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Academics seem to write exclusively for themselves. Their writing includes selective phrases and other oddities that prevent them from being understood rather than increasing their communication effectiveness.

In short, academics are their own worst enemies.

The problem is that academics often tend to forget who their intended audience is. They use jargon that sets them apart and makes them appear unreachable. Instead of using pretentious words and phrases, they should stop writing and speaking in jargon and start using language everyone understands.

There are plenty of reasons why common language is better than jargon.

Jargon isolates

It’s as accurate in academia as it is in the workplace: jargon creates distance. An unusual word or phrase can get in the way of understanding what the real message is. Unclear communication, whether written or spoken, can make meaning inaccessible.

Jargon can also turn away potential students who don’t understand what their professors are talking about.

Who is your audience?

When academics write and speak for other academics, it makes perfect sense to write in jargon. The jargon of academia is not dissimilar to a mysterious code. It’s the secret handshake between distinguished scholars. Because that code is understood by both the sender and the receiver, it’s perfectly okay to speak and write in jargon that is exclusive to the field of study.

If you are not a part of that selective, group, however, jargon makes the message more difficult to understand.

“Edu-speak” is a disease

Letting edu-speak to take over academic communication is like allowing a disease to spread. You didn’t mean for it to happen, but once it took hold, it permeated everything.

As a result, academics speak in acronyms exclusive to their own fields. Buzzwords, clichés, and empty phrases fill the gaps in thoughts and sentences when precise language can provide more meaning, especially for those outside the ivory tower of academia.

Practical tips to improve writing clarity

Ponderous language bogs down understanding. In his rant about James Fenimore Cooper’s Deerslayer, Mark Twain offered a panoply of advice for improving one’s writing, including:

• Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
• Use the right word, not its second cousin.
• Eschew surplusage.

It would seem that the same advice holds true today for academics seeking to communicate.

Ordinary and more colloquial language has its benefits

According to George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language,” clear writing comes from clear thinking. If academics wrote and spoke less in jargon, perhaps their thinking would come across as more clear. It’s certain they would reach a wider audience.

Nearly two thousand universities and colleges in the United States offer teacher preparation programs.

It’s a good thing there are plenty of options for teacher training because there likely will be a continued teacher shortage – enrollment in teacher preparation programs has dropped 35%.

The areas of math and special education especially need top talent in the classroom, but highly skilled teachers are always welcome in every subject.

With so many choices, where does a future teacher go for the best teacher prep in America?

Texas A& M University

This university in College Station, Texas, offers outstanding teacher training in fields like bilingual education and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).  All teacher candidates learn impressive leadership skills at this school. The elementary education teacher preparation program has consistently been one of the top teacher training programs in the U.S.

University of West Alabama

Achieve your career goals with an online education degree designed for your budget and your schedule at the University of West Alabama. You’ll develop the skills and knowledge needed for advancement inside or outside the classroom, in a convenient online format from one of Alabama’s oldest and most prestigious universities.

Fort Hays State University

Consistently in the top three of secondary education teacher programs, Fort Hays State gives students the hands-on experience they need to be immediately successful their classrooms. Without practical application, theory is useless, so these professors make sure students get plenty of both at Fort Hays State.

The school is making an educational impact. It’s also one of the fastest growing universities in Kansas.

Brown University

One of the top private Ivy League, teacher preparation programs, exists at Brown University in Rhode Island. Faculty members focus on teaching, and as a result, students report being highly satisfied with their degrees. Brown offers multiple pathways in their teacher training program; the flexibility assures that candidates are on the right track for training and certification.

Exceptional teacher candidates may be invited to apply for the Rhode Island Teaching Fellows Program. This fast-track program accelerates instruction to get teacher candidates into the classrooms where they are needed the most.

Also, the value of a degree from Brown University may be hard to pass up. The tuition is considered highly affordable for the quality of instruction and the likely return on investment.

