The Glory and Agony of KPIs in Higher Education

Everything You Wanted to Know About Academic Freedom But Were Afraid to Ask

We discuss the difference between the Frist Amendment, academic freedom, and institutional autonomy. Patrick O'Rourke, former chief legal counsel for the University of Colorado system, is our guest.

Higher Ed Meeting Workforce Needs

How will higher education adapt to help meet the needs of the workforce? What are the policies that colleges and universities need to adapt to help students earn credentials while not compromising quality? We discuss this and more with Chauncy Lennon, Vice President for Learning and Work at the Lumina Foundation, our guest. https://www.luminafoundation.org/ [https://www.luminafoundation.org/]

Challenges of College and University Branding

Our guest is Kyndra Wilson. She is a brand and marketing strategist who has been working with higher education institutions on brand strategy, research, and marketing planning for the past 20 years. Like most businesses, at some point, a college or university wants to go through a branding exercise. While most people think it’s just updating the logo, a good branding exercise takes a good look under an institution’s hood. We discuss the opportunities and pitfalls this represents college and university leaders and boards.

Great Advice for University Trustees with Sue Henderson

We cover a lot of ground with former New Jersey City University president Sue Henderson—the importance of dual admit programs, helping social mobility, fundraising, how to support a president, finding good board members, the role of the NCAA, accrediting bodies for American colleges and universities, and more.

The Glory and Agony of KPIs in Higher Education

What gets measured gets done. Higher education leaders face challenges in understanding what key performance metrics (KPIs) should be used, determining qualitative and/or quantitative instruments, what the results mean, how to use the results to help drive continuous improvement, how to deal with unintended consequences, and ensuring people are not gaming the system. Our guest is Jennifer Mersmen, PhD, the Assessment & Research Officer at California State University, San Bernardino. She is an expert in program evaluation.