Institutional Vision at Proprietary Schools: Advising for Profit

Abstract

A college or university's general approach to students and student support services, as reflected in its institutional vision, can serve to advocate the adoption of one type of advising structure, approach, and delivery system over another. A content analysis of a nationwide sample of institutional vision statements from NACADA-membership colleges and universities was performed. Findings suggest that for-profit institutions are driven by an outcome-oriented, pragmatic mission statement rather than the complex, compelling vision statement often employed by traditional nonprofit institutions. The customer-service model of the former places priority on student affairs, but in the form of highly centralized prescriptive academic-advising operations. Implications for all academic institutions are discussed. Relative Emphasis: research, practice, theory

Are We Who We Think We Are: Evaluating Brand Promise at a Liberal-Arts Institution

“…The perception persists throughout the active relationship. This research supports the literature on higher education branding cited above (Abelman et al 2007;Tinto 2006) and provides a method that can be easily used by any institution to determine how its brand is perceived by its students. We used a pre-and post-test for freshmen, along with a survey of the exiting seniors, because more than a student's entering perception is important.…”

“…The challenge of educational institutions is to focus the general feeling of expectancy and belief of new students about how they perceive their academic and environmental setting, as well as their "own relationship to their…institution" (Abelman et al 2007, p. 9). Researchers agree that institutions of higher education should strongly position student customer and institutional perspectives (Abelman et al 2007). …”

“…Often these statements are long and broad in expression, reminding all of what the entity is and why it endures. Mission statements have been described as defining the physical, political, and social contexts of existence within an historical text (Abelman et al 2007;Banta et al 1995, Innov High Educ (2012 …”

“…An institution's vision statement is related to the mission, yet independent thereof; and frequently it is a loftier statement. Vision statements express the compelling, discrete, and rational desires for enhancing the quality of higher education (Abelman et al 2007). …”