Déjà vu All Over Again – Your Single Biggest Challenge (MBA News Digest Reader Survey Results)

While reviewing your responses to the reader survey, I was reminded of the Yogi Berra quote, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” As a long-time MBA program director, I dealt with the same challenges you identified.

For ease of reading, I rephrased and then organized your responses around five areas: information management, curriculum management, enrollment management, program management, and alumni management. This blog post provides responses without discussion to the first question, “Given your current role, what’s your #1 single biggest challenge right now?” Future posts will tackle the rest of the survey and discussion of the challenges you are facing.

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Thank you to everyone that completed the survey.

Is one of your challenges missing? Or do you want to discuss a challenge that is listed, leave a reply in the comments section.

My single biggest information management issue is:

Knowing when to add a new program.
Knowing when to close an old program.
Measuring program outcomes.
Not having the data, information, or tools for decision making.
Not having enough or the right best practice information for decision making.
Not having access to successful innovations that small liberal arts colleges and universities can adopt in order to compete effectively in a competitive market place.
Countering the inaccuracy of the MBA rankings when potential applicants use them as a proxy for program quality.
Identifying the trends that will result in curriculum change.
Identifying recruiting best practices that we can use to enroll students in our programs.
Not being able to determine why more domestic students are not interested in getting an MBA.
Not being able to determine why there is a proliferation of specialized graduate business degrees.
Not understanding why enrollments in MBA programs is declining.
Identifying best practices for using marketing dollars for maximum effectiveness.
Keeping up with enrollment trends in the market place.
Keeping abreast of higher education trends.
Not knowing what students are going to be looking for in the next five years.
Not knowing how to use social media data like the sophisticated companies who can put an ad on my computer within minutes of visiting their website.
Not knowing the resource investment required to grow the Online MBA program to a targeted enrollment number.

My single biggest curriculum/course management issue is:

Getting faculty to teach in online programs.
Determining what delivery modes/channels to use.
Lack of innovative degree structures.
Intransigent faculty involved in the curriculum review process.
Ensuring that our curriculum appropriately stays with the trends.
The proliferation of specialized graduate business degrees and how to respond.
Not having an established curriculum review process in place.

My single biggest enrollment management issue is:

The university controls the website and I cannot make changes I think are needed.
Not having enough staff to support marketing, recruiting, and enrollment management.
Decreased marketing budget.
The pool of quality domestic applicants is getting smaller.
More fellow/scholarship dollars are required for enrolling quality students.
Attracting applicants with that fit the curriculum we are offering.
The adoption of recruiting best practices to enroll students in our programs.
Not being able to articulate to potential applicants the MBA’s value proposition.
Brand management reviews of advertising by the university marketing/communications office adds time to getting placements done.
Maintaining our brand exposure in a highly competitive US B-School market.
Not having enough scholarships to meet the needs of applicants.
Decline in the number applications.
Growth in the number of prospects who cannot afford an MBA.
Growing MBA program enrollments of high quality students in an environment of increasing competition and severe resource constraints.
Filling the applicant funnel.
Finding qualified inquiries who want an MBA.

My single biggest degree/program management issue is:

Getting faculty to teach in online programs.
Getting administrators to believe online courses require more work.
Budget issues prevent the hiring of new faculty.
Not enough staff to support the large number of students and programs for which I am responsible.
The university controls the website and I cannot make changes I think are needed.
Managing growth in a portfolio of graduate programs.
Holding program directors accountable for outcomes.
Not having enough staff to support needed student service activities.
Managing program cost, quality, and access.
Dealing with accreditation requirements that are inflexible.
Having to tie residency requirements to individual certificate programs that cannot then be combined to comprise an overall degree because residency degree residency requirements differ.
Finding good staff and then retaining them.
The university administration not providing a clear vision that will serve as a guide for the organization to function.
Determining how large to grow the Online MBA.
Aligning master degree program directors on a common internationalization strategy.
Managing a meaningful corporate relations strategy.

My single biggest alumni management issue is:

Managing a meaningful alumni relations strategy.

Rodney
Rodney G. Alsup, D.B.A, CPA, CITP
Professor Emeritus
Founder, MBA News Digest
+1 404-406-6510
www.MBANewsDigest.com
RGAlsup@MBANewsDigest.com