Assessment
Will the market sustain this program? Is our institution ready to support expanded enrollments? How can we communicate our plan to stakeholders?
Market Feasibility Studies:
You have great academic programs, but have you assessed how those programs will perform in a new and competitive online market? Having established a national reputation for high-level market research, Compass provides perhaps the most important ingredient for success – market knowledge. Because we operate as your operational and financial partner, we take great care in choosing programs that have viable markets. In other words, what benefits you, benefits us – we are both focused on success. Compass combines live market test with primary and secondary research to establish a market feasibility study, one that includes a predictable enrollment model for the institution. Market feasibility studies are complete with lead and conversion rates and projected term-by-term enrollments for five years. Compass has conducted hundreds of these studies in the last decade, and our database of market performance for academic disciplines is quite rich. Compass employs its own seasoned team of master’s level market researchers, financial professionals, and marketing professionals to carry out the feasibility studies.
Institutional Readiness:
Once a viable market exists, the organization must be ready for expanded enrollments. A successful set of programs can easily enroll thousands of students. Few organizations are ready to expand this rapidly. Not having the institutional infrastructure and specialized processes to handle this expansion can quickly erode academic outcomes and result in program chaos or even failure. Compass assesses your organization in over twenty areas, from program scalability to admissions processes to faculty and staff resources to all areas of student services.
Blueprint for SuccessSM:
Once Compass assesses the market and the institution’s readiness, it combines the assessments into a financial pro forma and gap analysis report that details where the organization is, where it can go, and exactly the resources to invest and timeframes to implement an academically and financially successful program. Compass compares both the market research and institutional assessment statistics to a rich bank of predictable critical success factors that have proven highly predictable in the last decade. The final blueprint reports are used by trustees, presidential cabinets, faculty senates, accreditation agencies, and many other stakeholders to effectively plan for success and substantially reduce risk for the entire university.
