Modern Campus

The higher education journey has followed a very predictable arc of apply, enroll, graduate.

Everything, from campus programs to technology systems, was built following that same model. But today’s learners rarely follow a linear path. They pause, pivot and reskill as industries shift and careers evolve. Along the way, they expect their institutions to meet them with the same level of personalization they experience elsewhere in their lives.

That’s where Modern Campus has positioned itself as a partner suited to guide colleges and universities through change, reimagining the entire learner journey. Its suite of solutions touches everything from the first exploratory website visit to alumni returning for upskilling decades later.

Meghan Hakey, Senior Vice President of Marketing, says, “Our vision is anchored in the idea that education should not be confined to a single degree or a four-year period but should extend across an individual’s lifetime.”

Meeting Institutions at a Moment of Challenge

Colleges and universities today are navigating what many describe as the “enrollment cliff.” With fewer high school graduates entering the pipeline, competition for students has intensified.

Our solutions translate into measurable improvements in recruitment, retention, efficiency, and revenue.

Many institutions are also confronting the aftershocks of the pandemic, when online learning became normalized overnight. The expectation now is that education must be accessible anywhere, at any time, and in multiple formats.

For administrators, the challenge is twofold. They must attract new students in a crowded market while also creating meaningful pathways for adults seeking continuing education, reskilling, or short-term credentials. The old tools, such as static websites, cumbersome application processes and paper-based curriculum planning, no longer suffice.

Modern Campus has stepped into this gap. Its platform allows institutions to present themselves with the polish and personalization of a digital-first organization while also streamlining the back-end processes that make learning delivery possible.

The result is a holistic approach centered around three pillars—attracting, engaging, and retaining learners.

These ideas serve as a thread that connects the company’s wide-ranging solutions. The CMS helps institutions attract students with dynamic, personalized websites that make a strong first impression. Tools for catalogs, scheduling, and co-curricular involvement engage students by making their academic and campus lives easier to navigate.

And communication features, combined with ongoing opportunities for lifelong learning, help institutions retain learners, whether that means keeping them enrolled semester to semester or welcoming them back years later to reskill and pursue new credentials.

Ecosystem Built for the Learner Journey

It’s a tall order, but Modern Campus responds with an ecosystem that ties together recruitment, academic operations, student engagement, and lifelong learning in a single, coherent journey.

And, that starts from the first point of contact: the institutional website.

With its content management system (CMS), Modern Campus enables colleges to create dynamic, user-friendly sites that invite exploration. Personalization features allow institutions to tailor content to visitors. If a prospective student has previously explored business programs, the next visit can highlight business-related opportunities.

From there, the journey flows naturally into the registrar’s domain. Modern Campus offers digital catalog and curriculum management tools that replace outdated paper or PDF processes. Students can browse programs, understand degree requirements, and plan schedules with clarity.

On the administrative side, tasks that once took weeks can be completed in a fraction of the time, freeing staff to focus on strategy rather than repetitive data entry.

Engagement does not stop at academics. Modern Campus also supports the co-curricular side of campus life. Its student involvement tools help learners connect with clubs, organizations, and activities that enrich their education. Institutions can track participation and assess whether certain student populations are being served effectively.

Communication is another pillar. With text messaging solutions, colleges can nudge students to complete critical steps such as financial aid applications or course registration. For students at risk of dropping out, these timely messages can make the difference between dropping out and returning.

Finally, the ecosystem extends into lifelong learning. Modern Campus empowers institutions to deliver continuing education, workforce development, and micro-credential programs with the ease of modern e-commerce. Learners can browse offerings, add them to a shopping cart, and pay online. This convenience mirrors consumer platforms, meeting the expectations of today’s adult learners who demand flexibility and speed.

In bringing these pieces together, Modern Campus enables colleges and universities to turn everyday student touchpoints into a strategic response to enrollment, engagement, and retention.

Real Impact on Real Campuses

The effectiveness of Modern Campus solutions is evident in the results institutions are seeing. At Ferris State University, the shift to the Modern Campus CMS was transformative. What began as a fairly basic institutional website grew into a dynamic recruitment tool once personalization features were activated.

