#highereducationconsultingfirm

Higher education management consultant, Dr. Michael K. Clifford, talks about the necessity of modern universities and colleges getting online.

Well, we are all facing yet another incoming enrollment for the fall!

Significant Systems, our unique nonprofit higher education consulting organization, offers money, management, and marketing to help enhance online operations to provide surplus funding for a select number of high-quality institutions. We believe:

“Online Education is the New Endowment”

For Example: An endowment of $100 million is usually allowed to spend approximately 4% of the return-on- investment each year. Our higher education management firm’s model will show how 1,500 online students are equal to a 4% return-on-investment on a $100 million endowment.

15,000 online students offer a return-on-investment equal to a $1 billion endowment for your institution.

Which begs the question: how long will it take your Development Office to generate a $100 million+ endowment versus how quickly we can collaboratively generate 1,500 or more online students?

We are seeking to fund institutions that are perfectly positioned to take advantage of our no risk funding. Our higher education consulting firm offers our unparalleled successful experience in helping to create, plus manage, the most successful online higher education schools ever created.

Please consider scheduling a 15-minute phone call with me personally to dream together about creating a proven new model for your institution to help broaden access using technology to reach more people with your Mission-Objective, while creating significant financial stability via surplus for your institution?

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael K Clifford, Chairman

Dr. Michael Clifford is a higher education thought leader and entrepreneur with a passion for making higher education attainable to anyone with the dream of a degree.

Contact Significant Systems

To learn more about our education management consulting firm Significant Systems, check out our website. If you have any interest in pursuing our new model of education for your institution, Contact Us.

Remember, our goal is simple:

• Provide Broader Access • Lower Tuition and Fees • Leave your Institution with Less Debt and More Graduates • Facilitate Education with a Purpose

Looking forward to our possible conversation

Every institution should have clearly defined Mission-Goals they would like to accomplish in the next ten years.

In our discussion with Christian colleges and universities over the last 15 years, we have found most Presidents can’t even think about one or two of their most passionate Mission-Goals because they are forced to deal with the "crisis at hand," or they have settled into the short-term planning cycles of one to two years.

None of this is evil. But our Bible clearly states that, "The people perish without a vision." Good leadership states, "Vision perishes without the people." 

Some Mission-Goals we have heard from Presidents and academic coordinators are:

• Help more students receive a Christ-centered education

• Retire debt

• Lower Tuition and fees

• Broader Access

• Less Student Debt

• Purposeful Graduates Career Preparedness

• Build or improve buildings

• Scholarships

• Faculty Sabbaticals or Research

• Support Internships or Missionaries

• International Outreach

• Increase institutional salaries

• Create/Publish original Academic content

What are some of the major areas that contribute to a higher educational organization’s stagnation?

• Lack of a "Culture of Innovation"

• Slow or outdated Processes

• Negative Nellies

• Regulatory Issues

• Lack of Institutional Buy-In

• No Vision for the Use of the Cash Surplus

• Faculty resistance

• Balanced Budget

• Debt Ratios

• Uninterested Board of Trustees

• Unreasonable Expectations

• Lack of Mission-Goals Alignment

Once a leader or academic coordinator can collaboratively focus their entire organization on a few key elements, we have seen passionate synergism accelerate the all-important metrics of an institution.

Leadership

Here at our higher education consulting firm, we have found that the keys to achieve the funding to fulfill the stated Mission-Goals include:

Higher Education Management Key # 1: Relentlessly analyze, optimize, and execute re negotiations on every single line item expense for the entire institution. Our experience has shown us that institutions can create 10-30% "found-funds" through this disciplined process.

Higher Education Management Key # 2: Outsourcing to experts with funding online operations. Aligning economic and mission objectives with key outsource partners that have the expertise and upfront funding to propel online operations is the fastest pathway for an institution to create surplus funding to achieve Mission-Goals.

Higher Education Management Key # 3: Motivating all stakeholders to come together in a highly focused strategy of execution via "prayer and action" to achieve the Mission-Goals. Leadership requires getting everybody on the same page. Once every stakeholder can clearly articulate not only the Mission-Goals, but where they individually are in the collective timeline of success, the passionate synergism accelerates the goals.

We believe from experience that achieving an institution's Mission-Goals is attainable if all three of these keys are deliberately embraced.

Our nonprofit higher education consulting firm carefully selected five partners who love Jesus, cannot be hired for a paycheck or even consulting fees, share a mutual passion to enhance Christian education, have world-leading track records in their very specific deep domain expertise, and are collectively focused on coming alongside a President of a Christian college or university to move you from surviving to thriving. For us, this is a ministry within the business world. 

We are a team. It is our passion. 

Here is what we look for in a partner school before we consider investing:

• Mission Alignment (passion)

• Geographic Location

• Underserved Market

• Niche Programs

• Plans for Growth

• Strong Affinity Channels

• University Reputation

• Academic Quality/Integrity

• Culture of Innovation

• Institutional Integrity

Our higher education marketing consultants were recently in a meeting with one of the world's largest faith-based charities. I was completely caught off guard and then remarkably blessed after the meeting when I realized the Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Operating Officer, and President of the organization could articulate their Mission-Goals by finishing each other's sentences as though one person was speaking. However, the most remarkable revelation for me was they were speaking in terms of 10 years, 50 years, 100 years and 150 years. 

It reminded me of an admonition I learned from my spiritual mentor, Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International (Cru) in which he taught us, "Live as if Christ is returning in a moment, but plan as if He will return in 100 years." Many times in my life, ministry, and/or business I have forgotten this very sage advice. 

