills they have built along their educational journeys. We now have
a platform to recruit these students and show what UAF has to offer.
Beyond AlaskaX, we have an opportunity at UAF, particularly at CTC, to greatly expand
our offerings and grow enrollment using microcredentials. While we have occupational
endorsements (compressed credentials with 9 to 29 credits) in some areas, we could
greatly expand the use of microcredentials across our CTC curriculum without adding
new academic departments or increasing pressure on faculty. That’s because in many
respects, microcredentials are just stops along the way in programs we already offer
- codified by a “certificate of value.” That way, if a microcredential en route to
a certificate or associate's degree were just the right amount of training for the
job they sought, they could go right to work with a microcredential in hand!
For the Troth Yeddha’ campus, we are seeking those students whose goal is an advanced
degree from an R2 (soon to be R1) university! We want every single student in Alaska
who is prepared for and desires this path to come to UAF’s Troth Yeddha’ campus. But
the demographic changes in Alaska tell us we’ll need a broader approach in order to
sustain enrollment. So, while it remains our mission to provide education to Alaskans,
we are currently looking outside and will look more to reach our enrollment targets.
Fortunately, we have a lot to offer to non-resident students who want to come to UAF
for a unique educational experience.
Recruiting non-resident students can be more expensive than in-state students. We
have a couple of admissions counselors in the Lower-48, and an international recruiter
on retainer, but in order to really be competitive in the “outside” market, we need
to invest more resources. So where will the money come from to recruit more students
from a competitive national/international market? Well for one, non-resident students
typically pay non-resident tuition, which is a higher rate than for Alaskans. At the
same time, students from outside Alaska looking for the experience that UAF provides
also tend to need less financial aid. So, while it is generally more expensive to
recruit out-of-state students (including international students), this is a financially
prudent approach. Furthermore, most students settle near where they went to college
and Alaska needs more people in its workforce. We are that path!
Attracting out-of-state students to UAF requires a different approach than our in-state
strategy. On average, students who move to Alaska for college typically want to live
on campus and have a more traditional college experience. This means we also need
to invest in modern residence halls with enough space for all students who request
housing. We need a Main Street that people are excited to visit, athletics teams that
people love to cheer on, and academic programs that attract top-tier students and
faculty. Our R1 initiative is part and parcel to this long-term strategy. These investments
into the student experience will ensure a sustainable fiscal future.
As a university, we need to strategically use our resources to recruit and retain
a sustainable mix of students on different pathways. The things we do now are going
to impact what the UAF class of 2040 looks like. To this end, next week I will talk
about a vision for the next step after we recruit students to UAF: the modern student
experience.
Let's talk more.
—Dan White,Ěýchancellor
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