Returning visitors no longer encountered a generic landing page; instead, the site recognized them and responded in kind. A student who had previously explored business programs might find the homepage surfacing business-related content on the next visit. Prospective in-state students would see information tailored to their residency status, while out-of-state visitors were guided to resources more relevant to their situation.

Even a simple adjustment, like greeting a student with “Welcome back,” contributed to stronger engagement. But when combined with deeper layers of personalization, such as highlighting relevant programs or adjusting messaging for regional context, the effect was striking. The university recorded a 3,000 percent increase in website conversions, with prospective students engaging more frequently and meaningfully.

Student engagement data tells a similarly compelling story. At one campus, retention rates soared to 95 percent among students who participated in ten or more co-curricular activities. By tracking and promoting involvement, Modern Campus tools helped the institution cultivate a culture of connection that directly translated into persistence and success.

Financial outcomes are equally striking. Through improved communication with stop-out students, some campuses have recaptured over a million dollars in tuition revenue that would otherwise have been lost. Meanwhile, the company’s Lifelong Learning Solutions processed $1.6 billion in micro-credentialing revenue for institutions in a single year.

A Culture of Partnership and Support

These kinds of results are not accidental. They grow out of the way Modern Campus works with institutions, approaching each relationship as a partnership rather than a software deployment.

What powers this method is the diversity of its team. On one side are industry veterans who have spent 20 or 30 years in education technology, people who know the rhythms of the sector and have watched its tools evolve from early digital catalogs to today’s cloud ecosystems. On the other are former higher education professionals—student affairs staff, instructional designers, registrars—who bring firsthand knowledge of campus life and the frustrations that come with outdated systems.

That blend creates a rare balance of perspective. The veterans understand the long arc of EdTech and the pitfalls to avoid, while the practitioners can say with conviction, “I’ve been in your shoes, and I know how painful this process used to be.”

The result is a team that designs software with technical sophistication and empathy for the administrators, faculty, and students who will use it every day.

Lifelong Learning and the Future of Credentials

That same spirit of adaptation also shapes how Modern Campus approaches the looming enrolment cliff.

One of the most transformative aspects of Modern Campus’s vision is its focus on lifelong learning. Education is no longer confined to the years between 18 and 22. Adults are returning for short-term programs, certificates, and micro-credentials that fit into busy lives and changing job markets.

The platform allows learners to register for these programs much like shopping online. Instead of lengthy admissions processes, they can select a course, pay, and receive confirmation instantly. This convenience lowers barriers and encourages continuous learning while giving institutions new revenue streams at a time when traditional enrollments face pressure.

By supporting this model, Modern Campus helps colleges and universities extend relevance far beyond degree programs. Institutions become partners for life, serving learners as they reskill, upskill, and navigate career transitions.

Embracing Innovation While Preserving Trust

AI is another area where Modern Campus is making deliberate moves. Internally, the company has embraced AI with speed and creativity, weaving it into processes to improve efficiency, support planning, and unlock new ways of working. Staff experiment with tools, share best practices, and some have even become in-house experts shaping daily use.

For colleges and universities, however, the approach is more measured. Modern Campus engages directly with clients to identify where AI adds value and where it might raise concerns. Security and trust are central. By moving quickly inside operations while proceeding carefully with customer-facing tools, the company balances innovation with dependability.

It is also investing in solution interconnectivity. For example, institutions now embed catalogs created within the platform directly into their websites, ensuring updates appear in real time without additional IT requests. This seamless integration shows how the ecosystem grows more cohesive and powerful over time.

Trust, Expertise, and Shared Commitment

As higher education evolves, Modern Campus is positioned to shape its future. The vision is not about short-term fixes but about building sustainable pathways that serve learners throughout their lives. By aligning technology with institutional goals and student needs, Modern Campus offers a roadmap for colleges and universities to thrive.

Its story is ultimately one of transformation: helping institutions move from outdated processes and declining enrolments to digital-first ecosystems that attract, engage, and retain learners. It is about extending education’s impact beyond graduation, making learning a lifelong pursuit, and fostering partnerships built on trust, expertise, and shared commitment to success.

“We are a catalyst for change, helping higher education embrace the future with confidence,” says Hakey.