Q: we are interested in materials and information regarding promoting post secondary education to millenials and Gen Y. We would appreciate any information that you could provide us with. Thank you!
A: Marketing Post-secondary education to Gen Y is a complex challenge. There are some extremely important factors that come into play when young, traditional-aged students are considering post-secondary education, and the extent to which you can address these will have a huge impact on the response from prospective students. Here are some key points to consider:
1. Today's young adults entering college are very different from those in past generations. They have significantly greater costs for post-secondary education and significantly fewer resources for financial aid. The main source of financial aid is in the form of student loans, and many students hesitate to take on large amounts of debt for an education that may not put them in a position to repay those debts in a reasonable amount of time. The current job market for college graduates is much better than it is for non-graduates, but finding a good job after college is far from a sure bet for most young graduates. The extent to which you can provide support for costs, financial aid, flexible options for tuition payments, job placement services, and affordable educational options can have a huge impact on the appeal of your institution.
2. Today's young adult students are also different from past generations in terms of their lifestyles. The days of parental patronage are gone. While experts confirm that working 10 hours a week can actually be beneficial to academic performance, it is the rare student who is able to work only ten hours a week. Most work at least 20 hours and many work 30 hours or more. This puts them into the same category as non-traditional "adult" students who bring much greater demands on their time and resources with them to campus. The rigid attendance requirements, lack of flexibility from faculty, and failure to accommodate students who must deal with "life" to a far greater extent than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, can pose barriers that are insurmountable for many young students. Developing policies which are student and "life" friendly, creating flexible curricular options as well as training faculty to understand the needs of students for flexibility in terms of attendance, deadlines, etc. can be tremendously important in helping to attract students to your campus.
3. Streamline your processes and procedure. Often the barriers to participation begin at the registration and enrollment state. Rigid and inefficient enrollment and registration procedures, frustrating requirements and staff who are not supportive and positive can also be deterrents to students who are considering your institution. Train your registration and office staff to be respectful and helpful to prospective students. This is an area where most institutions fail miserably. Work with the registrar and others involved in student recruitment and registration to create clear, simple, and non-bureaucratic policies. Offer "green" paperless or digital" options for texts, class handouts, and other necessary materials. Emphasize hybrid and online learning options.
4. Online learning options are not the preferred method for most Gen Y students because the courses are often poorly designed, the delivery platforms are mostly text-based and unimaginative, there is little or no real interaction with faculty, and often the faculty require MORE work from online learners than face-to -face students. Address these issues head-on and create viable online learning communities. This can be very attractive to Gen Y.
5. Emphasize your environmental consciousness, green efforts you employ, efforts you make to protect the environment, as this will appeal to many Gen Y students. Also, indicate you understand their values and needs by providing bicycle parking areas with shuttle transportation where appropriate. Emphasize your accessibility by mass transit, light rail, bike, or bus. Gen Y appreciate efforts to operate in an environmentally friendly way.
5. Forget "three and a tree." Glossy images of three well-dressed, upper middle class students, one African American, one Hispanic and one white, talking happily under a tree, while sharing a laptop or open books, with the campus in the background is a trite and useless image that does not depict either the values of the prospective students or the experience they are likely to have, so forget it. Today's young students want substance, value, flexibility, and quality with a minimum of headache, hassle, and wasted time. Focus on the value of your program and on the value added aspects such as flexibility and convenience, and your institution will be very attractive to Gen Y.