Eduventures Research Wake-Up Call

Wake-Up Call

The Wake-Up Call is a weekly analysis of higher education research, news and survey data, as well as industry events, and insider perspectives – delivered to your inbox every Tuesday morning. Subscribe today.

All Wake-Up Call content and Eduventures Research is available in Encoura Data Lab, a service that is exclusive to members of ACT | NRCCUA.

High School Graduates: New England Challenges Conventional Wisdom

by Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer at ACT | NRCCUA | Nov 12, 2019

“Just one more question.” At the end of an Eduventures advising session with a university client, the vice president of enrollment said something intriguing. “The presidents’ cabinets have long been familiar with data showing falling high school graduates in our state...

Eduventures 2019 Student Success College Football Playoff: USF Wins it All

by Kim Reid, Eduventures Principal Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Nov 5, 2019

The big day is here! It’s time for the NCAA to announce the top 25 college football teams in the hunt for the College Football Playoff. And every year we look at this event through a slightly different lens—Eduventures' Student Success Ratings.As in past years, we...

Do Student Information Systems Need a Tune Up?

by Michael Miller, Eduventures Senior Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Oct 29, 2019

Imagine you are at a higher education conference and several attendees from IBM take the stage. They have big news. They announce that they have developed something called the University and College Information System— student information systems that promise to...

The College Enrollment Paradox, Part 2: Balancing Act

by Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer at ACT | NRCCUA | Oct 22, 2019

In part 1 of this series, we wrote about the 7% increase in college enrollment among public and private nonprofit four-year schools over the past decade despite a 10% decline in first-time, full-time undergraduate enrollment.You might interpret the gains among...

Eduventures 2019 Technology Landscape: Four Vendors to Watch

by James Wiley, Eduventures Principal Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Oct 15, 2019

Just three years ago, in 2016, the Eduventures Higher Education Technology Landscape featured 518 products across 40 segments. In the 2019 report—published this past Thursday—we feature 423 products across 42 segments, a 22% reduction. Some of these changes have to do...

Help Wanted: Student Expectations for Career Development

by Johanna Trovato, Eduventures Senior Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Oct 8, 2019

“Do you want fries with that?” This has long been the signature joke to poke fun at the career development and opportunities—or perceived lack thereof—of humanities and social science majors. While it’s true that these students don’t have career paths readily laid out...

OPM Transparency? A Preliminary Report Card

by Howard Lurie, Eduventures Principal Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Oct 1, 2019

The old adage that nothing is certain but death and taxes is due for an update. We’re now assured that the arrival of a new academic calendar invariably sparks renewed debate over the merits, or lack thereof, of online program management (OPM) companies and OPM...

First-Time Undergraduate Enrollment: The Haves and the Have Nots

by Kim Reid, Eduventures Principal Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Sep 24, 2019

The landscape for undergraduate enrollment isn’t fair. Some institutions get all the students while others struggle to make enrollment. Certainly, regional markets for first-time undergraduates are heavily influenced by geo-demography. But geo-demography isn’t the...

Tip of the Iceberg: A National MBA Market Overview

by Michael Miller, Eduventures Senior Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Sep 17, 2019

The current state of the U.S. MBA market can best be compared to your average glacier: large, slowly decreasing in size, and leaving a mark when it recedes. Still, MBA programs make up the greatest number of any single type of master’s degree program and enroll the...

Can Amazon Upskill Higher Education? A Beta Test

by Howard Lurie, Eduventures Principal Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA | Sep 10, 2019

Amazon Prime Day came and went on July 15th, and by most accounts, it left smiling faces around the globe. But just a few days before this annual shop-a-thon, Amazon announced a gift of its own: a pledge to [inlinetweet prefix="RT @EduventuresInc: Amazon plans to"...