The Danger of Negative Reputation (Higher Ed)

In 2020, I wrote a piece on The Dangers of Negative Reputation.

It’s been a source of a lot of conversation between me and both peers and potential clients. And, for me, the points I raised four years resonate even more deeply today.

That’s why it came as quite a shock when I recently heard someone comment: “We’re in higher ed. That corporate branding stuff doesn’t apply to us.” Just to be clear: there’s a distinct difference between branding and reputation; that’s a topic for another post. But that “reputation stuff,” that does indeed apply to higher education. 

It’s true that individual campuses have challenges; however, the entire higher education industry has a reputation problem. More than half of New Englanders say that college wasn’t worth the cost and 67 percent of businesses nationally say higher education doesn’t prepare students for the workforce. Combine that with rising costs and nearly a year’s worth of coverage of campus protests, and you start to see a real perfect storm.

So, without further ado, here are the Dangers of Negative Reputation, Higher Education Edition.

LOSS OF REVENUE

According to Sallie Mae, 1 in 4 American students are at risk of not finishing college. That, in part, is due to financial concerns. If colleges and universities suffer from a reputation of not providing return on investment to students, then their propensity to unenroll when finances get tight increases. That lost tuition revenue only increases the likelihood of further price hikes, perpetuating the cycle.  

LOSS OF ACCESS TO DONOR FUNDS

Increasingly, donors – and big dollar donors, in particular – are choosing to walk back their support of colleges and universities facing crisis. For example, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin recently announced that he would no longer support Harvard University (Griffin had previously given more than $500M to the school). While some may see this as elite donors seeking to have oversized influence, the fact remains that crisis situations are leading to a loss in donor funds.

LOSS OF ACCESS TO TALENT

Recruiting and retaining top talent also becomes more difficult as organizational reputation declines. According to Glassdoor.com, "Sixty-nine percent of job seekers would not take a job with a company with a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed." Even if this stat isn’t completely aligned with the job market for academic, universities still depend on the work of hundreds and even tens of thousands of non-academic staff to operate.

LITIGATION

Trust is a key driver in deciding to attend or support an institution. A lack of trust among prospective families, donors, or other stakeholders will cause suspicion around an institution’s actions, regardless of how well-intentioned or well-designed they might be. That suspicion can often lead to litigation. It’s no wonder the colleges and universities have seen a string of high-profile lawsuits in recent years. Moreover, the internet is flooded with blog posts and forum questions asking something along the lines of “Can I sue a university or online college for false promises?? 

INCREASED REGULATION 

Consider this: Fifty-five percent of undergraduate students receive federal financial aid, Congress earmarks $1.3 billion for colleges and universities, and federal funding for research tops $54 billion. So, regardless of whether your institution is public or private, the government has substantial interest in higher education. This flex of oversight ability was made clear in the recent string of hearing called by North Carolina’s Rep. Virginia Foxx, hearings that led to the eventual resignations of university presidents.

Warren Buffett famously said that "It takes years to build up a reputation while it takes minutes to destroy it." The chipping away at higher education’s reputation has been ongoing and growing for years – that does not come without cost.

Colleges and universities will be best positioned against the decline in higher education reputation only if they are able to manage their own reputations in a way that transcends the industry. That requires strategic creativity and an “always on” approach to media relations, recruiting, and donor relations.