Back in January, The Research Bunker Blog featured a post that talked about the emerging trend of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Half a year has passed since then and there have been a number of noteworthy developments on the MOOC front. Earlier this week, it was reported that San Jose State University has suspended Read more

One of the cornerstones of education policy in the United States in recent years is an attempt to bolster STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) education. The Obama Administration has made STEM a high-profile priority in its efforts to address challenges in the American educational system. STEM education is widely viewed by industry, educators and Read more

Some of the more dramatic ongoing trends in higher education over the past decade or so have surrounded student housing. Due to a variety of factors including generational tastes, competition between institutions and broader trends in the overall housing market, the nature of student housing has been transforming on and near college campuses across the United Read more

The common perception of the process of pursuing a college degree is that a person starts at a given institution and stays there until they complete the program. For many students, the reality is that the path to a degree is not so direct and straightforward. In fact, a report released in 2012 by the Read more

According to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics, only 58 percent of first-time, full-time students who began at a four-year institution in fall 2004 completed a bachelor’s degree at that institution within six years (150 percent of normal completion time). Furthermore, according to the same source, only 30 percent of first-time, full-time students Read more

Last month, Moody’s Investors Services issued a negative outlook for the entire U.S. higher education sector. The main reason cited for the outlook was increased fiscal pressure on key university revenue sources. A major contributor to that pressure is increased tuition price sensitivity among potential students. High tuition and the prospect of crushing debt levels after graduation Read more

Online education has been around for well over a decade now and it continues to evolve. One fairly recent model that’s getting a lot of attention in higher education is the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The definition of a MOOC is still somewhat imprecise at this point, but broadly speaking, the term refers to Read more

This marketing piece was developed by Paul Dybas, former Business Development Associate at RMS. A recent study conducted by U.S. News and World Report concluded that about 25% of freshman students will not return to the same institution for their sophomore year. Reasons for such high attrition rates across the U.S. vary between institutions, but most often, Read more

The following blog post is a summary of a market research project conducted recently by Research & Marketing Strategies (RMS) – a market research firm in Upstate NY. Background: A college was interested in learning the degree to which its inquiry and enrollment process for continuing education students was a barrier to their enrollment growth. (It Read more

American colleges and universities are facing a challenge of demographics. We are now in a period where there is and will continue to be a dip in the number of traditional college age students (age 18 to 24). According to trends and projections measured by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the number of Read more