The college admissions process can be confusing and inconsistent, requiring students to navigate a complex web of information, procedures, and admissions requirements from different postsecondary institutions. All of these require extensive social and cultural capital, which many students do not possess (Klasik 2012). Systemic change in college…

Since taking office, the Biden administration has sought to advance a complex and ambitious higher education regulatory agenda. The U.S. Department of Education held two separate rounds of negotiated rulemaking in 2021-22 to rewrite rules governing student loan relief programs and institutional accountability. This fall, the agency announced plans…

As the country and college campuses shut down in the Spring of 2020 in response to COVID-19, institutions needed to quickly pivot their plans into a digital environment to yield their accepted class. Through the Wisr platform, institutions communicated directly with their admitted students and their families through discussion board functionality…

In 2008 it was certain that the Great Recession would represent--for this generation--the singular reordering of higher education. As a result, it was assumed that colleges and universities would be forced to become vastly more efficient places by graduating more students with high-value certificates and degrees. Despite significant cuts to higher…

With the introduction of new standards for electronic records and transcripts and other changes within higher education, a perfect storm is forming that challenges the 30 years of electronic data exchange (EDX) work. This article outlines the threat to the work and uses recent data to explore the landscape around the past, present, and future. In…

Pandemics have been, by their very nature, disruptive and have produced long-lasting change. The current pandemic is no exception to creating chaos and disruption, and higher education is not immune to its disruption. The virus has shed a spotlight on many of higher education's inefficiencies and antiquated educational delivery paradigms, but it…

As the technology landscape is continually evolving, transitions to newer software are commonplace in higher education. Change is often difficult to navigate, especially when the change that is implemented fundamentally impacts entrenched business processes. In no place is this more evident than when implementing a new system, whether the…

Phillip Henry is a semi-retired former U.K. Registrar and Secretary with almost 40 years' experience in higher education. He has been active in staff development in the United Kingdom (Association of University Administrators, Academic Registrars Council, and Association of Heads of University Administration), in the United States (AACRAO and a…

All enrollment managers face some level of challenge related to decentralized decision making and operations. Policies and practices can vary considerably by academic area, creating administrative complexity, restricting the scope and speed of institutional initiatives, and limiting potential efficiencies. Central attempts to standardize or…

There have been many drastic changes in higher education in recent years. State funding has decreased, leaving schools responsible for their own revenue growth and for balancing their budgets. Colleges and universities are closing departments and are no longer offering majors that are producing few or no graduates. Small colleges are closing, and…

Jeffrey Von Munkwitz-Smith recently retired as Assistant Vice President and University Registrar at Boston University. This article provides a commentary by Von Munkwitz-Smith on an address given by Lotus Delta Coffman (then president of the University of Minnesota) in 1926 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Collegiate…

"While community college enrollment has generally declined by about 2 or 3 percent annually in recent years--due to some extent to the improving economy--some colleges have bucked the trend" (Ashford 2015). What made the difference? Like many community colleges, College of DuPage has been concerned with access and affordability. The…

Curricula at most colleges and universities in the United States are scheduled according to quarters or semesters. While each schedule has several potential advantages over the other, it is unclear what effect each has on student performance. This study compares biology student performance during the two and a half years before and after the 1999…

Network leadership is an emerging approach that can have an impact on change in education and in society. According to Merriam-Webster (2011), a network is "an interconnected or interrelated chain, group, or system." Intentional interconnectedness is what separates network leadership from other leadership theories. Network leadership has the…

In order to support a new knowledge-based economy, President Obama has determined that more of the nation's population will need a college degree. While much of the research on two-year colleges has focused on public community colleges, there are a number of private, independent two-year colleges whose graduates will also contribute to a…