Customer Focus at “Colleges That Change Lives”

by Pamela Wong (Former Writer, Baldrige Program)

 It’s that time of year—parents (including me!) are dropping off their children to begin the college adventure. They and their student are excited and nervous, hoping they have selected the right college or university for them. To help in the selection process, perhaps they consulted an intriguing book—Colleges That Change Lives by Loren Pope, former education editor for The New York Times.

Pope was one of the first to encourage students to select a college that best fits them—instead of relying on college rankings that seemed to suggest that “one size fits all.” In his book and through the foundation he established, Pope highlights 40 lesser-known colleges and universities that have, in his words, “life-changing success with students.”

These schools range in enrollment from 350 to 4,000 and share some common characteristics, such as a focus on student and stakeholder engagement that includes low student-to-faculty ratios, a commitment to undergraduate liberal arts and sciences education, a primarily residential environment, and an active alumni network that supports graduates.

In such a small, close-knit community, it’s easy to see how they could build a student- and stakeholder-focused culture. But what about other schools, such as large public universities, business schools, and community colleges? How do they achieve "life-changing success" with their students?

Many higher education institutions that are looking for a comprehensive approach to achieve success are using the Baldrige Excellence Framework (Education) to support  their students. A broad range of education organizations have successfully used the Criteria. Just take a look at those that have received the Baldrige Award:

• University of Wisconsin-Stout—a public university that offers 40 undergraduate and 19 graduate majors through six academic colleges and schools. A full 99 percent of employers ranked its graduates as well-prepared, and 90 percent of alumni said they would attend the university again.
• Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business—a college within the University of Northern Colorado that graduates about 300 students a year. Among its results were rankings in the top 10 percent nationally on 10 of 16 student satisfaction measures.
• Richland College—a two-year community college with a student body of some 15,000 students seeking college credits and some 6,000 continuing education students. On at least four satisfaction measures that students rank as most important, it surpassed the national norm for four years.

Do you have any results to share on the Baldrige Criteria’s impact at an institution of higher education?