Re think psu: Quantifying the Value of a College Education

Redesign, Reach Out: # 75

Quantifying the value of a PSU business education

Becky Einolf, MBABecky Sanchez, M.S., NCCSchool of Business Undergraduate Programs Office

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

- Winston Churchill

Proposal:

• Online survey tool

• Data collection at - graduation,- 3 months out, - 1 year out, etc.

• Start in SBA and roll out to other schools, eventually taking it University wide; Publish results on the web

Why should we want this? • Rising tuition costs & difficult employment

climate is making people ask for accountability:

Is a college degree still a goodinvestment?

• The governor and others are looking at requiring estimation and publication of costs and benefits.

Why do we already need this?

• Collecting employment and other data at graduation and afterwards is already required as part of our accounting accreditation.

• If we do this well, we will be ready when general business accreditation begins to require similar data collection.

What will be the results?• Marketing: Publishable data on

- Employment and compensation- Learning goals, retention - Satisfaction with our programs & services, including academic and career advising.

• Self Knowledge: Information on where we excel & in what areas we can improve. In which direction should we be heading?

And as a bonus…• Maintain better connections with our alums:

- Source of mentors, guest speakers

- Potential for development efforts

Rollout:• After test run, rollout University wide:

We could just do this for ourselves, but with concept buy-in and the right software/tech support we can create something that will be meaningful PSU-wide and could serve as a model for other institutions.

• Framework: In SBA, use Bill Jone’s planned set up through the Business Capstone

• Timeline: Design and set up in Winter Term;Start survey with June graduates.

Accountability? # 75

- It’s Time!

Becky Einolf, MBABecky Sanchez, M.S., NCCSchool of Business Undergraduate Programs Office

Accountability? # 75

- It’s Time!

Becky Einolf, MBABecky Sanchez, M.S., NCCSchool of Business Undergraduate Programs Office