Why do I have to APPLY to College and University anyways?

As I continue to ponder the question “Are students in the driver seat of their education”. Let’s look at the process of student admissions-apply. Why do I have to apply to a post secondary institution anyways? This process has fundamentally been the same since the beginning of time. When I first started working for the Ontario College’s Application Services (OCAS /OntarioColleges.ca), most the applications (over 85%) were paper form and the primary inputs to an admissions decision were student demographics, high school grades and a restricted number of program choices with most of the programs full-time and they started in the fall. Student would select their programs from a paper catalogue. Essentially the application centres were primarily a centralized data entry service.
Today this process is significantly digital, but still has the same fundamental process design and really doesn’t leverage the full potential of a digital world for efficiency and service improvements. I have always question whether admissions processes have truly taken advantage of digital opportunity and is it really student centric? Many years ago, I was involved in a multi-year project called “Legacy Redesign”, in the end it’s scope turned into a technology renewal project and resulted in the same fundamental processes. The system was not ready to look at a new paradigm and there would have been much lower cost options to do a technology renewal project.  I always wonder if this project was executed the way a few of us envisioned, what might have been.  
If we look a little closer at the two Ontario Application Centre’s (ontariocollege.ca and Ontario University Application Centre OUAC) process attributes:

• Apply by application cycle (driven by institutional academic years) which results in multiple applications and extra fees i.e. application centric vs. student centric
• Restrictions on the number of choices and/or pay for additional choices at OUAC only
• Application fees very high for a digital process (in Ontario probably 3x or more actual cost). Past research has Ontario Application centres reported to be the most expensive in the world. Fees never decreased with digitalization improvements with the surpluses being redirected to other purposes. Both Ontario Application Centre’s are not-for-profit, but are they really?
• Response to Application for admission depends on system dates like equal consideration at Ontario Colleges
• Delay in response to decision this can be as long 6 months or more in Ontario. With other process options, I could start my program with days of my application
• Online offer acceptance but limited by legacy business rules e.g. can only accept one offer based on assumption cannot start more than one program in an academic cycle
• Colleges and Universities difference centres and processes in Ontario. In other province’s its one centre for both College and University
• Support Ontario accessibility requirements
• Offer decisions generally limited to academic record validation and/or test score results
• Limited transfer credit for other post-secondary work or competency skills obtained
• Primary support for full-time programming and different process part-time, apprenticeship, private sector providers etc.
• Digital, mobile options and one stop pending programs and institutional types
• Limited integration with related processes such testing centre, funding applications, out of province student records e.g. many time students cannot make an offer acceptance decision because they are waiting for funding decisions like OSAP
• Generally restricted to must apply via application centres, but when you are only interested in one provider you cannot apply direct in most cases and pay no or lower fees
• Limited data shared with prospective students for an informed decision
• Credential validation services limited to applications for admission only (not able to use services for professional accreditation, employment or out of province applications)
• Generally limited to full-time admissions with some part-time (continuing education, most apprenticeship, international is direct to the institution)
• Support services generally restricted to 8:30-5pm EST example Online chat, phone even though most applicants apply in evening hours
• Government runs other services like Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) that have an apply function already and should be integrated when you think about the decision to accept offer and need to know how I am going to finance my education first
• Limited pathway planning services e.g. program mapping to career pathway tools, assessment tools e.g. what skills give me the highest probability to into a specific career and what programs and schools best support getting these skills?

So, are prospective students in the driver seat of their admissions request to post secondary education? As there has been some improvements over the years, I don’t think this is the case and there is a huge opportunity for a new paradigm.
There are many ways the admission process could change to be more student centric. Here are just a few thoughts:
1.      One application centre in Ontario or even Canada for that matter. When consider duplication, standards, high cost to students, increase collaborative programming in the country and most institutions with diverse geographical located campuses including international locations.

• Ontario is the only province in Canada with different centre for Colleges and Universities e.g. https://www.applyalberta.ca/
• Past research has rated the Ontario Application Centre’s the most expensive in the world
• One stop to research choices, apply, accept and even registrar in future for all education services
• Improved consistent and integrated data for all users
• Reduce duplication in integrations with institutions, government and other related services such as apply for scholarships, funding
• Most important reduce cost to students and institution
• Increase integration for other types of programming like part-time, apprenticeship, collaborative etc.
• Enable improve services like real-time contact centre that operate beyond the restricted hours 8:30-5pm EST when most applicant’s active during the evening hours
• Open the service to other accredited institutions in the private sector and even internationally.

2.      No fees or reduced fees to reflect the value-add provided to students e.g. Approximately 40% of students apply to only one college in Ontario, but pay the same fee as students who apply to 3 colleges
Every year in students surveys they ask the following:

• Why are application fees so high?
• Why can’t I apply direct to college or university as I am only applying to one institution?
• Why is it so expensive when I do all the work online?
• Over the years as the process of Applying to College has become digitized the cost of the services has reduced, but not the fees and at the university centre they have increased. Both centre’s have significant surpluses well over 50% and most of this surplus is transferred into other services, back to institutions or other organizations like Colleges Ontario. If you look at Ontario University Application Centre (OUAC) Web Site (https://www.ouac.on.ca/about/about-fees/ ) they are very open about the amount transferred to Universities. At Ontario Colleges Application Service (OCAS) (https://www.ocas.ca/who-we-are/about-us ) they are not as open on the facts of where the fee’s go. In fact, they don’t say much about what type of corporation they are, financial break-down. The 2015 financial report only summarized how much was spent on projects (https://www.ocas.ca/who-we-are/annual-report note: annual reports are behind current fiscal 2018 so 2016 and 2017 should be available)
• It is unlikely that an Ontario College would rejected a student from applying or registering at their institution if they refused to apply using the centralized service for an application to an under prescribed programs.

3.      Increase access to data to prospective student for informed decision making

• One of the advantages of centralized processing is the comparable data collected. Unfortunately, governing data sharing policies prohibit Students access to this data, even though they are directly paying for it.
• The data would be of great value to students in making an informed decision on programs and institutions. I recall a comment a parent made to me years ago saying it was criminal they did not have placement data for a specific program their child spent 3 years in and later learned the program placement success rate, they would not have spent the time or money on the specific program they enrolled in
• There is some data shared via some agencies but generally limited and not timely.

4.      Increase use of digital portfolios and reduce the duplication and cost of sharing your official transcripts with those who need them

• With the increase access digital technology has also increase risk of fraudulent documents like transcripts
• Traditional paper transcripts are less reliable due to low cost and easy access to technology to forge documents
• Timeliness with paper documents has always been a problem e.g. in Ontario this was about 30 days or more. When OCAS experimented with real-time digital transcript services this was reduced to seconds
• Timelines and digital format enable direct integration into digital decision processes like admission, transfer credit etc.
• The process can be used for many other needs such as employer credential validation services etc.

5.      Flip the process i.e. have students post their education objectives/needs, share their portfolio with prospective providers. This would be like an electronic tender process used by organizations get responses to RFP’s.

• A process like this would truly be student centric and open-up many options to prospective students
• Likely no cost to students
• Could be integrated with professional portfolio services like LinkedIn to enable potential providers access to data they need to consider offers
• Student can invite who ever they want to make offers to address their needs including international providers, private & public sector
• Students in control of access to information and consent agreements with potential bidders.

I am sure there are many other options out there and I encourage students to speak up and drive change. As competition increases for prospective students, the student will eventually move into the driver seat. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions.