Higher Ed in W. Virgina is a Growth Industry

We often talk of the campus as a great place to launch a venture because it is a healthy marketplace — both in aggregate and in many specific niches. Here is some evidence from my neighbors in West Virginia.

A recent study by West Virginia’s Higher Education Policy committee shows great growth in enrollment year over year and over the past 5 years. According to a story by Walt Williams at Channel 13 WOWK,

Enrollment at the state’s colleges and universities hit an all-time high earlier this year, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission announced Thursday.

A record 93,712 students were enrolled in West Virginia’s higher education institutions at the start of the fall 2009 semester, the commission said. This year marks the first time enrollment surpassed 90,000 students.

The figures include enrollment in public four-year and two-year institutions and represent an increase of 6.7 percent, or 5,909 students, over the previous year and an increase of 13.1 percent, or 10,867 students, over a five-year period.

It is interesting to note that the largest growth over the 5 year period was a school of Osteopathic Medicine. The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine grew 114% (in terms of enrollment over the past 5 years).

(A Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, or DO, is the degree you receive from a school of osteopathic medicine is similar to receiving anMD from a medical school — you have to go on and do a residency.)

Campus Sports Markets: BC-BU Hockey; BC + Under Armour

A college sports edition of campus entrepreneurship for y’all. Yesterday, the WSJ feature an article by Neal E. Boudette exploring the life-long rivalry between the current Boston College and Boston University men’s hockey coaches. Here is how the story opens:

On New Year’s Eve in 1962, Jack Parker and Jerry York lined up against each other in a high-school ice-hockey game — and started a rivalry that has become one of the most extraordinary in college sports.

After high school, Mr. Parker played at Boston University and Mr. York at Boston College. Mr. Parker later became the coach at BU, and Mr. York at BC.

Now, after nearly half a century of going toe-to-toe, each man’s success is unexcelled — and they are still fierce competitors. Mr. York has accumulated more wins — 827 — than any other active college coach. Mr. Parker is only seven wins behind him.

The piece goes on to detail the intensity of the rivalry and some of the amazing feats of each man and his respective University. It also reminds us of the important role that athletics play in the modern campus marketplace.

One of the reasons that the campus is the frontier of entrepreneurship in the US is that it is a huge market in its own right and can either support full ventures or serve as a proving ground for various products (Gatorade) and services (FedEx & Kinkos individually, though now joined together as FedEx Kinkos).

The sports submarket of the campus market is huge in its own right, complex, and based on passion that sports can and does inspire in fans and from time to time the masses of casual observers.

In related campus sports market news, Boston College and Under Armour (founded by one of the most succesfull campus entrepreneurs of the last 15 years, Kevin Plan) have inked a deal whereby UA will become the schools exclusive and offical athletic apparel provider.

This is the latest aggressive move by Under Armour in declaring its goal to be a global sports brand. Reebok, which is based in Boston, is currently the exclusive provider for BC and can be none too pleased by Under Armour’s move into its backyard — not to mention taking a high profile partner.

From an article in the Boston Herald by Christine McConville,

Under Armour has scored a touchdown in the collegiate apparel game – and beaten out a local company on its home turf.

The Baltimore-based athletic gear company topped Canton-based sportsgear maker Reebok and won a lucrative, six-year deal to outfit Boston College’s athletes.

In July 2010, Under Armour – that tight-fitting, moisture-wicking clothing preferred by very fit athletes – will become the exclusive official outfitter for BC’s football and basketball squads, and 29 other varsity teams.

More Disruptions in the Textbook Market

Wow, it appears we are on the cusp (or in the midst) of a textbook revolution. Students, parents, and campus entrepreneurs should be dancing in the streets. We have been talking a lot about e-books lately, but have talked textbooks more generally here (Godin), there, and other places.

Today brings even more news, Barnes and Noble is buying back its College Booksellers (it was independent), digital textbook maker Akademos just took in more VC, and the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation has given money to the Community College Collaborative for Open Education Resources. Doug Lederman has a nice post on the subject at InsideHigherEd.com. From Lederman:

The third and last of Monday’s news developments also comes in the digital textbook arena — but from the free, rather than for-profit, perspective. The Community College Collaborative for Open Educational Resources said the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation had given it $1.5 million in new funds to expand its work, which focuses on increasing the number of free, online textbooks and training community college instructors on how best to use such books. Its main resource, the Community College Open Textbook Project, has dozens of college members and seeks to significantly expand the number of freely available digital textbooks it makes available.

“This grant comes at an opportune time,” said Mike Brandy, chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which leads the online collaborative. “It coincides with the growing interest in open educational resources, such as President Obama’s proposal to invest $500 million over the next decade in developing free high school and college courses. Open textbooks are moving into the mainstream as financially distressed states such as California look to free digital textbooks to reduce the cost of public education.”

By the way, I also read (h/t TechFlash) that the iPhone now has a textbook reader and a small catalog of textbooks from CourseSmart.

7 Profs You Will Find in College!

As I prepare to teach at GMU’s School of Management this fall, I wonder how my students will view me.

From Collegehumor.com (h/t Newmark’sDoor) — The 7 Professors You’ll Have in College. A snippet about the “Went to Woodstock” type:

You’ll know it’s him when you walk into class and say “Good morning, Professor Richmond,” and he shoots back, “Call me Larry.” When discussing pop culture he begins every sentence with “If Hendrix were alive,” and he swears he won’t state his political opinions, but he will say that he was disappointed when you merely voted for Barack Obama and didn’t set your parents’ house on fire as a tribute. He pronounces “Darfur” with an “African” accent and is repulsed by the current lack of student activism. You’re repulsed by the fact that he is bald on top, but still insists on harnessing his last few strands of hair into a ponytail. As far as he is concerned, there is no such thing as an arrow or a gun or a cylinder, they are all penises, and the Grand Canyon is just a massive vagina. Whether or not this symbolism was the author’s original intent is irrelevent; Larry won’t let the opressive views of “fact” take his class captive. If Hendrix were alive, he probably wouldn’t like Larry.

Top Party Schools: Great Opp for Entrepreneurs

Princeton Review announced its top party schools: Penn State comes in at #1 this year with U of Florida as #2. (h/t NewmarksDoor). Partying also means money is being spent (or rather markets for various goods and services exist).

Campus entrepreneurs should review this list and start thinking of what services (ie from bus transport for drunken revelers to cleaning services for trashed houses/apartments/dorm rooms) and products (both legal and ‘black market’) could do well on the ‘winning’ campuses. (Remember we have posted on beer pong entrepreneurs in the past, so don’t think this is a crazy approach)

Higher Ed Competition Heats Up

Showing they are no dummies, leaders of community colleges are pressing hard to begin offering 4 year degrees. They are taking advantage of the recession and the cost sensitivity of consumers in making this move. Moreover, Obama’s recent proposals on higher ed call for $12 billion more for community colleges. From the AP article by David N. Goodman:

Obama announced a $12 billion proposal to increase community college graduates by 5 million by 2020. Community colleges now graduate about 1 million students a year. The president said the nation’s economic future depends on building a skilled work force.

“We will not fill those jobs — or keep those jobs on our shores — without the training offered by community colleges,” Obama said.

So far, community colleges have won the right to offer four-year degrees in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia, the Community College Baccalaureate Association says. Legislative efforts to extend the practice could come soon in Arizona and California, said Beth Hagan, executive director of the Fort Myers, Fla.-based group.

There is no doubt that the leaders of community colleges are acting entrepreneurially in taking advantage of changed market forces. It will be interesting to see how traditional colleges and universities respond. (btw, recent reports suggest that private school matriculation is shrinking during this recession while community college enrollment is booming!).

Gladwell Reviews Anderson’s New Book, Free

While it feels a bit incestuous to me, Malcolm Gladwell reviews Chris Anderson’s new book Free in the New Yorker. The review titled Priced to Sell: Is Free the Future. The book and the review hit on a lot of concepts we discuss here — digital readers, the value of information, and the future of media. As many of you know, my startup — FamilyFantasySports.com — is based in part on the free model as we offer free games to families interested in playing fantasy football together.

From the review:

Anderson is the editor of Wired and the author of the 2006 best-seller “The Long Tail,” and “Free” is essentially an extended elaboration of Stewart Brand’s famous declaration that “information wants to be free.” The digital age, Anderson argues, is exerting an inexorable downward pressure on the prices of all things “made of ideas.” Anderson does not consider this a passing trend. Rather, he seems to think of it as an iron law: “In the digital realm you can try to keep Free at bay with laws and locks, but eventually the force of economic gravity will win.” To musicians who believe that their music is being pirated, Anderson is blunt. They should stop complaining, and capitalize on the added exposure that piracy provides by making money through touring, merchandise sales, and “yes, the sale of some of [their] music to people who still want CDs or prefer to buy their music online.” To the Dallas Morning News, he would say the same thing. Newspapers need to accept that content is never again going to be worth what they want it to be worth, and reinvent their business. “Out of the bloodbath will come a new role for professional journalists,” he predicts, and he goes on:

There may be more of them, not fewer, as the ability to participate in journalism extends beyond the credentialed halls of traditional media. But they may be paid far less, and for many it won’t be a full time job at all. Journalism as a profession will share the stage with journalism as an avocation. Meanwhile, others may use their skills to teach and organize amateurs to do a better job covering their own communities, becoming more editor/coach than writer. If so, leveraging the Free—paying people to get other people to write for non-monetary rewards—may not be the enemy of professional journalists. Instead, it may be their salvation.

