In a competitive marketplace, businesses are always competing for ways to attract more customers. At higher education institutions, the competition is similar. Colleges and universities continually compete for the most important asset to them: students. For years, higher education institutions have been trying to come up with new ideas to boost their enrollment numbers and make the institution more attractive or relatable to prospective students. What is attractive or relatable to one generation of students might not have the same effect on the next generation. Therefore, higher education institutions must constantly be on the lookout for the next marketing breakthrough to attract new students.
In 2017, the majority of prospective students have lived their entire lives in the technological age. They have used smart phones, iPads, 3D televisions, etc., and have become accustomed to these devices. One of the aspects that a prospective student might be contemplating as they are deciding on which college or university to attend is the use of technology at that school. Many higher education institutions have begun to experiment with new and different uses of technology in order to attract a new wave of students.
Some schools have started to incorporate online/digital textbooks instead of physical textbooks, so that students can access the books on devices that they already own. This can save the students hundreds of dollars each year, something that might be attractive to prospective students as well as their parents. Other schools have begun to reach a new target market of students by offering additional courses that can be taken online or entire degrees offered online. Institutions that offer laboratory studies now use artificial intelligence to be able to conduct new experiments that students had not been able to experience before. All of these strategies, aided by technology, are used with the ultimate goal of becoming an attractive school for prospective students.
For more articles, please visit the Our Thoughts On…blog.