Vanderbilt University

You can also head to Nashville, Tennessee, to enroll at Vanderbilt University. Here, the Peabody College of Education and Humanities requires faculty and teaching assistants to research and practice their instructional skills, and undergraduates students benefit from the heightened focus on everything instruction.

Vanderbilt has been instrumental in identifying the skills of highly successful teachers and aligning them with national learning standards; teachers graduating from this program will likely be some of the best educators in our schools.

Top teacher preparation programs in the U.S. are paving the way for improved teaching and learning. You can be a part of it by choosing one of these schools.

Universities are no different than any other service trying to market itself. Higher education continuously seeks to market their degrees by showing the benefit of earning them with that particular school.

Colleges have found them in a position where they have to develop positive student perceptions in spite of rising costs in obtaining a degree. Students want to earn degrees from schools that offer respected diplomas. These three strategies show how to rate a university’s value proposition.

How well does the school’s marketing funnel work? 

Good marketing strategy is based on using a funnel to attract potential consumers and convert them to clients.

Universities begin by casting a wide net for interested students. These students become applicants, and from there, the school can measure their progress toward creating conversions by the number of applications completed, how many students were accepted, and the number who decided to matriculate. 

Retention rates

Staying in school can be harder than getting accepted, making freshman-to-sophomore retention rate an integral part of a school’s value proposition. It’s critical to find out why students are leaving higher education before their sophomore year.

Freshman who perceive that their freshman courses have little value will likely leave the institution and enroll in a different school or leave higher education altogether.

Return on investment

After spending four to six years earning a bachelor’s degree, students want to know the return on their investment (ROI).  They want to get the best bang for the buck, and with good reason since tuition costs are continuously rising.

One of the most common ways to determine ROI is to compare the cost of tuition against median earning power for university graduates.

More than facts

Creating a value proposition should be about data, and universities generate plenty of big data they can use in analyzing their marketing success. Facts, however, do not always support student and community perception.

Colleges with the best value proposition are also the ones who can best meet their students’ needs. For some enrollees, that means financial aid. For other students, the value proposition may come in the form of personalized learning experiences or bespoke degree plans that will set them apart from other graduates.

Ultimately, students want a degree from a respected university; often the value of that degree is deeply personal.

Attention to building the right value proposition can help universities meet those goals for the degree candidates.

University professors, provosts, and presidents know that higher education faces serious challenges, but those who hold these positions are too far removed from the problem to fix it.

To find how to overcome the dysfunction in higher education, you have to focus on the mid-management position of the dean.

What does a dean do?

The dean lives and works at the hub of higher ed. A dean’s duties include instructional program oversight, faculty and staff supervision, and budget management. They receive complaints, seek supplemental funding, and communicate with stakeholders within and outside the university system.

With so much on their desks, it seems evident that they need support, and this support could help deans fix the dysfunction in higher education.

What is the dysfunction in higher ed? 

When the business of higher education begins to fracture into isolated areas, dysfunction is taking over. The disconnection occurs when instruction, finance, scholarly research and professional collaboration exist in isolation from each other.  The silo approach to higher education is less effective than an integrated approach

Experts recommend reviewing each of the following departmental issues:

• Academic – Maintaining rigorous standards for research and teaching is critical to the success of higher education.
• Cultural – The tendency to do business the way it has always been done can have a negative impact on students and faculty.
• Interpersonal – Academia can attract personalities that clash with each other unless management can step in to mentor and coach faculty.
• Leadership – Effective leaders must be able to manage current situations and plan for future transition.
• External influences – Donors and alumni can influence department decisions.

What works

University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) thought so, too. Upper management developed a leadership program for deans. The idea was to help those at the center of impact develop the skills they needed for success.

The professional development for the deans consisted of timely discussions, training, feedback, and coaching. Committing time to the program was the most difficult challenge, but the deans developed the skills they needed for improved influence and leadership.

University deans were able to integrate their newly learned skills in areas critical to the success of the school.

