LinkedIn and the New Wave of Students

As we prepared for our first annual Graduate and Online Innovation Summit, I had the opportunity to interact with many of the partners that we at RNL work with to advance the success of institutions in the graduate and online space. One of the most interesting was the conversation I had with Andrew Cohen from LinkedIn.

Andrew was preparing a short video for the Innovation Lab at the Summit. His presentation, “LinkedIn and the New Wave of Students,” was so interesting and filled with useful data that I asked him to do a short interview about these new data. Here is a summary of our conversation:

SJ: What is the “new wave” of students?

Andrew Cohen: Prospective students are quickly changing how they want to learn, what their motivations are, and seeing new barriers to furthering their education. We at LinkedIn wanted to help colleges and universities better understand how to best maneuver these changes and interact with this new wave of students. To help understand this new wave, LinkedIn partnered with Ipsos and surveyed 1,000 adults in the U.S., and the findings paint a fascinating picture. This new LinkedIn research and trends can help institutions navigate this wave.

SJ: Tell me more about these new students.

Andrew Cohen: They are motivated, prepared, and perhaps most important to our institutions, they are already in-market. Between January and June 2020, searches by LinkedIn members for “online courses” increased by 92 percent, searches for “online learning” increased by 76 percent, and online topics overall by 57 percent. They are raising their hand and will likely engage with the first institution that meets their needs.

SJ: What are they looking for from institutions?

Andrew Cohen: The findings show a renewed and growing interest for ALL levels of education—from short courses to full master’s programs as well as everything in-between. We also found a growing rift between LinkedIn and non-LinkedIn members; LinkedIn members are 46 percent more likely to consider paid education than free options, and 39 percent more likely to pursue higher education to advance in their current position.

SJ: Do you have any insights into what is driving this new wave towards higher education?

Andrew Cohen: Like nearly every facet of the world right now, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic is driving a lot of this. But what is interesting is that while non-LinkedIn members are almost as likely to be driven by recent unemployment as to advance their current position, LinkedIn members are considerably more likely to be driven by advancing their current position than having recently lost a job. If anything, this new landscape is telling people to be prepared and have the skills needed for the future job they may need. They want to be prepared. It is now your role as educators to demonstrate you are up to the challenge.

Watch the presentation and talk to us about engaging more prospective graduate and online students

Make sure you watch Andrew’s Innovation Lab session for even more insights into how institutions can leverage these data to be prepared to serve this new wave.

And if you want to discuss your graduate and online enrollment strategies, reach out and request a consultation with our experts. Just contact us and we’ll arrange a convenient time to talk.