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Nathan Greeno and I got to know each other through his leadership role at 2U. Earlier this year, Nathan left 2U after a decade to become EVP of growth and strategic partnerships at Core Education. Knowing nothing about Core Education, I asked if Nathan would answer my questions about his new role and company.
Q: Tell us about Core Education. Where does the company fit into the university consulting ecosystem?
A: Core Education is a public benefit corporation with a maniacal focus on actually transforming the business model of higher education, especially with the small to midmarket institutions. Conceptually, we are designed much like a strategic consulting partner for presidents and boards, with underlying functional lines of business that provide a robust set of services to get the work done. This approach makes us quite unique and positions Core as a long-term, mission-critical operating partner for key areas of the academy.
We do this by leveraging our economies of scale and nationally sourced talent. We assist our partners [in achieving] operational effectiveness, technology efficiency, market expansion and successful capital strategies to evoke significant, sustainable and positive change.
Core has three primary business segments: Digital solutions, which covers everything from managed services, digital strategy, enterprise systems support, stabilization and modernization; financial solutions, which covers various capital strategies, MAP work, cost optimization and delivery margins, board governance and real estate strategies; finally, revenue and academic solutions, which spans both on campus and online with services including revenue diversification, marketing, yield management, artificial intelligence integration, B2B corporate partnerships, workforce development, academic governance support and student success.
To date, we’ve engaged 59 institutions across the United States and we’ve only just begun. The reason for this quick adoption of Core is based on three things: speed, holism and outcomes. Speed: Institutions select Core as their business transformation partner with an immediate strategic need and Core responds at pace. Holism: Institutions select Core often after many failed attempts with multiple vendors and struggling or failed internal capacity. Core responds holistically, recognizing that multifaceted institutions require an integrated and comprehensive set of tools and support to drive business transformation across the academy. Outcomes: Institutions select Core to drive broad strategic change that creates quality outcomes for both themselves and the learners that they serve.
Q: How does your new role relate to the work you have been doing over the past 10 years in university/company partnerships for online education programs?
A: Well, I’d start with a more appropriate 35-year span, Josh. I cut my teeth in higher education at small, private faith-based institutions, first as an off-campus center director meeting the needs of working adults back when the way to extend access was a distributed campus model with andragogical teaching methodologies. By the mid-late 1990s, I formed a firm that licensed that model and curriculum to small and midmarket institutions, which, of course, evolved in the early 2000s with online versions solving the same challenge but with a much more efficient deployment. We worked with 150 different engagements across the United States. That was long before I came to 2U/edX, but is very much a part of my story as to why I’m now here at Core.
Central to my personal mission is a story about bridging the gap and creating access for learners to quality education. My decade at 2U developing university and corporate partnerships across four continents gave me the chance to fulfill that drive for access and impact. There is no question that the great learnings I had at 2U now serve me well as I seek to transform both small and midmarket institutions. My role here is about growth, yes, but also about long-term strategic partnerships that are sustainable. I believe that education is one of the greatest vehicles to transform lives, lift economies and impact communities for the better. However, the institutions themselves need a new way of thinking and operating, which will bring them first into stability and then prepare them for growth.
Q: Tuition-dependent colleges, particularly those located in the heart of the demographic cliff areas of the Northeast and Midwest, seem to be in for a challenging future. Some postsecondary system observers argue that up to 40 percent of colleges are at risk of closure or merger in the years to come. What do you make of this prediction and what can colleges and universities do to put themselves on a more resilient financial foundation?
A: Oh yes, this is a key and vital group of schools that serve their communities and beyond. We cannot just stand by and watch those closures happen. In many locations, their very existence is the heart of the community and surrounding businesses. Much is at stake here. But I believe many have been addressing the current challenges in a piecemeal fashion and some not at all. This will not work. It may create some efficiencies that work like a four-lane highway for the college or university, which then ultimately runs into a one-lane dirt road. In the end, they are further set back than when they started.
These schools, along with the midmarket tier, which think they are fine for now, need a brand-new operating model. One that fundamentally addresses their operating model deficits across the spectrum of technology, academic delivery and financial resilience. But to get there, most will require external help. And not just any help, but an operating partner. Core does that.
We often begin with the board and president. A series of strategic planning sessions, deep analysis and the creation of a new, tangible and actionable operating plan, which outlines specific measures to address the underlying challenges they face. From that point, the institution selects the direction it wants to go and Core can serve as the agent of change across our practice areas. And I don’t just mean consult. I mean do. We have the talent and expertise to come alongside, even embed and get the hard work done.
I believe in this market segment within higher education. It has a vital purpose but needs a new way of thinking and operating to withstand the volatility in which we all find ourselves today. That’s why I’m here.
