What Presidents Should Be Asking About Online Growth

Few issues occupy the attention of college presidents today more than enrollment. Faced with demographic shifts, increasing competition, and mounting financial pressures, many institutions view online education as the obvious path to growth. Yet one of the most common mistakes leadership teams make is treating online expansion as a technology project or an enrollment initiative rather than a strategic institutional decision.

The question is no longer whether an institution should offer online education. The more important question is whether the institution is building an online enterprise that strengthens or weakens its long-term sustainability.

Too often, discussions begin with operational questions: which programs should we launch, which learning management system should we purchase, and how quickly can we go online? These questions matter, but they overlook the strategic issues that determine long-term success.

Question One: Does Online Growth Support Our Mission?

Growth is not a strategy. Mission-driven institutions exist to educate students in ways that reflect their values, culture, and academic standards. Every online initiative should reinforce, not dilute, that mission.

Online strategy should not begin by asking what competitors are offering. It should begin by identifying where institutional strengths, student needs, market opportunities, and mission intersect.

Before discussing enrollment projections or marketing budgets, leadership should ask: Will this expansion strengthen our institutional identity five years from now? If the answer is uncertain, the institution risks pursuing growth at the expense of purpose.

Question Two: Can Our Current Infrastructure Support Growth and Innovation?

Many institutions underestimate the operational complexity of online education. Launching online programs requires far more than digitizing existing courses. Sustainable delivery depends on coordinated systems for instructional design, faculty support, student services, marketing operations, enrollment operations, data reporting, compliance, and academic governance.

Without that infrastructure, growth often creates new operational challenges faster than institutions can solve them. Infrastructure is rarely visible to students, but it is always visible in institutional outcomes.

Strong infrastructure must also provide room for experimentation. Online education continues to evolve, and institutions need the flexibility to test new program structures, delivery models, academic calendars, course formats, and partnerships without requiring extensive policy or systems changes each time. Processes designed primarily for traditional programs can unintentionally become barriers to innovation. Presidents should ask not only whether their institution's infrastructure can support growth, but whether it is flexible enough to support responsible experimentation and adaptation.

Question Three: Are We Measuring the Right Financial Metrics?

Enrollment numbers alone do not determine success. A program that attracts students but fails to generate positive contribution margins can weaken institutional finances despite appearing successful on paper.

Leadership teams should understand cost per student acquisition, cost to deliver instruction, retention rates, course-level profitability, and contribution margin by program. These measures provide a much clearer picture of financial sustainability than enrollment totals alone.

Question Four: Who Owns Online Strategy?

One of the most common barriers to successful online growth is organizational fragmentation. Presidents often discover that enrollment, academics, information technology, marketing, finance, and student services are pursuing independent priorities rather than a unified strategy.

Successful institutions establish clear executive ownership and decision-making processes while ensuring collaboration across every major operational area. Online education is not owned by one department. It is an institutional strategy.

Question Five: Are We Building Institutional Capability?

Over time, investments in the online enterprise should increase institutional capacity. The institution should become better at identifying opportunities, developing programs, and deciding when to expand, revise, or discontinue programs. The goal should never be permanent dependence on outside vendors. Successful partnerships transfer knowledge, strengthen internal teams, and leave institutions better equipped to manage future growth independently. That philosophy creates resilience rather than reliance.

Leadership Begins with Better Questions

The colleges that thrive over the next decade will not necessarily be those with the largest online portfolios. They will be the institutions whose leadership teams consistently ask better questions before making major investments.

Online education is ultimately about institutional stewardship. The ultimate question for presidents is, what institutional capabilities must we build today so that we can continue to serve students, adapt to change, and sustain our mission for the next ten years. Presidents who approach growth through the lens of mission, governance, infrastructure, and financial sustainability are far more likely to build programs that endure.