Creating Quality in Higher Education Admissions: Increasing Institutional Effectiveness

Quality in Higher Education

Higher education is a service. Defining quality in a service can be more difficult than defining quality for a product. Quality in service has to do with accomplishing objectives while at the same time satisfying the customers' perceptions of the service. Delivering quality can be difficult as objectives and perceptions change as the needs for customers change.

Many colleges have departments dedicated to quality assessment and improvement, focused on the institution as a whole. Quality in college admissions is required to make sure the student and school are a good fit for each other. Ensuring the best fit between school and student improves retention and ensures that the student is prepared for the area of study. Students who become part of a degree program is a good fit helps in leading people into a good fit for future profession in the area that the student is pursuing their studies.

Institutional Effectiveness

There is an increased emphasis on institutional effectiveness for higher education. Institutional effectiveness measures the percentage of graduates that receive jobs within their field of study from each institution. The growing concern over institutional effectiveness comes from the combination of high unemployment rates, concerns with student loans, and the national level of student loans.

The use of intuitional effectiveness gives students and schools a qualitative measure of quality among colleges. Colleges can benchmark their institutional effectiveness as compared to similar colleges. When superior results for a similar college are identified; other colleges can study that college as a model of how to improve their own institution. Higher education institutions can become aware of what programs are performing best in placing students into jobs after graduation; the results may indicate an area that the school can give more emphasis.

Quality in Advertising

Institutions can promote quality through advertising. Informing potential students how the college and degree programs attempt to achieve the potential students desires can achieve quality. For example if a student would like to become a mechanic, the school can illustrate how they are qualified to help a student become a mechanic. The advertisement could discuss the background of the college and the instructors. The advertisement could give examples of past students results after finishing the program. The ad could include information about the programs institutional effectiveness.

Colleges can proactively pursue students that are a good fit for the institution through accurate advertisements and promotions. The promotional material can take a bigger emphasis on what career the programs prepare the student for instead of promising career possibilities. Advertisements can be targeted the segment of students that would be ideal candidates for the program with information in promotional material that discusses the type of student the program was designed for.

The content of advertisements are of extreme importance to convey accurate information and set expectations for students and parents; however, where colleges advertise is of extreme importance also. It would be better for Seminaries (graduate school for pastors) should target people that are involved in a specific church or denomination. For the colleges that work with traditional students should advertise among young adults aged 16-20, where as schools geared towards non-traditional students would target an older demographic.

Admission Requirements

Admission requirements can assist in ensuring proper alignment between the college and potential student. Admission requirements that help ensure proper alignment can include grade point average (GPA), assessment results, essays, reference letters, or experience. The college needs to understand their typical student and their challenges. Some colleges specialize in helping underprepared students excel through specialized programs to prepare those students for further academic programs and vocational aptitude. The college needs to define whom the school fits in demographic and academic terms.

An essay that requires the student to explain their motivation for applying to the school and why they are a good candidate allows the admissions counselor to make a judgment about institutional fit and at the same time allows the applicant to internalize and express how their goals align with the colleges. Essays can indicate the potential students ability to follow instructions for writing papers and indicate their grammatical ability. The entrance essay can indicate the student's level of motivation, if the application process becomes delayed by the essay requirement that indicates that the student either needs encouragement, further educational support, or lacks the motivation to the complete the essay in a timely manner.

The GPA requirement can vary among schools depending on the degree and type of school. The requirement varies from a minimum GPA to be able to perform college level work to more specific transcript and grade requirements. The minimal purpose would be to not admit student who appear to be incapable of performing college level work an school policy that closely relates to entrance GPA. Other programs may need to see an overall good GPA in addition to specific grades and types of classes taken, in the case of engineering degrees.

Reference letters help colleges see if anyone will vouch for you and who vouches for you. To ensure proper good institutional effectiveness the school would like to see that the student has already begun to network in the right places or that they are least networked. What a school many times does not want to deal with someone who creates problems everywhere they go and has no one willing to refer them.

