Whenever one imagines the executive recruiter, the image is of someone specializing in people very close to the world of business and commerce. The image of higher academe is of a grassy never-land, far away from common concerns. Neither describes the reality, which is such that these institutions often are best advised to make use of Higher Education Executive Search Firms.
Academe's carefully cultivated image as a dream world is deeply stamped in the public conscious. This image, common to student orientation speeches across the country, suggests a world unrelated to everyday considerations. Students supposedly imbibe the artifacts of culture for no purpose other than their own edification and the continuation of that culture.
Meanwhile college is a big business, with endowments running in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Public higher education is a pretty significant percentage of any state's budget. Above all, the interest in attending college and gaining a degree is almost entirely commercial. Even poets want the MFA degree from a top program, and they want it for entirely careerist reasons.
Students' expenses are so extreme that students are best seen as as a schools' customers, however vulgar it would be to admit this openly. There is a hallowed image of purity, but at the end of the day, administrators must take a cold eye to it and see it as what it is, an industry marketing strategy. The student body is increasingly aware of, and nervous about, the mountain of debt it is incurring each credit-hour, and the student attending for pure refinement of sensibility is fast becoming an anachronism.
There are customers and then there are customers. Colleges and universities must scramble over each other for money from big business and the Government, especially the military. They also need to scramble for wealthy alumni and the big foundations they manage, particularly in funding the humanities. Academe has big name stars just like any other monied endeavor, and these big names are instrumental when it comes to seducing donors.
One must remember that college includes the potentially astronomically lucrative world of college sports, an area that frequently forms the core of the institution's identity. Superstar coaches and top facilities do not come cheap. The rewards are a brand name that binds students not just while on campus but afterward, when they are well-paid alumni.
Search firms come in two flavors, contingency and retainer. The former works to fill one position as it appears, and will frequently belabor personnel officers with phone calls "selling" some potential candidate without foreknowledge of any need whatsoever. These agencies can be fine for smaller schools, those who don't hire superstar academic talent very often.
Retainer firms are the better choice force both for very large, usually public universities with nearly ongoing top-level hiring needs, and elite colleges where their infrequent hiring must be among the best. Such firms establish deeper, exclusive relations with the schools, learning what they like and don't like. This makes life much easier for the overwhelmed personnel officers or department heads.
Academe's carefully cultivated image as a dream world is deeply stamped in the public conscious. This image, common to student orientation speeches across the country, suggests a world unrelated to everyday considerations. Students supposedly imbibe the artifacts of culture for no purpose other than their own edification and the continuation of that culture.
Meanwhile college is a big business, with endowments running in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Public higher education is a pretty significant percentage of any state's budget. Above all, the interest in attending college and gaining a degree is almost entirely commercial. Even poets want the MFA degree from a top program, and they want it for entirely careerist reasons.
Students' expenses are so extreme that students are best seen as as a schools' customers, however vulgar it would be to admit this openly. There is a hallowed image of purity, but at the end of the day, administrators must take a cold eye to it and see it as what it is, an industry marketing strategy. The student body is increasingly aware of, and nervous about, the mountain of debt it is incurring each credit-hour, and the student attending for pure refinement of sensibility is fast becoming an anachronism.
There are customers and then there are customers. Colleges and universities must scramble over each other for money from big business and the Government, especially the military. They also need to scramble for wealthy alumni and the big foundations they manage, particularly in funding the humanities. Academe has big name stars just like any other monied endeavor, and these big names are instrumental when it comes to seducing donors.
One must remember that college includes the potentially astronomically lucrative world of college sports, an area that frequently forms the core of the institution's identity. Superstar coaches and top facilities do not come cheap. The rewards are a brand name that binds students not just while on campus but afterward, when they are well-paid alumni.
Search firms come in two flavors, contingency and retainer. The former works to fill one position as it appears, and will frequently belabor personnel officers with phone calls "selling" some potential candidate without foreknowledge of any need whatsoever. These agencies can be fine for smaller schools, those who don't hire superstar academic talent very often.
Retainer firms are the better choice force both for very large, usually public universities with nearly ongoing top-level hiring needs, and elite colleges where their infrequent hiring must be among the best. Such firms establish deeper, exclusive relations with the schools, learning what they like and don't like. This makes life much easier for the overwhelmed personnel officers or department heads.
About the Author:
You can now get all the essential information about higher education executive search firms instantly via the Web! If you have any questions or need advice, check out our recommended homepage at http://www.ed-exec.com right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment