Re-Learning Education: A Profile of Our Chief Higher Education Consultant, Dr. Michael Clifford

The Huffington Post profiles Michael Clifford, Chairman of SignificantSystems.org.

He never went to college. But there's no arguing he knows a bit about education. And Michael Clifford - Chairman of SignificantFederation - has found himself comfortably sitting in the middle of the conversation about what is best for the future of higher education. The debate, however, has often been considerably less than collegial.

Change can make the old school uncomfortable.

There is money in education, even for non-profit institutions. But for-profit and online universities have begun to proliferate across the American landscape, and the Internet. They prompt questions that challenge traditional thinking about public institutions like state universities, community colleges, and even private colleges. Higher education consultants and analysts often suggest that profit margins, essential to please shareholders, will force a cost cutting that affects quality but increases revenue. Almost everyone, however, acknowledges the old models are no longer adequate to meet educational demands.

But higher education management consultant, Dr. Michael Clifford, is optimistic about a transition that he is helping to facilitate.

"The future of higher education in America is very positive," Clifford said. "Because there is a generation currently under 35 years old that understands innovation, especially in technology, with a true passion of reaching the world with high quality academic opportunities."

Michael K. Clifford's expertise as a higher education consultant is on his resume, and the NYSE for public scrutiny. He was instrumental in the creation of Grand Canyon University (GCU), the Jack Welch Management Institute, Ken Blanchard College of Business, Forbes Business School, and the predecessor company that became Bridgepoint Education.

From a business standpoint, whatever Clifford is doing, ultimately, appears to work. Wall Street investors made the IPO for GCU (just four years after his investment group recreated it) the most successful of 2008, and the school became the first regionally accredited university in American history to convert from non-profit to for-profit.

"I help create the higher education marketing strategy, but the CEO's and their management teams make it happen," said Clifford. "I have had many more failures than successes. It is OK to fail with integrity, but one must keep moving forward."

Bridgepoint also went public a year later and has given investors a 60 percent return with a market cap of $900 million. Marketing materials claim a $10,000 investment at that time is now worth more than $1,000,000. GCU, which is just one of Clifford's visions of for profit institutions, has 10,000 students living on the 110 acre campus in Phoenix and a total of 50,000 are enrolled online. Clifford is unique as an investor because he originally owned one hundred percent of the start-up companies that experienced back-to-back major Wall Street IPOs. A man of deep and abiding faith, Clifford believes his achievements and his losses are provided for by his God.

And he has known mostly success.

For-profit and online education, however, are consistently under attack for costs and quality of education, and the inevitable question is whether a profit motive detracts from educational standards.

"Every industry has bad apples," Clifford said. "There are people in the for-profit industry that I personally would put in jail for deceiving students. But it is not American to apply regulations just for for-profit schools when many non-profit institutions have equal or more severe misconduct."

The federal government provides billions annually to non-profit public universities and the private for-profit institutions, overwhelmingly in the form of student loans. (The debt, once acquired, cannot be discharged by bankruptcy and has been characterized often as predatory lending by Washington.)

Open enrollment means that the moment a student signs up for Grand Canyon University or any institution they are eligible to apply for Pell Grants and other government assistance. According to critics, those grants and loans and the profit motive are more important than the quality of education delivered online or on campus at a for profit university.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who studied for-profits, issued a report condemning their business and the value of the education offered.

"You will find overwhelming documentation of exorbitant tuition, aggressive recruiting practices, abysmal student outcomes, taxpayer dollars spent on higher education marketing strategies and pocketed as profit, and regulatory evasion and manipulation," said the Iowa Democrat, who is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "These practices are not the exception; they are the norm. They are systemic throughout the industry, with very few individual exceptions."

Harkin's 2012 report claimed the majority of students leave without a degree and that half of them drop out within four months. The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) called the study the "result of a flawed process that has unfairly targeted private-sector schools and their students."

Although Clifford has never created a school with the vocational status of those represented by APSCU, his higher education consulting company, SignificantFederation, has helped develop profitable education institutions around combining the notion of quality online learning with a traditional campus environment. His family has also donated millions to non-profit educational institutions.

As more students get turned away from competitive non-profit and public universities, and community colleges reach their capacity, Clifford believes the private sector can deliver a valuable education at a competitive price. If enrollment and economic impacts are accurate metrics, his argument is convincing.