Assessment results typically come from SAT or ACT achievement test. Schools that work with older non-traditional students will many times find other assessments because of the time lapse from when the student was in school and when they were last assessed. Although assessment results are important, they are a piece of the whole picture of the student's ability and fit for an institution.

The experience admission requirement helps ensure that the student has the ability to perform the profession that the school will be teaching. Many degree programs do not have specific experience requirements, however, the experience aspect can be imperative for some degree programs. Several programs that require experience are MBA (Masters of Business Administration), MFA (Masters of Fine Arts), and other specialty programs for both undergraduate and graduate levels.

The admission requirements help the school identify ideal students for the their program. Many times schools find their specific niche appeals to a specific type of student looking for a specific program. Once the student and the programs for the school are identified, the school can create programs to increase the effectiveness of the pairing of the school and the student. For instance if a school specializes in educating underprepared students the college can create methods to help the student through programs, remedial classes, tutoring, and vocational preparation. The schools can also build sections of the needed training into the curriculum of the classes.

Continuous Improvement

The need for continuous improvement in the quality of higher education admissions will help universities to adapt to the changing needs of the school and students. The expectations for higher education have changed over the years to have a vocational emphasis, which merits different assessment of effectiveness than how education was assessed in the past. Quality in admissions will help align the goals for the school and student to accomplish the shared goals. For example the current trend of measuring education institutions by the percentage of graduates acquiring jobs in that should lead Universities to cultivate relationships with employers in the areas that the school specializes in.

Conclusion

Quality in admissions for higher education comes from proper alignment between the student and the school. This alignment should be cultivated in an enrollment and marketing plan that clearly articulates the unique programs the school offers and excels. The plan should also include the detailed segmentation of ideal students. The increased attention on higher education's effectiveness comes from marketing schools as one sized fits all for one-sized fits all students. The needs for the alignment will change as the students needs change while at the same time different industries will change.

The difficult part would be to focus on unique programs instead of popular programs. For schools to stand out from other schools they must provide something in a way that another college does not offer. Many schools will want to offer the popular and general education courses to not loose potential students while at the same time they will need to place emphasis on their unique programs.

One of the challenges would be the impression of higher educations view of the admissions office. The admissions office needs to be able to advise schools on issues further than sales and marketing. Specifically, with higher education admissions, academics, institutional effectiveness, and educational rigor are all interconnected. The more emphasis that colleges place on their unique programs coupled with admission requirements that admit the best students for the programs will increase the colleges retention and institution effectiveness numbers. With better retention and institution effectiveness, the school will attract more ideal students, which will create a stronger program. Implementing quality seems difficult in the beginning and requires support from senior leaders. However, the difficulties are worth the results.

Jason Crowther is currently the Dean of Enrollment for Grace College of Divinity. He has a background of starting businesses and operational roles at other companies. He is currently pursuing his MBA in entrepreneurship from Regent University.

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Essay Edge Editing Service Review

Essay Edge is a service that takes the essay that you have prepared and reviews it in order to work with you to make it better. Why is this important? When you are attempting to gain admission into a college or grad school it is often a well written essay that will make or break your application. The higher the level of school, the higher the level of quality that is expected with your essay and it is Essay Edge's goal to help you with that quality.

Essay Edge will take your essay and within 48 hours of less they will address any grammar, spelling, and typo errors that may be present. Then they will give your essay a full critique and offer you suggestions as to how you can re-write your essay and make it more appealing. This will allow you the confidence you want while applying to the school of your choice.

The team of writers that works for Essay Edge are among the tops in the industry and many of them hale form such learning institutions as Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia to name but a sampling. The five categories that the Essay Edge writers focus on are:

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With so many trained writers on staff they truly have a unique and broad spectrum of writers that are sure to be able to cover just about any essay that you can throw their way. A bright note about Essay Edge writers is that they enjoy a 97 percent customer satisfaction rate which means that there are not too many people that use their service and leave with a bitter taste in their mouth.

