Adult Enrollment Trap

There are quite a few private universities betting on adult learners to solve their enrollment problems. CAEL recently released a report that can help revise and correct their fantastically aspirational growth plans. 

Not surprising to anyone who has ever supported and worked with adult learners, the report notes that cost is the most frequently cited barrier to enrollment. So telling prospective adult learners that a fully online undergraduate degree costs $80,000-90,000 probably isn't good marketing copy. The adults most motivated to enroll have long been those least able to meet the ridiculous price points of many private universities. Counting on yielding even a nominal number of the estimated 65 million prospective adult learners while ignoring what they can actually afford is a catastrophic fail.

Beyond cost, the CAEL report highlights the rapidly increasing demand among adult learners for shorter-term, workforce-aligned pathways. These are the learners telling us they want credentials tied to careers without the overhead of a traditional degree structure. Private universities with stale plans of offering conventional four-year online degrees at premium prices are solving the wrong problem and completely ignoring the largest growing share of the higher ed market. The worst of these plans (pitched by unctuous consultants and supported by unimaginative head-nodding robots) are also failing to adequately address credit for prior learning. Adult learners come to us with decades of work history, industry credentials, and military service that directly overlaps with degree requirements. Yet many privates continue to impose cumbersome credit for prior learning policies and processes. For a population that's motivated by career advancement and skill development, being forced to re-learn what they already know and pay for the privilege of doing so is a compelling enough reason to walk down the street to the accessible, flexible and affordable public university.

Private universities have a genuine opportunity here, but only if they're willing to be honest about what the adult learner market requires. Affordability, flexibility, and recognition of prior learning are the core of the value proposition for this market. Private universities counting on adult enrollment to offset devastating demographic declines while they cling to archaic pricing and rigid credit policies will learn that the comical enrollment plan they bought from the soda salesman costs much more than the wasted time, salary, and budget they've already thrown at it.