Graduate College Update

Faculty Senate April 3, 2014

Recruitment and Marketing

Landing Page for Inquiries

Upcoming Strategies• Graduate Open Houses

• Graduate College Day/Night for area institutions

• Virtual open house and Graduate College Ambassadors

• Target Local Employers• Deferred payment plan• Office hours for employees and area

businesses with questions about returning to school

• Non-degree Students• Communication plan to gauge interest in

degree program

• Collaborative Agreements (3:2 programs)

Other Considerations for Graduate Enrollment

• Capacity• Quality of Applicant• Fit to program• Cost/Funding

– Self pay– Employer pay– Country pay– Scholarship dollars– Department/college one time funds– Grants and Contract support– Academic Affairs graduate assistant allocations

Graduate Assistantships

• An identified barrier for our programs when recruiting nationally and internationally has been the cost of an assistantship with non-resident versus resident tuition.

• Planning for graduate summer courses is difficult without knowing in advance how many summer assistantships will be offered.

Issues/Concerns

Graduate Assistantships

Issues/Concerns

• Given budget constraints, it is unlikely that funding for graduate assistantships will increase.

• The transition from 6 to 9 credit hours covered/semester under the TAU contract has been covered with one time funds.

• This use of one time funds to cover the increase in tuition is not sustainable.

Moving Forward

• For a number of years, tuition expenditure was less than budgeted due to students taking less credits than offered. This was often recycled to fund summer positions or left untouched.

• Propose to centralize the tuition so the accumulated savings could be used to cover cost of student tuition regardless of residency.

• Propose to yearly allocate compensation dollars to colleges in fall for following year so timely offers can be made and course planning would be easier.

New Distribution Model

• Beginning Fall 2014 tuition will be centralized within the Graduate College (follows recommendation of committees from 2005 and 2010) – different method of tracking of expenditures will

be implemented

• Offers to new students can be made regardless of residency status

• Continuous evaluation• Committee to evaluate principles for

college compensation distribution

WMU Graduate Admissionspartners with

to streamline the application process by using ApplyYourself to

create a better experience for applicants and end users.

Internal Audit Conducted by Hobsons

• Reviewed application process for 106 degree programs and university application

• Reviewed practices of review and decision making

• Reviewed current integration with the student information system

Hobson’s ApplyYourself Strategic Goals

• Simplify the applicant experience• Reduce unnecessary and redundant data

entry• Add efficiency to the recommendation

process• Integrate the university and international

applications • Help academic units take review online• Ensure continuity between ApplyYourself

and Banner• Retain current WMU branding

Current Progress on Implementation of Hobsons

ApplyYourself

• Working with a Hobsons implementation specialist, we have begun building a customized application experience

• Data cataloging is nearing completion• Information sessions next week for

graduate directors/chairs on progress and for review of information

Graduate Student Teaching Institute

July 14-18, 2014

This five day professional development program will help graduate students • assess their teaching practices • refine teaching and learning approaches • improve communication for diverse

learners