Academic coordinators and education leaders, beware of industry experts who tell you, "You cannot plan beyond three years." This may be wise advice if it means a Ten-Year Strategy to achieve your Mission-Goals must include monthly and yearly "recalibrations" based on achieving certain metrics. But do not lose sight of the Big Vision. 

Before we close together, one special comment regarding a President's role within an institution. Over the last 30 years I have had the pleasure of serving many leaders, especially in Christendom. 

Playing a small role, I have served Oral Roberts during his growth of Oral Roberts University, Pat Robertson as he built Regents University, Dr. Bill Bright at the launch of Kings College in New York City, Father Michael Scanlon when he became President of Steubenville University, and Dr. Jerry Falwell before Liberty University had online programs. 

Yes, I served, consulted, encouraged, prayed, and volunteered; but most importantly, I learned by observing. What I learned is that these leaders all had similar character traits. They were:

• Humble

• Gentle

• But Powerful in their communication of their mission and brand.

SignificantSystems.org is a higher education consulting firm dedicated to providing the needed funding and expertise to enhance Christian Higher Education. We come alongside the institutional leadership to understand the top two Mission-Goals to be achieved in ten years. Then we collaboratively serve together to create a strategic plan for success. We are not consultants; we are co-laborers in the harvest.

Our Approach is Deliberate:

• Discovery: Data collection

• Diagnose Complex Problems: Build Detailed Financial Models

• Design Mission-Goals Solutions: Ten Year Strategy

• Deliver the Mission-Goals: Execute, Evaluate & Optimize

Once we understand your Ten Year Strategy, we provide the Money, Management, and Marketing to super-charge the plan. We do all of this with no upfront funding or risk from the institution. 

In closing, Christian higher education will be facing both incredible challenges and opportunity simultaneously in the next decade. We encourage Presidents and their leadership teams to dream and dream big. Do not become discouraged, nor sweat the small stuff. Keep your eye on finishing the race. Together we can achieve far more than we can imagine if indeed we dream big.

We'd love to get your thoughts, so please don’t hesitate to Contact Us – we can even schedule a webinar for your institution. This will help us understand if our providing Money, Management & Marketing for your institution can super-charge your Mission-Goals.

Contact Significant Systems

To learn more about Dr. Michael Clifford and Significant Systems, check out our website. If you have any interest in pursuing our new model of education for your institution, Contact Us. 

Remember, our goal is simple: 

• Provide Broader Access

• Lower Tuition and Fees

• Leave your Institution with Less Debt and More Graduates

• Facilitate Education with a Purpose

Looking forward to our possible conversation!

Dr. Michael K. Clifford

Chairman

760.801.5021(My personal cell)

This article explains how the Internet is changing the landscape of higher education. Academic institutions will have a lesser demand for cafeterias and janitors, and a greater demand for professors and information technology experts.

The entire field of education is shifting rapidly as we speak, according to higher education consulting firms. The Internet continues to alter every aspect of our society, and the educational sector is not immune to this disruption. We see this as a welcome disruption – an opportunity. New terms are being coined, such as “competency-based learning” and “adaptive learning.” So what does this all mean in the larger scheme of things?

Basically, for the first time in history there is huge financial pressure on accredited institutions of higher learning to dramatically lower tuition fees. A college education that costs six figures may soon be a thing of the past. Individuals in even the remotest areas of the world will have a chance to obtain an Ivy League education thanks to the new Internet lifestyle.

“The current financial model that most academic institutions still use is quickly being turned on its head thanks to disruptive technologies,” say higher education market research representatives.

Shifts Brought About By Disruptive Technologies

Over the next few years, academic institutions will move from the common brick-and-mortar and administrative expense structure to an online structure that is focused around the professors and students themselves. Instead of expenses pouring into maintaining dorm rooms, physical libraries, cafeterias, manicured lawns, classrooms, and sports facilities, online academic institutions will funnel expenses directly to the professors and tutors themselves.

“With fewer costs, tuition can be kept low,” say higher education consulting firms. “College education will go from being a scarce resource that only the minority can afford to a resource available to all, because the Internet lifestyle is available to all for next to nothing.”

While doomsayers have been saying that the lower tuition fees and budget cuts caused by disruptive technologies will lead to layoffs for faculty, higher education market research doesn’t indicate this happening. An increase in the number of students will inevitably lead to a need for more faculty staff. Because colleges won’t have to focus their budgets on keeping the lawns manicured and the floors mopped, faculty will be compensated at a higher level.

The Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer science fiction. It increases the efficiency at which professors can do their great work. They can actually teach classes better by utilizing AI technology platforms that allow interaction between regulators, students, faculties, employers, and financial sponsors.

Scientific analytics can improve every aspect of the learning experience for students at a fraction of the cost of conventional classrooms. Academic institutions that embrace these new technologies will thrive at a level that was never imagined before, thanks to “disruptive technologies” and the modern Internet lifestyle. They will grow exponentially.

“Institutions that fail to embrace the vast benefits of the Internet will quickly go the way of the dodo bird and the dinosaur,” say higher education consulting firms.

The Age of the Internet Lifestyle

This is the age of abundance and the age of the Internet lifestyle. Instead of focusing on time spent in the classroom (or time spent on the job), we can now focus on the actual mastery of learning (or the mastery of teaching). It’s a real paradigm shift for those from a generation in which you were expected to clock in and clock out to “prove” that you were being productive. Now we can focus on the results only – not the clock.