Global campus continues to meet needs of students across America


Through continued expansion of its online programs and focusing on student needs throughout the country, Central Michigan University's Global Campus brought $23.8 million in net revenue to the university last year.

In 2014, Global Campus generated overall revenue of $62.9 million and delivered $23.8 million in net revenue to the university.

Global Campus delivers online programs at 40 locations across the United States and Canada, and online where CMU is licensed to deliver online programs.These are a combination of physical centers staffed by CMU employees and locations where CMU offers a cohort at a partner site.

"Everything the campus prides itself on, we do at every center, at our home office and online," said Carol Bale director of Marketing for Global Campus.

The top three undergraduate programs students enrolled in 2014 were the major in administration and organizational administration with 636 students, psychology with 420 and integrated leadership studies with 243 students.

Once students are admitted to Global Campus, Bale a team of program administrators, new student services call center representatives and advisers are charged with helping students through the enrollment process.

"Life changes happen," Bale said. "A lot of students started out on campus, but maybe their mom or dad lost their job and that campus student can no longer afford to live on campus. We don't want to lose students just because they are no longer able to live on campus. If they're moved to online, CMU still wins."

Global Campus aims to be relevant to both traditional college students, as well as working adults both military and civilian, with attractive programs, flexible schedules, condensed terms, online and face-to-face program options.

Several Global Campus staff are located on military bases throughout the country.

"Periodically, branches of the military do an educational needs assessment of their installation," Bale said. "When the base identifies a need, universities can respond to that need through a request for proposal process (RFP)."

After the installations have reviewed the RFP’s and made their evaluations, the military branch tries to maintain one provider for each educational program.

Global Campus offers its Master of Science in Administration degree at all bases plus civilian centers and online. In 2014, the MSA program saw 3,820 enrollments across all audiences.

“The MSA degree offers the broadest range of concentrations," Bale said. "It has the most appeal because of its range of concentrations. The program is portable. If it isn't at the base a military student is transferred to, the student can finish the degree online."

A master's degree often is required for military personnel to be promoted to an officer rank, Bale said.

Top concentrations for the MSA degree in 2014 were human resource administration with 900 enrollments, general administration with 813 and leadership with 713 enrollments. CMU also offers its MBA, DHA, MPA and a number of education focused Master’s degree programs via Global Campus.

To grow awareness for Global Campus and its programs, Global staff network with alumni to encourage promoting CMU programs to their colleagues and assist in speaking with current students about the benefits of a CMU degree.

In addition, alumni can contribute to or establish scholarships to assist Global Campus students.

"With over 70,000 Global alumni out there, we’d like them to be ambassadors for CMU and the programs delivered through Global," Bale said. "If alumni can also assist in contributing to our scholarships, then that’s great too.”

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