2 min read February 2023 — Joe Fisher, President & CEO of Hallmark University, spoke with Invest: about making higher education more accessible, the education sector’s responsibility to do better by its students and the importance of establishing connections with the industrial industry.
What have been some of the most significant milestones for Hallmark University over the last year?
For Hallmark University, 2022 has been a year of significant transition and growth, both in the physical location of our campus and the success of our students.
As a mission-driven institution, Hallmark University measures our success and that of our graduates in relation to the market’s standards. For example, when we started the nursing program, we expected to produce superior outcomes. Our graduates last year achieved a 98.04% NCLEX exam first-time pass rate, the highest for any bachelor’s program in San Antonio, and No. 6 in the state of Texas, and we are on track to improve on that. Last year, our School of Aviation ranked among the top 10 nationally in terms of number of graduates produced (over 180 FAA authorized), and of the top ten producers, Hallmark University was No. 3 in first-time pass rate on the FAA licensure exam. These are the types of outcomes we think higher education should be judged by. As far as campus growth, we recently moved into our new campus located in Westover Hills, filled with state-of-the-art technology, and teaching tools, including “life-like patient” simulators that allow our students to have hands-on training early in their course work before they get to clinical courses.
What are some of the programs you are looking to grow due to workforce needs?
Our programs are offered based on an assessment of the needs of the workforce, and currently we have four schools: Aeronautics, Business, Information Technology and Nursing. There must be a high demand and a high-paying career for our graduates. Hallmark University includes needed certifications and licenses with our diploma and that saves businesses from having to pay for that in the workplace. For nursing, Hallmark University is adding a licensed vocational nursing (LVN) program as well as cloud computing at the bachelor’s and master’s level. In our aeronautics program, Hallmark University is developing a comprehensive drone program at the bachelor degree level. For the graduate level students, Hallmark University is adding an MBA concentration in Aviation Management so that all programs help our students get high-paying jobs and provide employers with better educated and trained professionals.
What are some partnerships that you have in place with other institutions to ease the path for students from graduation to employment?
Our focus on our graduates obtaining certifications and licenses while earning their degrees, as well as leveraging our partnerships with some of the more elite businesses, is what sets Hallmark University apart from other institutions.
With some other universities and colleges, graduation is the end of the student’s journey. At Hallmark University, we work with the students throughout their degree program and after to introduce them to employers like American Airlines, the various hospitals and top employers to build that relationship.
It is important to separate the academic partnerships from the industry partnerships because industry is our ultimate client as they acquire our graduates. With respect to academic partnerships, Hallmark University typically starts building the relationship at the high school level specifically with the Career Technical Education (CTE) programs where we are working to establish dual credit pathways or potential for associate degrees. Furthermore, due to Hallmark University’s accelerated bachelor’s program that can be finished in only 28 months, we can graduate a student into a sizable salaried job by the time they are just entering their 20s.
As for our industry partners, we work formally with them twice a year within each school, but informally we work with them almost weekly to build the exact team members they want. We invite employers to meet with our students while they are in class to introduce our students to future employers and so that companies can see our programs and students in action. In fact, that’s where our Character Development program and its seven traits came from. Industry has told us for 53 years that these are the characteristics they want. This is what distinguishes Hallmark University because we directly ask the industry their needs and then build them into our curriculum.
What are some initiatives and strategies used to support students and keep them engaged?
At Hallmark University, someone is responsible for student success from the moment they apply until they launch a career. Our students have advisors every step of the way to ensure their success and engagement. Because our programs are year-round, we don’t experience the fallout results that other Universities have when students don’t return after summer.
Hallmark University’s graduation rates are significantly higher than most community colleges and comparable to many public universities. With the pandemic happening there is still a huge trend in higher-ed for hybrid models, but when you are trying to develop practical skills and apprenticeship is part of the education model then hybrid learning does not yield the same level of outcome for the student. That is why we are bringing our students back into the physical classroom. The other thing that we have been able to do is to bring a lot more support services in-house. For example, we have CommuniCare as a partner and they will sponsor and staff a new student health center, hopefully allowing the students and their families to see a physician assistant (PA) five days a week if need be. We also have Endeavors as another partner who will staff our student veterans center to support our veteran students.
How is Hallmark addressing the challenge of access within the higher education system?
Hallmark University is focused on making education accessible and affordable by providing the degrees that are designed to get our graduates the jobs they want and providing business with potential employees that are better skilled and ready for the transition to the workplace.
Recent studies report that 92% of students attend college to get the skills needed to start their career. That is why Hallmark University’s degree programs are accelerated, providing degrees in half the time of other colleges and universities, and in most cases, at half the cost.
Access is essentially an economic issue and not an IQ issue because the students are more than capable, but they just have not been in the right environment. For example, according to a September 2022 San Antonio Business Journal article, the attendance costs at the most expensive university in town is now approaching $65,000 per academic year and our least expensive public universities are $23,000 per academic year. Hallmark University is significantly less at $16,000 per academic year for our bachelor’s as a private university. Additionally, since our students graduate two to three years earlier than they would at a traditional university, they get to work and start earning 80 to 100% return on their entire investment their first year on the job. Often, the longer the academic program is, the lower the graduation rate is. So lastly, Hallmark has an advantage because of the rigorous, year-round schedule that keeps students on task, building skills. Since our students aren’t wasting time on classes they won’t need or can’t get because they’re full, and aren’t spending additional years in expensive student housing, they are graduating at higher rates, with less debt, and better outcomes. Our cohort default rates have been below 2% for each of the last four years of data and our results put us in elite company.
What are your top priorities for Hallmark in the coming year?
Hallmark University is committed to expanding the degree programs to include more entry-level degrees like the LVN program to help combat the nursing shortage and bolster our master’s degree programs to offer more cloud-based programs because that is desperately needed by employers.
We are also committed to maintaining the agility that we have had over the years and continue to refine our model of education. Agility is crucial because pedagogical practices need to engage with the learning capabilities of today’s student and not those from 10 to 15 years ago.
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