Yardley Research Group - Higher Education Consultants

The Yardley Research Group is a consulting practice focused on increasing the competitiveness of our college and university clients. Among our higher education consultants, we have collectively more than 200 years of experience working in and around higher education. For this reason, clients can be sure that we will create solutions that respect the cultures of their universities and that are compatible with best practice in the field. The Yardley Group brings a wealth of comparative experiences to bear on its clients’ particular problems and issues. Our practice began in the area of developing student recruitment strategies. Since then, we have expanded our practice to include work related to research competitiveness, the creation and structuring of interdisciplinary graduate programs, the measurement of faculty instructional productivity, infrastructure planning, feasibility analysis, and institutional change. In short, the principals and staff of the Yardley Research Group have developed a capacity to solve strategic problems related to research universities in particular and to institutions seeking improvement or change in stature in general.

Our principals and staff work on five or six major client projects at any one time. Our work differs from client to client, and no two projects have ever looked the same. Our current and recent projects include:

Preparing doctoral programs for the National Research Council study

Re-engineering a graduate admission process, including work flows, organizational structure, staff development planning, systems specification, and space planning

Working with faculty to develop competitive new doctoral programs in areas previously recommended by us as marketable and feasible, including Computational Science, Child and Family Studies, Educational Leadership, and Math Education

Facilitating university-wide planning for retention, focusing on advising systems and student satisfaction

Institutional planning for new master's programs, including long-term market viability of current programs and identifying potential new professional master's programs

Developing a strategic plan for doctoral education, including long-term hiring plans, capacity studies, and external funding strategies