Many people I’ve spoken to have not heard of Elon University in North Carolina or have asked why I am going to Elon University and not Harvard, Yale or Columbia. Elon University regularly comes top of the US National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE – prounounced Nessie – the Americans beat Scotland to using that name for a Survey of Student Engagement!!). In contrast, the University of Edinburgh does not do as well as it would like to in the UK National Student Survey (NSS). Elon University is also very proud to be listed as a top 100 US University, coming second in the USA for Teaching Excellence.
The two institutions couldn’t be more different, Elon is a medium-sized, private university with a broad general first year curriculum in contrast to Edinburgh which is a large-scale and research-intensive university. There will always be an advantage for smaller institutions when it comes to creating a sense of community and belonging for students, but there is still much we can learn from Elon University’s approach.
Elon University’s symbol is the acorn, and indeed from little acorns mighty oaks do grow. Elon University does not have any relationship to Elon Musk as far as I know – a question I have been asked frequently! Rather, Elon is the Hebrew word for oak tree. I recently read George Keller’s book, Transforming a College: the story of a little-known college’s strategic climb to national distinction, which tells the story of how Elon has risen to its current place within the US higher education sector.
“Four decades ago Elon College in north central North Carolina was described to me by one North Carolina scholar as “a small, unattractive, parochial bottom-feeder,” struggling to fill its freshman class and pay its bills. Today Elon University is a beautiful, medium-size university attracting students from forty-eight states, with a new library, student center, science facilities, football stadium, and fitness center. Parents, visitors, and students often come away from the country club-like campus with something approaching awe. College guidebooks now list it among the three hundred finest undergraduate institutions in the land.” (Keller 2014, pxvii)
Hi Cathy
It would be interesting to learn more about how Elon have built their communities
Donna
There’s a really interesting history of Elon University (Keller, G. (2014) Transforming a college: The story of a little-known college’s strategic climb to national distinction. (Updated edition) Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.). After a significant fire in 1923 they worked hard to rebuild and become an outstanding higher education institution. In a nutshell, there seem to have been some key factors to their success: 1) Elon has kept its focus on students and engaged learning, 2) Long-term planning with goals that stretch the university are at the heart of how they work, 3) There have been some exceptional staff in senior positions who have stayed in post for long periods of time, 4) Elon is constantly innovating, 5) A core set of financial principles guide how money is spent, 6) They know their mission is about human transformation, every student, faculty, and staff member matters and interacts with the local and global community, 7) There’s a strong sense of institutional community and commitment to Elon’s goals- and this is the glue that holds everything together, 8) They have invested in a beautiful campus and it is well maintained.
My experiences so far are that everyone has been super-friendly and is excited I’m going to be on campus. Nothing seems to be too much trouble to people. They are much smaller than the University of Edinburgh (approx 7000 students compared to approx 40000), and interestingly I don’t think they do much online education (but they are thinking about doing more). I hope to dig in more deeply to find out other specific elements of how they build the sense of community on campus. I’ll try to report back, Cathy.