By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Higher education is entering a new world.
Missouri Western State University Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Andy Otto, says the demographics don’t look good.
“The biggest thing, if you follow higher education in any fashion, is there’s the thing called the enrollment cliff, where the college-going population is about to drop off," Otto tells KFEQmmunity.
Otto says it simply is a matter of numbers. There aren’t as many 16-to-18 year olds now as in the past.
“That has kind of been this impending, daunting issue that everyone in higher ed has kind of had their eye on for the last few years,” Otto says.
It is a challenge Otto must confront as the new Chief Enrollment Officer at Missouri Western. Otto also serves as Chief Communications Officer after Missouri Western combined the positions of enrollment management and marketing.
Otto began his duties on the St. Joseph campus in April after serving at William Woods University in Fulton since 2022. Prior to that, he worked for nine years at his alma mater, Ottawa University in Kansas.
The pending enrollment cliff creates a challenge for the nation’s colleges and universities. Otto says Missouri Western is up to the challenge, but must fit its educational offerings with the demands of workforce, both for today’s job market and that of tomorrow.
“I think skills are a huge piece to where higher education’s going; the workforce,” according to Otto. “How can we translate that to the workforce? So, when you have programs like we hold out at the Houlne Center that we talk about industrial engineering, manufacturing, cyber security, occupations that are in high demand right now.”
The cost of college has also become an issue, along with the national debate over student debt. Otto says even with the rising cost of a college education, studies show that those with a degree earn more over their lifetime than those with only a high school education.
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