In December, we announced on this blog the launch of our interactive report on the State of Higher Ed Strategic Planning, challenging you to confront the future by breaking down institutional silos and leveraging data to drive strategic planning across your campus. It is our goal to help higher ed make strategic planning decisions that tie initiatives around student outcomes, pedagogy, funding, population, and governance to technology strategies to ensure preparedness that leads to innovation and resilience. Today we formally announced the availability of the interactive report via a press release, and I’m thrilled that our partner AICCU (Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities) has found the report to be valuable for their members. We will help you navigate the valuable information in the interactive report in a few ways. First, we’ll release insights here on our blog and via LinkedIn on a regular basis in the form of…

By Teresa de Onis Summary In 2019, the World Health Organization upgraded burnout from a stress syndrome to a syndrome resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” The evidence for compounding stress and burnout in higher ed is everywhere. Dive in to see what research from The Chronicle of Education, Educause, and our own analysis at Apogee reveals on this topic and how managed services can make all the difference in providing relief for IT, Student Affairs, and other higher ed departments. Higher Ed Burnout Is Real In 2019, the World Health Organization upgraded burnout from a stress syndrome to a syndrome resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed” in its International Disease Classification, the official compilation of diseases. WHO characterizes burnout by three dimensions: Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or…

By Teresa de Onis In a webinar we recently conducted for Chief Financial Officers with our partner AICCU (Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities), I made a passing comment to the audience that hindsight is 20/20 when considering the rapid shift to online learning modalities spurred by the pandemic and the need to drive technologies and innovation to advance blended learning now. A clever attendee chatted back, “Hindsight is 2020.” The comment has stayed with me, and I decided to evaluate whether hindsight is indeed 20/20 (or 2020) for higher education. We’ve known for many years that an enrollment crisis was headed our way and that the rising cost of a college education was limiting accessibility, retention, and graduation rates, contributing to our country’s exacerbating economic inequality problem. Higher ed has been in a disruption phase during this time, but it has been sluggish, enabling many institutions to contend…

By Teresa de Onis As a managed services provider with more than 20 years focused solely on higher education, Apogee talks with school leaders and administrators all over the country daily. From small, regionally focused institutions to large public schools, we’ve learned about how higher ed leaders see the world and their place in it. We routinely use what we’ve learned (and learn) to help Apogee partners realize their vision and goals. We also spend a lot of time thinking about what we can do to serve our customers better. As true partners in higher education, we believe it’s our purpose to help customers make data-driven planning decisions and explore how technology can create successful outcomes for their most essential institutional initiatives. Before meeting with a new potential client, our team makes it a best practice to review the school’s strategic plan. By early this year, we had read 491…

Technology Timescale: The Relationship Between Technology and Pedagogical Initiatives Over Time By Rajiv Shenoy and Teresa de Onis In the wake of the current pandemic and protests over systemic racism, higher education is experiencing an existential threat. Both events cast a bright light on the difficulties of making quality education accessible to the underserved, from the black community to first-generation immigrants, to ESL students, and those in rural or poverty-stricken parts of the country. The intense disruption to academics-as-usual, and the profound need for higher education to be a beacon of hope and opportunity, have revealed fascinating differences in strategic planning among universities. In May 2020, Apogee analyzed 491 publicly available strategic plans for a variety of higher education institutions, with starts and projected ends recorded, to understand the state of strategic planning in the pre-COVID-19 world. Our goal is to help our customers make data-driven planning decisions, help them…

Derek Jackson will join us to share how Auxiliary Services are launching new technologies to enhance the student experience.