What is even more impressive that that stat though is the fact that of all those who use their service, 82 percent of them get into the school that is first on their list. With those odds it is easy to see why their customer satisfaction rate is so high.

Essay Edge has been in business since 1997and their roots with education run deep. They are part of the Nelnet family which is closely associated with education and education funding. With such a big name behind them, Essay Edge has a lot of credibility.

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Special Education Home Field Trips - White Water Rafting

Did you know there are white water rafting programs for special education kids, autistic kids, and kids with down-syndrome? Did you know that one ride down the river for these kids will be an event of a lifetime? Think about it. Best of all when kids of this nature experience something so radically different and new, it causes them use parts of their brains that have yet to be used much. Yes, that's right it helps with brain development, just as if they were learning how to ride a bike, sing a song, or learn how to do a new skill. Okay so, let's talk.

Some folks involved in providing such trips down the river for special needs kids tell of how it becomes a life changing experience, so to do the parents. Occasionally, it's almost to the point that there was "little Junior before the white water rafting trip, and little Junior after." Some parents note the difference is that profound - to which I say; wow. When I first heard about all this, I thought to myself, no, it couldn't be that good, but the parents swear by it and the kids after doing it, they'll never stop talking about it.

My question is; why does it work so well? Perhaps, because special kids maybe apprehensive about the water, fearful, and yet excited at the same time, well, that is just about everything you need for strong memory imprintation isn't it? Okay so, I've read research papers on how the simple task of learning how to play a musical instrument, learning how to ride a bike, or interacting with an avatar on a computer helps develop these brains, and the empirical evidence has been show to prove it so. Thus, maybe these white water river rafting trips are akin to those other activities, but even more so, perhaps that's why only one trip down the river is enough to trigger changes.

It's not that normal (whatever that is) kids don't also go away with experiences and memories that they cherish for years to come, they do too when it comes to river rafting, but for the special education kids who may not get the chance to do all those other activities that regular kids do consider it the most fun they've ever had in their lives, and it shows on their faces and their excitement every time anyone mentions it for long into the future. Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

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The Most Common Errors in Writing Essays

While writing comes naturally for some people most everyone else has to make a conscious and concentrated effort to get the appropriate words on paper. It is not only the words, but also the formatting, spelling and grammatical errors that often plague the common student's essay. There are a number of reasons for this; however it can be easily corrected with a little bit of time and effort. After all this essay could mean not receiving the acceptance letter desired or a failing grade. It is important to ensure that anything from a letter to a full blown research paper is correct and reads well because it is a direct reflection on yourself. This article will cover the common errors of essay writing and a few tips to help alleviate those issues.

Spelling - Not Only Spell Check

Spell check is one of the most wonderful inventions ever. It helps everyone, not only students with ensuring the words on their paper are spelled correctly. Over the years we have all learned to spell, but there are those specific words that give us trouble each and every time. Many of us have become dependent on the computer for alternate words, spelling and catching grammatical errors, but we also have to remember that the computer is not 100% error proof. By this point you fully realize that different words can have different meanings as well as alternate spellings. Though spell check is a very efficient tool there are items that it simply does not catch. This doesn't mean that spell check leaves words incorrectly spelled; it means that the word that you intended may not be the word that is included in the paper. For example words such as there and their are commonly mistaken in the context of the sentence. The computer is logical, but is not able to apply common sense to wording.

Improper Person

Almost every student has a problem with writing in the wrong perspectives at some point or another. This is a very common problem and can be addressed with a little bit of understanding. The two most common perspectives of writing are the first and third person. The second person perspective is generally not required for most college, high school or other academic papers unless otherwise specified. In most cases the third person perspective is used when it applies to everyone and not any one person specifically. First person refers to the author or the individual writing the paper. The first person perspective is commonly seen in opinion or evaluation papers, from the writer's point of view.

Fragments and Run On Sentences

Students commonly find themselves either with a long winded sentence or one that is not a complete idea. This is a very common problem among professional writers. Generally, individuals will either have trouble with one or the other, but in some cases both issues are a problem. Spell check will catch fragments and run on sentences for the writer to correct before turning the essay in. Run on sentences are easy to spot because they are two independent sentences sandwiched together. They can be corrected by simply adding punctuation, and therefore separating the sentences. For fragment sentences it is important to express a freestanding idea in the sentence. Below are examples of both:

RUN ON: Logan loves to color he is a talented artist. (This would sound better if it were broken down into two - it crams two complete thoughts together.)

Fragment: Such as dogs, cats and horses. (This sentence can not stand alone and make sense - what about dogs, cats and horses? What the author means is unclear.)

Not Proofreading

Proof reading is not all that fun and no one likes to do it, but it is imperative for a well written essay. As we pointed out earlier spell check does not catch every type of error that can be found in typical writing. It only takes a few minutes to read over each and every sentence ensuring that they are complete thoughts, have the correct words and make sense. Proof reading increases grades by about 10 to 20 points every single time. Most professors and teachers claim that if the students would have reread or proofed the paper before turning it in, they would have received a much better great. In many cases those extra points could mean the difference between passing and failing the entire class, or gaining entrance into a school of choice. If possible having someone else read over the paper or proof it as well can help, sometimes the author understands the concept, but the reader may not be able to understand.

The best advice in writing a good essay is to slow down and follow the guidelines to ensure a quality paper. All of the steps must be followed or it is likely that the paper will have errors and will receive a poor grade.

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How Do Professors Check For Plagiarism in Essays and Term Papers?

How do professors check for plagiarism in essays and dissertations?

With the expansion of the internet and access to information, the opportunities for students to plagiarize are forever increasing. There is just so much information available on that big wide web nowadays that anyone can find almost anything they need on the internet, and that includes entire essays on examination or coursework titles. Practically, all a student needs to do in this day and age is type the key words or indeed their entire essay question into a web-based search engine, and at the click of a button they can locate a pre-written essay that responds beautifully to the assignment question they have been set.

It all sounds like a bit of a nightmare for parents who are trying to ensure that their children learn how to research and write strong academic papers, and of course it causes chaos for teachers who are finding it harder and harder to judge whether or not someone's written essay response is their own work or whether it has been stolen from some other source on the internet.

So how do teachers and academic professors get over this concern? How can they identify when a student's dissertation, coursework, thesis or essay is their own work and when it has been copied from some other source? Easy - via the internet!

Yes, whilst the internet might be a fantastic resource for any student looking to plagiarize information in order to create the perfect essay response, it is also the place to head to if you are a teacher seeking clarification as to who owns a specific idea, sentence or paragraph. Teachers and professors need to check that both a student's ideas and their words are their own - and the internet can help them in this quest.

There are a number of different plagiarism checkers available online. These easy to use pieces of software enable teachers to input in sentences from their student's essays and to find out if an identical or similar sentence exists anywhere else on the World Wide Web. So, how do these software programmes work?
It is really all very simple.

- Teachers and professors enter one or more sentence(s) from their student's essay paper into a search box

- They then click a 'search' button

- The chosen software checker will make some initial assessments about the text entered. For example it will automatically eliminate any sentences that are less than 6 words in length.

- The software will then link teachers across to a search engine website where all instances of the sentence input into the search box appears on websites. These sites can then be checked and if it is obvious that the student has copied content from these websites, appropriate action can be taken.

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White Paper - Hide the Sales Angle But Make the Sale

I know, the title seems contradictory, but that is exactly what you will have to do if you are dealing with the corporate world. So how does that work? Easy...you write a white paper.

Okay, I'm sensing the furrowed eyebrows and the question mark expressions.

According to Wikipedia, a white paper is "an authoritative report. The white paper is used to educate customers, collect leads for a company or help people make decisions". So, isn't that a sales paper, you may ask. No. It is not. A sale often tends to be hard, fast and to the point. A white paper, on the other hand is sophisticated, informative and artistically persuasive. If well written, it is used for reference and has a long life. It brings a solution to a problem. It is the ideal strategy to sales and marketing - an opportunity maker.