"Every school I have been involved in has lower tuition than any school in their respective state," Clifford points out regarding Harkin's reports.

Clifford's higher education marketing research and consulting endeavors include:

•    10,000 new jobs created in the last eight years,

•    500 million in real estate construction during a down economy,

•    Resources and compensation for faculty unlike any other traditional universities,

•    Hundreds of thousands of students completing their degrees,

•    Tens of millions of dollars of scholarship money for under-privileged students to graduate, and

•    Increasing thought leadership to improve the student experience.

In America, he is convinced the next big shift in the entire higher education model will be with community colleges.

"As economies explode in Asia, India, and places like Brazil, you simply can't meet demand with the traditional four year university," he said. "Partnerships are being formed where you can design your own degree. There are already six million people doing online college now and it will be fifteen million in the next five years. How many people can afford the costs of four-year degree any more?"

Clifford's success as a higher education consultant makes a compelling argument that traditional educational models are not meeting demand or quickly adapting to new technologies for learning. He is beginning to concentrate a part of his business on managing technological services for higher education because students are accessing most of their education from various wireless devices.

The vision Clifford has for education involves online universities with tens of millions of global citizens learning incrementally how to provide better lives for themselves and their families via mobile devices.

"We will see soon in our lifetimes," he said, "Mega Universities leveraging platforms like the billion dollar investment of Apple with iBooks and iTunes U globally. That's where online education really gets exciting."

The current manifestations of for-profit universities may be struggling against a reputation developed by earlier versions of technical schools that offered culinary, automotive, and various vocational training programs. They continue to flourish in an economy where jobs are increasingly difficult to find. However, marketing efforts often leave potential students believing they will become million dollar a year chefs or CTOs of Fortune 500 companies, and that is statistically unlikely.

There is no doubt, however, technology is increasing access to education, and that is driving demand. The new challenge is to sustain standards along with profit margins.

Which is a lesson American innovators have long taught the world.

Source: The Huffington Post

Contact Significant Systems

To learn more about Dr. Michael Clifford and Significant Systems, check out our website. If you have any interest in pursuing our new model of education for your institution, don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

Remember, our goal is simple:

•    Provide Broader Access

•    Lower Tuition and Fees

•    Leave your Institution with Less Debt and More Graduates

•    Facilitate Education with a Purpose

Looking forward to our possible conversation!

Dr. Michael K. Clifford

Chairman

760.801.5021(My personal cell)

mkc@mclifford.com

Open Letter to College Presidents and Trustees

This blog is about an open letter for the college president and trustees. The main information this letter is providing are building a successful blended environment, overcoming post recession pressures, education model and catering to born digital generation

Here at Significant Systems higher education marketing firm, we believe there will be millions of new jobs available for American workers by 2018. Many of these jobs just simply cannot be outsourced to another country. We believe there will be a new approach to education including closer transfer relationships between Four Year, Regionally Accredited Institutions and Community Colleges, most of which will be enabled by Private/Public Partnerships.

Building a Successful “Blended Environment”

With the rapid and unending expansion of the Internet and its role in facilitating communication, interaction and learning, the new model for Community Colleges nationwide will allow students to participate on the physical campus once or twice a week minimum for the benefit of human interaction with faculty, but with the great majority of the work done anywhere, anytime via a convenient, robust online delivery system. Some higher education consultants call this a "blended environment."

Our higher education marketing firm projects that Four Year, Regionally Accredited Institutions will revise past policies to allow for more dynamic transfer of credits from Community Colleges. This emerging new model - flexible campus-based model with online programs - benefits both Community Colleges as well as Four Year Institutions.

We realize that more students will be working adults who have "life happens” experiences with jobs, family, and other responsibilities, making online higher education increasingly compelling. Still, demand for classrooms has never been greater and will only increase. This makes marketing strategies for higher education establishments fairly tricky…

Overcoming Post-Recession Pressures

Supported by the 2013 National Survey of Access and Financial Issues report authored by the Education Policy Center, in November 2013, SignificantSystems.org is offering select Four Year schools and Community Colleges a unique combination of experienced online expertise combined with funding for more classroom and dormitory facilities.

The report clearly states, "The worst of the budget cuts for all public education sectors may be over, but recovery to pre-recession levels is a long way off in many states."

