Spotlight On: Joseph Marbach, President, Georgian Court University

Spotlight On: Joseph Marbach, President, Georgian Court University

2022-09-22T10:24:15-04:00September 21st, 2022|Education, South Jersey, Spotlight On|

3 min read September 2022In an interview with Invest:, Dr. Joseph R. Marbach, president of Georgian Court University, talked about the opportunities and challenges the university faces and also touched on the benefits of partnering with companies like Hackensack Meridian Health to better prepare students with the specific skills employers are looking for.

What are some challenges or opportunities you are anticipating? 

I’ll start with our biggest challenge, which is an enrollment challenge. We still see weak numbers in terms of the number of students attending, and we generally anticipate that’s going to play out over the next four to five years. We’re seeing a slight rebound this year as students become more comfortable returning to school, but we do have a challenge in regard to attracting transfer students: about half of our undergraduate class are transfers, and community colleges have been very hard-hit by the pandemic. As such, we are working hard to attract more transfer students and are making sure that our undergraduates and traditional graduate students are also entering in the numbers that we anticipate. 

Our opportunities are in areas where we are experiencing some growth. Our School of Education is seeing a rebound, as there is a tremendous need for teachers in New Jersey in particular. Only 49% of the slots currently open for teaching positions are being filled, so there are many opportunities for students who want to jump into education. 

Our other large program is our nursing program. Nearly 100% of our nursing students find employment after graduation, thanks in large part to our partner, Hackensack Meridian Health. We see many opportunities opening due to the changing marketplace, largely driven by COVID-19. 

We’re still seeing burnout on the education and nursing side, as those healthcare professionals on the frontlines continue to work under a lot of pressure. The turnover and early retirements in those fields have opened up a lot of job opportunities. The pandemic has also given people a new appreciation for those kinds of careers and inspired students who can envision themselves in those roles. 

Education has been more of a challenge in New Jersey, as the state changed some of its professional requirements for teachers—so we’re trying to get the word out to students. Teaching is a viable career, and many of our graduates this past May received multiple job offers and can effectively name their starting salary.

“Eds and Meds” is going to remain one of the region’s strengths, and it’s one of the areas in which Georgian Court is particularly strong. 

What are the benefits of South Jersey as a location? 

There aren’t many institutions of higher education in South Jersey, so in some ways it’s underserved in the state, presenting us with real opportunities. At Georgian Court, we’re always looking to see if there are new markets that we can expand into or new locations that we can service.

For example, we’ve had an arrangement with Rowan College of South Jersey in which we offer our Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program on the Cumberland campus. 

We also have an arrangement with Brookdale Community College and have used their location to provide their students with degree completion programs, so we’re looking to partner with local community colleges to help students move into four-year degree programs.

There are jobs for students with the right credentials, and we’re very excited to contribute to that as South Jersey has those same needs in terms of an educated workforce. We are also expanding into workforce development, one of the new initiatives that we launched in the past year which is finally gaining traction. We are also offering some credentialing classes that allow people to improve their work skills and find better positions in their companies. 

What are the benefits of partnering with institutions like Hackensack Meridian Health? 

Our relationship with Hackensack Meridian Health has been very beneficial. They helped us develop the nursing curriculum that they needed, which also meets national standards so that they were able to help prepare future nurses. The degree stemming from this curriculum is helping to meet the priorities of Hackensack Meridian, and as a result we are able to work with Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals for our clinical placements. After years of partnering with us, Hackensack Meridian knows just how skilled our nurses are and who they want to hire. It’s been a great relationship for us, Hackensack Meridian, and our students. 

Our partnership model with Hackensack Meridian will be taken to other companies to prepare students for what employers need and integrate those needs into our existing curriculum. 

Are you offering programs in preparation for the new industries entering the market? 

We’re focusing on our strength, which is “Eds and Meds.” We’re looking at how to expand our graduate offerings in the medical and education fields. We’re developing a doctorate in education, and perhaps even a doctorate in healthcare education, so that we can prepare our own faculty to teach in occupational therapy, physical therapy and nursing programs. 

We have a robust psychology program and we’re very proud that we graduated our first Doctors in Psychology (PsyD) class this year in May. These students are going to work in school districts with the highest degree achievable in their field. 

Mental and behavioral health has certainly been another area that we are focusing on, and so we have undergraduate programs, master’s programs and now our one-and-only doctoral program in this area. These programs are so needed, as we see students are dealing with a host of mental health issues. That’s something we’ve been investing in in terms of our infrastructure, but now also in our curriculum. 

Do you think in-person education is still important for students? 

We think it’s still relevant. One of the things that we found during the pandemic is that while students highly rated our virtual educational experience, they really missed the social component. You can only attend so many Zoom events before you start to get a little Zoom fatigued. I think for traditional-aged students, the 18- to 22-year-olds, there is still a desire for that traditional experience in some way. That’s why, as we look at investing in our main campus, we want to create a true student center so that students have a place to gather to interact with one another and congregate informally. 

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