Southeastern Oklahoma State University is a regional public four-year university that began serving students in 1909. Its traditional on-campus programs primarily serve students from two states – Oklahoma and Texas. In 2015, facing declining student enrollments (the second lowest fall enrollment in over 40 years) and an uncertain financial future, Southeastern was required to make many difficult decisions. Instead of retraction, the university’s leadership decided to expand its traditional degree programs into high-quality, affordable online programs and chose Academic Partnerships (AP) to support this new strategic effort.
After 6 months of planning, collaboration, and implementation, Southeastern launched its first Graduate Business online degree programs in 2016 with 130 new students. Today, more than 2000 students are enrolled across 50 AP-supported online degree programs, and the average full program graduate tuition ranges from $8,160 to $12,132. Students are primarily working adults in fields such education, business, safety and finance.
By leveraging AP’s online learning model and robust marketing expertise, Southeastern has been able to expand its rich academic programs to additional qualified students in 44 states. The university’s total enrollments have increased every year since it launched its online programs, and Southeastern recently announced its largest enrollment ever recorded in a fall semester during its 111-year history. The additional resulting revenue has strengthened the university’s financial picture and enabled it to reinvest in staff, technology, and student services.
“We knew we had quality faculty, a strong curriculum, solid accreditations, and the right price point” says Dr. Tim Boatmun, Vice-President for Enrollment Management. “What we didn’t have is the marketing expertise and the knowledge of how to effectively take our programs to scale. Not only did AP help deliver enrollments, they helped us create a structure to effectively serve a growing student population.”