So, how do we sell without talking sales?...content - pure and simple content. What is required in white paper content? It has to be educational, relevant, and focused. You have to prioritize the readers needs, (a perfect attention getter). This way everyone understands that there is a challenging problem that needs to be solved, but you are not stating it in an accusatory manner or implying inadvertently that the client is incompetent. If the tone is friendly and the information is relevant, problems can be placed on the table with no consequence.

Once you have their attention give them an elegant, well-researched solution to their problem. It doesn't matter if you sell a technical product or a service, the approach is the same - (1) keep the tone friendly, conversational, (2) know your customer and your product; (3) and persuasively craft your paper. Also, publicize it well, and the readers will flock. In one fell swoop you have generated sales leads, educated customers and instituted thought leadership. That is a lot savvier than your typical sales pitch.

Be willing to commit to an investment in research and writing time. Make sure there is something unique about your product or service and give the client information that they do not have. It gives you necessary credibility. Additionally, it is mandatory that your writing be interesting enough to grab the reader's attention in the first paragraph. It doesn't matter if you've found the perfect solution to the most challenging of problems. If you don't hook them in the beginning, you don't hook them at all.

It would be good to do a search on Michael A. Stelzner, who I call the Guru of white papers. I find his information easy to read, professional and informative. Reading is vital to being a good writer. So take the time to read. There are many online newsletters that will keep you abreast of trends, changes, of white paper how-tos and how-not-tos that will be important to your career. Reading really is "fundamental".

Okay, so how do we format a white paper? Well, it follows this order.

1. Introduction

2. High Level Solution

3. Solution Details

4. Business Benefits

5. Summary

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Best IELTS Essay Planning - Introductions

Obviously, if you're taking IELTS, you want to get the best IELTS score you possibly can. For many students, the most daunting part of the test seems to be the writing test, in particular Task 2.

I find students often feel overwhelmed when they have to sit down and write an IELTS essay; I think we all feel a bit like that initially when we have to sit down and write any essay, so I'd like to break IELTS essay writing down into simple steps. First of all, we need to look at the structure of an IELTS essay. It is divided into three parts:

• The introduction

• The body text

• The conclusion

When planning your essay, you need to be aware of what points you will put into each of these sections.

In this post, I'd like to look at the introduction to your IELTS essay in greater detail (the next posts will cover the body and the conclusion.)

The Introduction First of all, let's think about the effect we want to create on the IELTS examiner. We want them to read the introduction and:

• know what the topic is

• know how we feel about it

• be excited about reading the rest of our ideas

I always advise my students to keep the following formula in mind when writing an introduction:

1. Write a general or neutral statement about the topic.

2. Re-write the statements from the task using your own words:

(you obviously won't be given any credit for simply copying; you need to show that you understand the task)

3. Give your own opinion

I'm going to look at two example IELTS Task 2 Writing questions here: both taken from the official IELTS website, one academic and one general.

Academic IELTS Writing Task 2 sample question

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

It is inevitable that as technology develops so traditional cultures must be lost. Technology and tradition are incompatible - you cannot have both together.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Globalisation has meant that technology is developing very quickly all over the world. (1) Some people believe that these technological developments will result in a loss of traditional cultures as technology and tradition cannot co-exist. (2) It is my belief that with sensitivity and careful planning, humankind can enjoy the benefits of technology without sacrificing our traditional cultures (3).

General IELTS Writing Task 2 sample question

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some businesses now say that no one can smoke cigarettes in any of their offices. Some governments have banned smoking in all public places. This is a good idea but it takes away some of our freedom.

Do you agree or disagree?

Write at least 250 words.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Attitudes to smoking have changed very much over the last thirty years. (1) One result of this is that some companies do not permit smoking on their premises and that some governments have forbidden smoking in public places. Many people are in favour of these smoking regulations but are also concerned that it means a loss of some of our freedom (2).In my view, these types of rules and laws related to smoking do not take away from our freedom at all (3).

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