More relevant than ever: time to focus on Education portfolio management

Vocational and higher education are under pressure. Demographic decline, falling enrollment, budget cuts from The Hague, and a changing society and labor market. This is forcing institutions to further develop their program portfolios to continue offering affordable and relevant education to their regions. This requires a clear understanding of where your programs stand and how they relate to developments in their environment and the institution’s mission. And so, it’s time to get to work: the program portfolios of vocational (MBO), higher professional education (HBO), and university institutions will require major overhauls in the coming years to continue serving as the engine of society and the economy in a sustainable manner. Maintaining a program portfolio is a strategic process, driven by insights that enable well-founded, comprehensive decisions about launching, Continuous Development, and phasing out programs. To assist with this, Turner is introducing a new product: Profolio. Profolio is a tool that provides a comprehensive view of the performance and relevance of an institution’s program portfolio and offers actionable insights for sustainable development. This creates an objective starting point for a constructive, results-oriented portfolio dialogue. Tjalle Hoekstra and Jasper Engelbert share their experiences with portfolio management within educational institutions and explain the concept.

Now more than ever, institutions need to get to work on their Portfolios

Vocational education (MBO) and higher professional education (HBO) face a number of interesting challenges. Most of the country is experiencing a decline in student enrollment. Under the current funding system, this puts even greater pressure on the affordability of relatively small programs. High dropout rates and a large number of students taking longer than expected to graduate also create financial challenges. Recent budget cuts are adding to these challenges. In addition, the labor market is changing as a result of various transitions. There are several causes for this: technological developments and climate issues, but an aging population also influences the competencies and skills required in the labor market. New professions are emerging, and the demand for workers in certain sectors is growing, while it is declining in others.

Lifelong Development (LLO) is one of the responses to this trend: keeping working professionals up to date and providing them with training, continuing education, and reskilling. But those entering the workforce in the coming years will also need different skills than they do now or than they did five years ago. These challenges are, of course, not new; educational programs and institutions have been working since time immemorial to improve quality, implement Continuous Development of curricula, and enhance the efficiency of processes.

However, the coming period also calls for a different approach, as current circumstances appear to be a “perfect storm.” For our institution to weather this “storm,” we must also take a more strategic look at our Portfolio of academic programs. Consider which programs should be launched, redesigned and subject to Continuous Development, restructured, merged, exchanged with colleagues, or reconsidered and phased out. We call the systematic approach to this “portfolio management.” But where do you start, and how do you set it up?

Organic growth and ad hoc decision-making

“Actually, we need to take a step back to answer that question,” says Tjalle Hoekstra, a consultant at Turner. Hoekstra and his colleague Jasper Engelbert, who have both been helping educational institutions set up portfolio management systems for years, are regularly asked by these institutions to provide advice on these types of issues. “Educational institutions have often grown organically,” says Tjalle. “Which programs are offered is often a matter of tradition, resulting from numerous mergers or, in the past, influenced by the region where the institution was located. And experience shows that in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of programs, program formats, and cross-disciplinary offerings. That was possible, too, during times of relative financial flexibility.”

The result of this past relative stability is that many institutions have not developed a proper process or decision-making framework for evaluating the various degree programs that are offered or launched, Tjalle continues. “When significant changes were implemented, or a new program was added—for example, in engineering or Healthcare—there was usually an expert in the field who took the lead. That worked fine, because without exception, these are passionate, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic people. But there has rarely been a sustainable and strategic process in place. Many institutions are reactive. Moreover, they often depend on these enthusiastic individuals. Periodic, comprehensive evaluation is actually rarely on the agenda.”

Time to Go Professional

Many institutions are beginning to realize that professionalizing portfolio management is necessary. This is a prerequisite for looking ahead and being able to quickly anticipate changes, both internal and external. It allows you to continuously monitor how your entire Portfolio and the how different programs within that field are performing, and how the needs of (future) students and the job market are changing. Such a This process not only helps educational institutions identify the need for new programs, but also assess existing ones and plan for the future. “Institutions without sustainable portfolio management often react too ad hoc,” says Jasper. “They only take action when students stop enrolling or the program is already operating at a loss. Or they only spring into action when that aforementioned enthusiastic maverick comes up with an idea for a new program. However, that’s a risky strategy. Institutions should take responsibility for looking beyond the immediate future, because by relying solely on the individuals you already have on staff, you don’t know what you don’t know.”

With sustainable, periodic portfolio management, you can anticipate developments sooner. Jasper: “If you set that up properly, you can already start shaping to

“what the region will need in ten years. And there’s a good reason for that: it takes a few years for a degree program to be fully developed and for its first students to enroll, and then it takes another 5 or 6 years before they are making a meaningful impact in the job market.”

A close look at labor market trends and the demographics of the market in and around a specific region also helps educational institutions make decisions about adjusting existing programs and structuring Lifelong Learning. “We no longer need to make a case for Lifelong Learning; in the Netherlands, we’ve now recognized that it’s important,” says Tjalle. “That does mean, however, that we must constantly monitor where labor market shortages are likely to arise, where the volume of work is actually declining, and what knowledge and skills people want and need to develop for the labor market—especially in light of the transitions we are part of and helping to shape.”