All of this is compounded by intense competition for state funding with falling donations. Even as recessionary pressures are subsiding in many states, the competition for scarce state dollars and donations will be intense in the years ahead. Many institutions are dramatically revising their infrastructure costs to offer much lower tuition, putting direct pressure on enrollments for higher priced institutions.

“Innovation at all levels of an institution is critical to survival,” say Significant System’s business management consultants.

While tuition is rising in all sectors of education, the current model is not sustainable. Therefore, pulling together a SignificantSystems.org public/private partnership to help provide a solution to sustain the institution’s mission is a time whose idea has come!

A major goal of our higher educational consultant initiative is to be a part of stabilizing tuition increases by taking a more long-term approach to leveraging Internet technology, providing more jobs for faculty through increased enrollment, and utilizing financial markets for favorable real estate restoration.

A recent survey of the National Association of State and Budget Officers reported: "Deferring maintenance is a common strategy to meet short term state budget revenue shortfalls." The same is true regarding private institutions.

The report continues: "Facilities are a major challenge in our nation's largest states." This survey again documents the failure of the "high-tuition/high-aid "model to fund access."

Our Education Model

Nonprofit higher education consulting firm, SignificantSystems.org, offers a new education model for all colleges and universities to explore. We offer:

•    Expertise and funding for robust online operations, thereby providing jobs for faculty and access for students at the lowest possible tuition.

•    Financing for the restoration of new classroom facilities.

•    Funding for new buildings on innovative-shared revenue models.

Catering to the “Born Digital” Generation

Here at our higher education marketing firm, we believe in the merger of technology and ground-based campuses in order to provide more access and better outcomes for each college freshman, who will begin this journey.

These freshman, born in 1995, are the first "born digital" generation (see the chart dramatizing the development of technology since 1995 at the top of this page). Everything they do is in the “Cloud.” We must offer them, over the next 20 years, increasingly enhanced opportunities to learn via the merger of technology and terrific classroom experiences.

Our model is quite simple, conceptually:

•    Our agreement provides an outsourcing management of select online/campus operations (other than teaching the student and processing Title IV on behalf of the college). All of the funding is provided by our firm (at risk) in exchange for a tuition revenue share.

•    As part of this agreement, we provide real estate funding for new campus buildings to increase access to classroom space and/or dorms while offering the online solution. We have access to hundreds of millions of dollars to dramatically remake an institution’s physical footprint.

•    The online component allows the institution to hire more faculty members, while providing broader access to those students being denied a education today. Advertising online degrees increases campus-based classroom enrollment.

•    Flexibility is the key to the approach of our higher education consulting firm as we desire to build a tailored Academic/Financial Strategy to help provide solutions to sustain your mission.

Contact Significant Systems

Thank you so much for taking time to review this introduction. Please visit our website for more information and take the time to let us know what you think! If you have any interest in pursuing our new model of education for your institution, don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

Remember, our goal is simple:

•    Provide Broader Access

•    Lower Tuition and Fees

•    Leave your Institution with Less Debt and More Graduates

•    Facilitate Education with a Purpose

Looking forward to our possible conversation!

Dr. Michael K. Clifford

Chairman

760.801.5021(My personal cell)

mkc@mclifford.com

Significant Systems Dares To Ask “What If?”

This article explains how Significant Systems is changing the landscape of higher education on an exponential level.

The Internet has disrupted business as usual across every industry on an exponential level. Linear academic coordinators are asking questions like: “How do we compete with the Internet? How can we advertise louder so that prospects will put down their iPhones and hear our ad? How do we convince students that the traditional college setting is just as valuable as it always was?”

However, at Significant Systems higher education consulting firm, we ask a different question…

We ask: “What If?”

We want to know what would happen if professors who are passionate about teaching had more time to spend one-on-one with students instead of dealing with the daily hassles of administrative paperwork. Would this be a win-win situation for students and professors alike?

We have pondered whether students could actually enjoy the learning process so much that they become raving fans of their professors. Imagine how the world would change if college students came to class eager to learn every single day instead of feeling like they are doing a chore in exchange for a piece of paper (a degree).

Online banking has become ubiquitous. Doing your banking online just makes sense because it takes a fraction of the time that actually visiting the bank takes, the process is more streamlined (no waiting in line), and you aren’t stuck trying to organize a bunch of paper receipts. What if creating a college course could be that efficient? As a higher education consulting firm, we aren’t afraid to ask this question and to find a way to answer it.

Some academic coordinators claim that technology is confusing and frustrating; that they would rather deal with a human being face-to-face. But, what if technology could be used in a way that actually improves student and faculty satisfaction, outcomes, persistence, and assessments? We think it can.

Any experienced higher education consulting firm knows that every individual student has different “readiness levels” when it comes to particular coursework and subject matters. Asynchronous learning (learning at different rates) is ubiquitous. The mathematics prodigy may have difficulty with her sociology coursework. The pre-med major may abhor physics class. What if courses adapted to students’ individual readiness levels?

The BIG question that we also ask is how the Internet can dramatically lower tuition, attract the right kind of students, AND offer an education that is superior to the traditional, high-priced college setting?

As a forward-thinking higher education consulting firm, we think students should be able to learn anywhere, anytime. Research shows that sitting at a desk in a classroom while listening to a lecture is one of the least effective ways to learn and recall new information. Students should be able to connect with their coursework, professors, academic coordinators and classmates in the same way they are able to connect with Facebook – on their phones, ipads, laptops, smartwatches, and any other new mobile devices that enter the mass marketplace.

Stay connected with us to learn how we’re changing the face of higher education and how you can be a part of this exciting opportunity. Be prepared to disrupt the old, failing educational system and build something that is exponential in scale.

Higher Education Consultants Ask: “Does Your College Have an Online Degree Program Yet?”

Higher education has been changing rapidly over the past two decades because of the Internet. This article explains what your college institution needs to do in order to survive – and thrive –in the age of the Internet.

I have been learning so much about the future by traveling around the country and meeting with University and College Presidents. Since the beginning of online education two decades ago, the landscape of higher education has changed more than any other education industry. It’s moving so rapidly that few people actually realize what is truly going on. Our minds evolved to think in a linear fashion, but now that we have exponential technologies, the world no longer changes in a linear way.

Enrollments in traditional college education are beginning to decline for the first time in history, report higher education consultants and many are asking “why?” Billions of dollars have been spent on higher education marketing firms to advertise the benefits of online education, and this has created an entirely new marketing environment. Digital college education is on the rise. Students are now going to college on their mobile devices in lieu of spending 4+ years of their life living in a dorm room setting while incurring massive student loan debt. Education is getting cheaper and it’s going mobile.

Brick-and-mortar educational settings, as well as online educational institutions, are getting increasingly competitive. Those who fail to evolve and innovate rapidly will inevitably go out of business, warn higher education consultants. While in the past, this change happened slowly in education, today’s changes are occurring rapidly.

It’s more important now than ever to carve out a niche of your own in order to attract exactly the right type of student for your programs. Instead of attracting a handful of students for 200+ different majors and minors, you may only want to attract students who want to, for example, become graphic designers.

“If you don’t choose a niche and you try to be everything to everybody, your institution will be nothing to no one,” say higher education marketing firms.

Did you know that by 2020, the number of Internet users will be double what it is today? In addition, nearly every individual in the world will have access to a smartphone. A new social media site crops up nearly every day, and each year a handful of those become the next big thing in social media. It’s the new reality that we are all facing.

How does this affect higher education? Well, students who were born between 1982 and 2002 are what many call “digital natives.” Those students have been using a computer their entire lives. Therefore, they expect a college education to take place in a digital environment. After all, this is also how they interact with their friends and family. The old ways employed by higher education marketing firms (newspapers, television, billboards) are not reaching these digital natives. Most of them have never subscribed to a local newspaper and few would even pay twenty-five cents to get one. Why? Their twitter feed already tells them everything that is happening in the world that they would ever want to know.

While the Millennials have always been comfortable with digital technologies, in today’s world most Baby Boomers are also comfortable with using Facebook, Pinterest, and Google. They, too, are interested in online educational settings that focus on their individual interests. Those reaching retirement age may be interested in taking an online college class in photography, creative writing, or painting in order to have a part-time form of income during retirement, say higher education consultants.

The message from higher education marketing firms is loud and clear to college and university Presidents and Dean: if you want to keep up enrollment and remain contemporary, you’ve got to expand your services to the vast online consumer base.