Meet Southern Cross University
As one of a select group of globally ranked universities by Times聽Higher Education, Southern Cross University (SCU) offers exceptional聽undergraduate and postgraduate degrees to students in Australia and聽around the world. SCU has long been a pioneer in distance education.
SCU Wanted to Reach More Students
The university had built a reputation of quality education within Australia but knew to continue building on that reputation in the digital era. It needed聽to provide students with the opportunity to get the same quality education聽virtually.
Enter Keypath. In late 2014, Southern Cross University and Keypath created聽SCU Online by forging a partnership with five goals in mind:
聽 聽 聽1. Become a significant provider of online postgraduate programs.
聽 聽 聽2. Grow revenue 鈥 especially outside its traditional footprint.
聽 聽 聽3. Improve the quality of its online provision.
聽 聽 聽4. Expand its presence in the postgraduate space.
聽 聽 聽5. Offer new programs to market at speed and scale.
How 杏吧专区 Enabled SCU Online
Students could enroll in the partnership鈥檚 initial聽offering, a new online MBA program, within just聽five weeks of when SCU and Keypath signed the聽contract. And enroll they did 鈥 the first intake聽reached 207 percent of the original target. That initial聽momentum has continued, as the partnership聽has launched nine successful postgraduate聽programs over the first two years.
Each of these programs has the strength of Keypath鈥檚 proven online program management (OPM) services behind it, better known as KeypathEDGE. For SCU, the partnership means assurance that its venture into online education is backed by market research, executed by an expert OPM team, and managed comprehensively.
Keypath provides the capital investment needed to get online programs off the ground and, utilizing its KeypathEDGE platform, develops data-informed, student-outcome focused programs along with highly targeted go-to-market strategies. Through the KeypathEDGE Development and Design process, Keypath ensures the purposeful design of individual programs that meet the audience needs and skills-gap opportunities initially identified at the start of the partnership. The KeypathEDGE platform also includes an end-to-end marketing and recruitment approach, identifying and recruiting high-quality students for its programs.
These services are all delivered by an Australian-only OPM operations team. This local, personalized delivery model means SCU enjoys the benefits of an in-house team (an open, constructive, and聽solution-focused partnership without the hassle of negotiating聽with various third parties or subcontractors) and avoids the growing pains of building a fledgling online program from the聽ground up. Keypath provides speedy implementation at scale,聽providing flexibility and agility that are unmatched anywhere else in the region.
SCU Online Exceeds Expectations
Today, SCU鈥檚 postgraduate online program portfolio is unmatched聽anywhere in the region. Keypath鈥檚 marketing efforts have聽recruited students from all over Australia, including in-state capitals where聽other institutions have had a long history of online success.
SCU Online has been instrumental in growing the university鈥檚 presence聽across the globe. Altogether, more than 50% of SCU Online students聽鈥 up to 80% for some programs 鈥 attend courses from outside SCU鈥檚聽designated 鈥榝ootprint.鈥櫬
SCU and Keypath have exceeded expectations in the other four main聽drivers outlined by the university at the onset of the partnership: to聽grow revenue, to improve the quality of their online offerings, to expand聽their presence in the postgraduate space, and to bring new programs to聽market at speed and scale.
The partnership has exceeded expectations across the board.
- The university surpassed annual enrollment targets for all聽courses in the first and second year of offering
- Enrollments in the MBA program went from less than聽90 students to about 300 students after the first year of聽Keypath marketing and recruitment management
- The brand-new Master of Healthcare Leadership program not聽only exceeded year one enrollment targets by 340%, but saw聽a 95% pass rate 鈥 the highest of any course at SCU
- The university鈥檚 first-ever engineering offering, an online聽Master of Engineering Management program, enrolled 120聽new students in its first full year
- SCU Online has enrolled students from 31 different聽countries
鈥淭he SCU Keypath relationship had the opportunity to transform our organization by pushing the University more rapidly and deeply into an online capability; by supporting the University to make its learning material more engaging and contemporary and to thus make both the student and staff collaborative learning experience more enriching, more engaging, more meaningful. Our SCU Online venture has driven real innovation and change in the way in which we teach.鈥