Dive Brief:
- Transparency and building understanding among the general public were key topics of discussion at a plenary session on liberal arts education, held during an annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
- Executives discussed shifting perspectives on liberal arts education and how the public views the utility and value of a college degree amid rising costs and diminishing returns.
- Credentialing and greater exposure of the higher education social imperative were viewed as essential solutions to rebuilding public confidence in higher education.
Dive Insight:
Increasingly, colleges are beginning to learn that they will only be as effective as public comprehension of their value allows. It is not enough to expect that institutional brand can be carried by athletics or research, but attention must be paid to exposing the ways in which education changes the lives of the people who earn it.
Campuses should consider strategic investments in marketing and internal communications to help develop the narrative around the academic enterprise, while delivering the faculty research, community engagement and civic influence which makes the college mission clear to communities and lawmakers nationwide.