Catholic Universities Expand Their Reach

A recent article in The Chronicle (Population Shifts Push Catholic Colleges in the Northeast to Extend Their Reach) reports on how Catholic Colleges located in the Northeast are expanding their target market beyond New England.  This article started a conversation by Craig Urch (Senior Product Specialist at Eduventures) on LinkedIn.  (Eduventures has already performed some valuable research into some of the challenges facing Catholic Colleges in recruiting non-Catholic students.)

One strategy some schools have begun to pursue is to focus recruitment efforts on other parts of the country, such as California and the Southwest, where the Catholic population has been increasing. Another possible strategy is to increase recruitment of non-Catholic students in the geographic areas from which they have normally drawn students. However what are the challenges these schools face in marketing themselves to students different from their traditional applicants?

Question! My answer is “It depends.” (Don’t you love that response?!)

The Challenge of Successfully Entering a New Market. Entering a new market is like being the new kid in class – no one knows who you are or why they should care.  Building awareness takes time and money – so unless you have these resources, you face a tough battle.

College leadership should look at markets where they are currently successful, determine if there is a strong likelihood for greater success, and then test their beliefs without risking everything.

Limited Resources Should Focus on Current Market Growth. For those that lack the resources (time, money, staff, technology), the best bet would be focusing on the home turf.  However, as Craig and the folks at Eduventures point out, you are now changing your target audience so you need to update your targeting, messaging and offers.

Improve Success with clear, concise messages. One area of potential improvement for most of the Catholic Colleges I am familiar with would be in messaging.  Specifically, I would recommend that you need to write for your audience and some of us (even us Catholics) might not know what you mean by the following:

• “…rooted in its identity as a Franciscan and Catholic institution.”
• “…a Jesuit Catholic university committed to the educational and spiritual traditions of the Society of Jesus and to the ideals of liberal education and the development of the whole person.”

Now a little personal disclosure – in case you haven’t guessed by my name, I am Irish Catholic.  I attended Catholic school from K-12.

But I have no idea what being a “Franciscan and Catholic institution” really means or why it should motivate me to select this institution over another.  And since my Dad attended a Jesuit school, my interpretation of the second mission statement is that corporal punishment is part of the experience.

My point is this – if Catholic Colleges want to improve student recruitment, they should remember the importance of clearly articulating its value proposition.  Leave nothing up to interpretation or assumption – give clear examples.  This will help with Catholics and non-Catholics searching for the best value and experience make well informed decisions.