Giving Compass' Take:

• Patrick Methvin at Postsecondary Success discusses how various initiatives focus on institutional transformation: when experts help colleges build capacity to be able to offer their students the best outcomes. 

• How can donors support institutional transformation? 

• Read about how some colleges are redesigning classrooms for active learning. 

Over the past several months, our team has started using the phrase “institutional transformation” in talking about our partnerships with colleges and universities. That is a lofty-sounding term, and probably leaves many of you asking, “What does that mean? Why are you talking about it now?”

Our take on institutional transformation comes out of nearly a decade of work with diverse institutions through initiatives such as Completion by Design and the Frontier Set. Transformation is basically this: colleges and universities building their capacity to dramatically improve student outcomes and eliminate racial and income gaps.

This includes having a student-centered mission, using data to make decisions, creating a collaborative environment, setting goals and being accountable for them, and making a commitment to continuous improvement.

Like a home remodel, institutional transformation requires agreement on the changes to be made and experts to give advice and help make the changes. When it comes to experts, higher education has a growing base of experts on specific aspects of transformation, like advising, digital learning, strategic finance, or data and research.

But our work suggests that the field needs more organizations that can serve as connectors and guides, linking campuses with experts and with each other and providing guidance on the change process. We call these organizations intermediaries for scale, and after a couple of years of testing this role, we are looking for more groups to fill it.

Read the full article about institutional transformation by Patrick Methvin at Postsecondary Success