Friday, October 06, 2006

SIU Enrollment and Midwest Student Exchange Program

Here is the story from the DE. OK, we know that SIU enrollment is down already and there are pretty graphics.

The real story to keep you eye on is this Midwest Student Exchange Program. If we assume that SIUC has recruiting problems, poor PR, poor public perception compared to other universities in the region, does it make sense to help Illinois students go to other states? In the example from the DE piece
"(SIUC) can even tailor it to their own needs," Sevener said. "The Carbondale campus could decide to offer the program for students in engineering and not in any other discipline."
That is great, but if it is financially easier to go out of state it seems like potential SIU students would go. If SIU has the worst story, it seems like students in other states would stay away. So this might be a net win for the students, because it encourages capitalist choice, it is likely to hurt SIUC. Think NAFTA and Mexico.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suppose you had a restaurant on the county line, but were not allowed to sell to folks on the other side. Not good, especially when there aren't many good restaurants *in your price range* in the general area.

SIUC would not be a bad choice for students is Cape, W KY or SW IN. I am not talking about the top students who can get into InU or UKy. But that next quartile is our market or should be.

Over the next ten years Illinois is projected to see a 2% drop in the number of high school graduates.
There are similar projected drops across the Midwest except for Indiana, which should have a 10% rise. How about a nice bill board as you drive into Evansville?

P may be on to something hear.

http://chronicle.com/weekly/almanac/2006/maps/0100602.htm
http://chronicle.com/weekly/almanac/2006/maps/0100603.htm

--MS

PS: (I've told Terry.)

PeterG said...

I can't see these links because I'm not a subscriber. :<

In order to get those students you would have to recruit them. Seems like we are back to Sue Davis and lack of PR doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight. You are THE local expert on higher education, but you do not subsrcibe to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Is that correct?