Don’t think I will shell out the $26.99 for this book. I also wonder why it is not free? Is that too obvious a question?

UC Berkeley Football Tickets — $225,000 Seat License

As a grad of U of M who buys one off tickets when I go visit, I find it to be insane when I read the UC Berkeley is asking 3,000 of its season ticket holders to purchase $225,000 personal seat license — (H/T Newmark’s Door). From the original USA Today Blog entry:

So no, Berkeley hasn’t exactly been a football factory the last half-century. But that hasn’t hurt the self-esteem at Cal, where the university is asking fans to pay $225,000 — yes, $225,000! — for personal seat licenses.

That’s the per-seat tab being sought from about 3,000 fans who have spots between the 30-yard lines at Memorial Stadium, which is slowly eroding because it sits on a major earthquake fault line.

Across the bay, Stanford ticket director Rich Muschell couldn’t help but take a shot at his school’s archrival. “They’re asking $225,000?” he told the Chronicle. “And they give us crap for being elitists.”

Jack Welch Launches Online MBA – Snooze

The cover of the Wall Street Journal featured a story on Jack Welch and his involvement with a new online business school. Its clear to me that Welch is trying to cash in on one the few areas that have seen successful IPOS over the past few years — he has invested with an entrepreneur who was able to take online Golden Gate University public during the darkest days of the financial crisis. My favorite part of the story is the last line where Welch says, “I think its a real education.” What he doesn’t say is, “I think this is a great investment for me.”"

My gripe here is not that Welch is trying to make money and partnering with successful educational entrepreneurs — its that the media is fascinated with him. I don’t get it? Am I alone? Am I the only one who doesn’t care about his management books and his ability to ‘manage’ quarterly earnings while running GE?

Its one of the reasons I have switched off CNBC and paid more attention to Bloomberg. Between Welch and Buffet, CNBC anchors are always up some old dude’s backside. Bully for writer Paul Glader, but why is this story on the front cover of the WSJ?

From the WSJ cover-story by Paul Glader:

Mr. Welch is paying more than $2 million for a 12% stake in Chancellor University System LLC, which is converting formerly bankrupt Myers University in Cleveland into Chancellor University. It plans to offer most courses online. Chancellor will name its Master of Business Administration program The Jack Welch Institute.

Chancellor’s leading investor is Michael Clifford, an entrepreneur who has launched two publicly traded companies in the past year: Grand Canyon Education Inc., which operates Grand Canyon University, and Bridgepoint Education Inc., which operates Ashford University and University of the Rockies.

Investor groups led by Mr. Clifford bought those three institutions out of troubled situations and converted them to primarily online universities.

Mr. Welch’s name may help add allure to for-profit, online education, which is growing rapidly despite nagging questions about quality.

A couple side notes — I believe Trump has some kind of online university. Also, according to a recent study out of East Carolina University (a bricks and mortar school) drop out rates among online students is dramatically higher than traditional students.

In fact, when it came to online business degrees — 43% dropped out vs. 11% in ‘real world’ programs. The sample is limited, but its worth looking into further. To Mr. Welch and wife: Any thoughts? Are you concerned that your Institute may see lots of drop outs? Or is this a more financial engineering to get an exit with an IPO? You can tell me, this is just a little blog — few people read this.

New Kindle to Target Campus

A few months back, with the release of the Kindle 2, we opined that Amazon was clearly going to bring ‘creative destruction’ to the campus textbook market.

Last week, Jeff Bezos/Amazon introduced the Kindle DX. This larger Kindle (from screen to memory to price) is targeting the campus market. According to a piece by Chris Gaylord in the CS Monitor,

Many hoped that the original Kindle heralded a major shift in the college textbook market, with its hefty prices and heavier tomes. Little has changed in the past couple of years, but Bezos says that the DX has its sights set on campuses.

“We’re going to get students with smaller backpacks, less load,” he says. The company has signed deals with three major textbook publishers, which together represent about two-thirds of the market. Amazon even arranged for five universities to test out the new model. Students at Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, and Reed College will receive trial copies of the DX.

I have yet to really play with a Kindle (my Dad has the first version and my mom just received the Kindle 2 for Mother’s Day from my Dad), but am interested to hear how the trials go at the Universities partnering with Amazon. BTW, are their Apps for Kindles? Apps for students, on Kindles, would seem to be a great market for entrepreneurs.