The Marketing of P.O.W.E.R. An Innovative Approach to Student Recruitment and Performance Enhancement

Abstract

According to historical data, the national GPA (Grade Point Average) has shown a continuous growth since the 1960’s, at a rate of about 10% to 15%, while the base of SAT does not suggest the same pattern. It indicates that the grading system of universities has contributed to such inflation for whatever reasons. The compromised inflated GPA offers no contribution to urge educators to increase education quality. Business education requires stringent and robust training on critical thinking, oral presentation and written expression. However, these skills can hardly be evaluated by just GPA, particularly the inflated GPA, which may even cause students to have the illusion that their performance is better than what it actually is. Our school has developed an evaluation scale – Progressive Oral and Written Evaluation Ranking (P.O.W.E.R.) used to measure these three important skills required in business professions for both undergraduate and graduate students. The longitudinal data showed that this method has proven to be a great evaluation tool complimentary to GPA. More importantly, the authors believe this measurement can be used to demonstrate our dedication towards business education, and suggests great marketing implications on student recruitment. For marketing events, the scale and results can be used to promote the program, as it shows our effort to perfect the evaluation system, particularly in the three key skills required in the industry. Besides, the historical data suggested the trajectory of students’ improvement on these skills, which indicates a robust training for our MBA students. Further, any other disciplines that require the skills of critical thinking, oral presentation and written expression can adapt this scale for their use as well.