A higher training institute needs the best marketing strategies to attract traditional first-year undergraduates to their school. These strategies include owned content, paid content, earned content, televisions, radio, and newspapers. The owned content is under the schools’ control as they are posted on their websites or channeled through their email campaigns, newsletters, and free social media posts.
Such owned content may present a fundamental tool for passing crucial information regarding the institution to the undergraduates. A learner may likewise know the college but wants to understand more about the course to pursue in the learning institution. Celik (2019) argues that institutions let parents and trainees get more information about the institution; therefore, owned content is the right target for parents and undergraduates. Both parents and learners can be the primary target for this owned content as it builds the relationship between the institutions and the parents.
The second method used in college advertisement is paid content on various top social media programs. Through this process, the learning institution pays for adverts on social media sites, such as Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. The adverts randomly appear to the users of these social media platforms and therefore work as a center of attraction for the college advertised. Tezci and Içen (2017) showed that high school students use familiar social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These paid promotions can serve as a proper target for individuals aspiring to advance their learning.
The paid advertisements still appear before a YouTube video plays, and the student or parent must watch them before they can watch their video on this platform. Through this process, the learners and parents can find the appropriate learning institutions to advance their education.
The third way colleges can use is through the use of earned content. Earned content entails publicizing institutions’ attributes through word of mouth. The content is accessible online, and people pass it on press coverage, reposting the college content, social media mentions, and sharing. The learners’ online experience makes them encounter these earned content and learn more about the college. These may be the source of the desire to join the mentioned institutions. This method perfectly targets parents and learners as they are among the everyday users of the internet. Xie et al. (2018) have shown that the emergence of social media serves as a crucial tool through which institutions effectively advertise the services they offer. An institution using the earned content has a higher likelihood of finding more potential students joining their college.
The fourth method uses advertisements on television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Many people globally watch the news and other entertainment forms on television. They still listen to the radio for information from different parts of the world. The parents and learners read magazines and newspapers to learn more about the current issue. Therefore, the learning institutions can use these opportunities to air their adverts in the newspapers, magazines, radios, and televisions to attract new learners. Mitchelstein et al. (2020) showed that the students are part of the entire population that uses radio and TV for entertainment and news. The colleges should aim to publicize the institution to create the interest of both the parents and the students.
The Academic year of Daying Teachers’ College annually starts on the 22nd of August. Around this period, the college conducts major recruitment activities for the first years. The recruitment activities include conducting student orientation activities to make them know more about the institution. These orientation activities include allocating the new students hostels and showing them the learning resources such as classes. Administrators direct the students on the stipulated guidelines to operate within the college. Before joining, the students must submit their admissions on 31st January before the academic year commences. They decide on the students who join the institution on 1st May before the academic year starts. Outreach activities, such as advertisements, are done before the students submit their applications.
The WICHE report indicated some findings that are highly likely to affect the operations in many learning institutions. According to the WICHE (2020) paper, the COVID-19 disease has brought major learning disruptions among undergraduates and tutors. The pandemic has severely affected the mental health of learners, parents, and teachers. Mental directly impacts the student’s performance negatively. The Coronavirus pandemic has again led to the disruption of the regular school calendar.
Thus, the WICHE (2020) report suggested incorporating educational technologies to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. WICHE also organized webinars to rapidly and effectively respond to supporting the learners’ mental health, staff, and all the education stakeholders. The Coronavirus pandemic also disrupted essential physical and educational meetings, such as the Western Alliance of Community College Academic Leaders (Alliance).
The report also indicated an increase in graduate enrollment annually. The WICHE (2020) report showed that the WUE enrollment rose by around 4.5% yearly. The relevant stakeholders have to increase their funding to cater to the needs of the students in these institutions. More classrooms and other learning resources have to be allocated to ensure the effective learning process in these institutions. Failure to increase the allocation of more resources with this increased enrollment means a decrease in the quality of education offered. The increased enrollment should ensure that it does not compromise the quality of education among scholars.
The report also showed that institutions use online resources to produce quality education and training for learners. In the WICHE (2020) report, the WICHE Online Course Exchange (OCE) maximizes the institutions’ resources to provide quality services to the students. This enrollment of students for online courses improves the quality of education as some geographically far students can join the institutions of their dream. These learners pursue their desired course, thus making them productive members of society to build the society’s economy. Under the WICHE (2020) report, the Native-Serving Institutions Initiative serves a significant role in providing the students with the best strategies to succeed. This initiative thus affects the learning sector positively by improving the quality of education offered.
The IPEDs data provides one of the best frameworks an individual can use to assess post-secondary education in the USA. In the NCES (2019), I compared data from two institutions, data trends, survey data, and other significant data information on USA higher education. In looking for statistics about an institution, I clicked on the statistical table tab and entered the institution’s name. On clicking the data explorer tab, I found a wide range of data, including the number of admissions to higher education. While choosing the comparison of two institutions’ data, typing the name of each institution brought a suggestion to key in; a comma separates the two.
The summary tables allowed me to collect the data on admissions, fall enrollment, completions, graduation rates, outcome measures, student financial aid, and human resources. The shortcut tab enabled me to access previously saved data sessions or create, save or upload IPEDs variables and institutions.
References
Celik, S. (2019). Experiences of internet users regarding cyberhate. Information Technology & People, 32(6), 1446–1471. Web.
Mitchelstein, E., Boczkowski, P. J., Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K., Hayashi, K., Villi, M., & Kligler-Vilenchik, N. (2020). Incidentality on a continuum: A comparative conceptualization of incidental news consumption. Journalism, 21(8), 1136–1153. Web.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2019). The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. National Center for Education Statistics. Web.
Tezci, E., & İçen, M. (2017). High school students’ social media usage habits. Online Submission, 8(27), 99-108. Web.
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). (2020). WICHE Annual Report FY 2020. Web.
Xie, Q., Neill, M. S., & Schauster, E. (2018). Paid, earned, shared and owned media from the perspective of advertising and public relations agencies: Comparing China and the United States. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(2), 160–179. Web.