In summary

Deans can fix the dysfunction in higher education, but to do so, they need continued support from upper management. They also need time to develop the necessary skills and apply them.

What would happen if students could get their money back for college?

Does that seem incredible? Well, some colleges and universities are pioneering policies to do just that.

For generations, students and parents have signed on for what could be the biggest expense of their lifetimes without questioning its worth. No one has argued that a college degree is worth the money.

But now, things are changing. Some students have difficulty finishing their degree on time, leading to additional expenses that they hadn’t expected. Some can’t find a job that pays enough to cover the cost of their student loans. Others may not find a job in their chosen field at all. These trends are leading many to question whether a college degree is worth the money. As with a car or a home, it seems desirable to have some assurance to fall back on in case the item is discovered to be faulty.

Creative Solutions?

To respond to these concerns, colleges have come up with some creative ways to guarantee value for their tuition costs.

For example, SUNY Buffalo’s “Finish in Four” program gives students free tuition until they finish their degree if they do not attain it within four years. Davenport University guarantees extra tuition-free courses for select students who do not find employment within six months of graduation. And Adrian College guarantees assistance in paying off student loans for graduates who earn a salary of $37,000 or less.

Or Just a Marketing Ploy?

Such programs add luster to admissions brochures and are attractive to finance-savvy students and parents. But the reality is that they have to be financed somehow. How much does that really benefit students?

In most cases, such programs have strict eligibility requirements, so that only a few students can qualify to take advantage of them. Students must be willing to take a consistently full course load, receive career counseling, and pursue employment aggressively. Such strict requirements diminish the pool and ensure that the cost of a “money back guarantee” will not get out of hand. Often, schools pass on the additional cost of the program to students in the form of increases in the cost of tuition and/or books.

There’s no denying that the time has come to reconsider the monetary value of a college education and how we can make this asset more valuable. Visionary “money back guarantee” solutions are a step in the right direction, but more work needs to be done.

There’s more to having a discussion about race on your campus than organizing a Professional Learning Community around the reading of Crucial Conversations (Patterson), although a PLC can be a good start. This observation may especially be true, as the book says, “When stakes are high.”

The stakes are at their highest when talking about race. It’s not an easy thing to do. A slight intonation of an innocuous word, a glance, or even the wrong tone can trigger resentment among any of the participants.

Try these suggestions when you need to have difficult conversations about race on your campus.

Acknowledge and validate

You can’t talk about a problem until you recognize that the problem exists.

Acknowledgment means that you are willing to admit difficulty. By saying, “I can see that this is important to you,” you have recognized that another person has an idea to share. You can go a step further and validate that opinion by accepting their viewpoint. You might not agree with it, but you can accept it.

Seek to understand

One of the biggest challenges in addressing racism on campus and having difficult conversations is getting the right people involved in the discussion. Minorities are willing to discuss the problems, but getting the majority to join the conversation can be challenging.

Minority students have been made aware of diversity for so long that they have become more accustomed to talking openly about it. Diversity is not as troublesome for majority race students and faculty; it’s not always at the forefront of their thoughts like it is with other students.

It should be though. Until everyone seeks to understand racism, no critical conversations can take place.

Focus on inclusion and diversity

Engage in a dialogue with persons of a different color or race than you. By asking open-ended questions that allow them to provide insight, you’ll get a better understanding of how you can create inclusion.

Ask about people’s experiences with bias and racism. How have they felt excluded? Was there a time that inclusion removed the barriers to success? What needs to happen now?

Look for commonalities you share

Race makes us different from each other, but only a little bit.

There are plenty of things people of minority and majority races have in common. By looking for these commonalities, we can begin to focus on our real purpose for being on the campus. Sharing common goals and finding ways to collaborate in reaching them makes us all stronger. It is when we come together for the common good that we can focus on what matters most: making humankind greater than before.

A lofty goal like that can only happen if you’re willing to have difficult conversations about race on your campus.