Research for Universities, EdTech Vendors, and Education Investors

SIS interviews provosts, enrollment VPs, academic CIOs, corporate L&D directors, and student services administrators about how they evaluate, procure, and deploy education products and programs. Research covers student recruitment, LMS and EdTech platform selection, online program feasibility, and campus expansion planning.

SIS launched a dedicated EdTech consulting practice to serve this market. Research spans K-12, higher education, corporate training, and continuing professional development across 135 countries.

Education Market Research and EdTech Strategy

Student Enrollment and Recruitment Research

SIS interviews prospective students, parents, high school counselors, and enrollment officers to map the decision journey from initial awareness through deposit. Research covers information sources (campus visits, rankings, social media, peer recommendations), financial aid price sensitivity, program comparison criteria, and the specific points where applicants abandon the funnel. Findings identify which recruitment channels convert and which consume budget without yield.

EdTech Platform Evaluation and Usability

SIS interviews CIOs, instructional designers, and faculty about how they evaluate and select LMS platforms (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L), proctoring tools, adaptive learning software, and student information systems. Usability testing with students and faculty at our NYC facility and online measures task completion, navigation errors, and satisfaction. Research also covers deployment ROI: whether the technology improved learning outcomes, reduced administrative burden, or increased retention as promised.

Institutional Benchmarking and Competitive Analysis

SIS benchmarks universities and education companies against named competitors on tuition pricing, online program offerings, faculty-to-student ratios, post-graduation employment rates, and alumni giving. Sources include IPEDS data, accreditation reports (AACSB, HLC, SACSCOC, MSCHE), and public financial disclosures. Expert interviews with administrators at peer institutions add context that published data cannot provide.

Corporate Training and L&D Market Research

SIS interviews corporate L&D directors, HR VPs, and procurement officers about how they select training providers, measure upskilling ROI, and evaluate micro-credentialing and certification programs. Research covers vendor evaluation criteria, budget allocation patterns, build-versus-buy decisions for internal academies, and the shift from in-person to hybrid and asynchronous delivery. Recent work has covered compliance training procurement in financial services and technical upskilling programs in manufacturing.

Due Diligence for Education Investments

SIS supports private equity firms, strategic acquirers, and venture investors evaluating education and EdTech targets. Commercial due diligence includes market sizing, competitive positioning, customer retention analysis, and regulatory risk assessment. SIS interviews the target’s customers, channel partners, and competitors to validate management claims. Regulatory research covers Title IV compliance, state authorization requirements, accreditation status, and FERPA data handling obligations.

International Campus and Online Program Feasibility

SIS conducts feasibility studies for universities and education companies expanding into new geographies. Research covers local demand assessment (through student and employer interviews), regulatory and accreditation requirements by country, competitive landscape mapping, and partnership structure evaluation (branch campus, franchise, online delivery, articulation agreements). Recent feasibility work has covered higher education expansion into the Gulf states, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

SIS International – Education Market Research

ENGAGEMENT 01 // ENROLLMENT

STUDENT RECRUITMENT AND PRICING RESEARCH

Interview Prospective Students to Find Out Where the Funnel Breaks

SIS interviews prospective students, parents, high school counselors, and enrollment officers to map the decision journey from initial awareness through deposit. Research covers information source effectiveness (campus visits, rankings, social media, peer recommendations), financial aid price sensitivity using Van Westendorp methodology, program comparison criteria, and the specific steps where applicants abandon the process. For a mid-size university, SIS identified that the primary yield gap was not tuition pricing but a three-week delay between admission and financial aid notification that competitors had reduced to five days.

ENGAGEMENT 02 // EDTECH

PLATFORM EVALUATION AND USABILITY TESTING

Test LMS and EdTech Products with Faculty and Students Before You Buy

SIS interviews CIOs, instructional designers, and faculty about how they evaluate LMS platforms (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L), proctoring tools, adaptive learning software, and student information systems. Usability testing with students and faculty at our NYC facility and online measures task completion, navigation errors, and satisfaction by user role. Research also assesses deployment ROI: whether the technology improved completion rates, reduced administrative burden, or increased retention as the vendor’s sales team claimed during procurement.

ENGAGEMENT 03 // EXPANSION

FEASIBILITY AND DUE DILIGENCE

Validate Market Entry and Investment Decisions with Local Data

SIS conducts feasibility studies for universities expanding into new geographies and due diligence for investors evaluating education targets. Feasibility research covers local demand (through student and employer interviews), regulatory and accreditation requirements by country, competitive landscape mapping, and partnership structure evaluation (branch campus, franchise, online delivery, articulation agreements). Due diligence includes market sizing, customer retention analysis, and regulatory risk assessment covering Title IV compliance, state authorization, accreditation status (AACSB, HLC, SACSCOC), and FERPA data handling obligations.

WHAT YOU RECEIVE

Education Research from Primary Sources

SIS does not repackage IPEDS data into a PowerPoint. Every finding comes from structured interviews with the students, faculty, administrators, and employers who participate in the education decisions the client is trying to understand.

Enrollment Funnel Diagnostic with Yield-Gap Analysis

Findings from prospective student and counselor interviews mapped to each stage of the enrollment journey. The report identifies the specific steps where applicants drop out, the competing institutions they chose instead, and the decision factors (financial aid timing, program reputation, campus visit experience, online application usability) that determined the outcome. Enrollment teams use this to prioritize interventions by the yield gap each stage represents.

EdTech Platform Assessment with Usability Data

Structured evaluations of LMS and EdTech platforms tested with actual students and faculty. Findings cover task completion rates by user role, navigation failure points, feature adoption gaps, and satisfaction drivers. The report compares the vendor’s sales claims against measured user performance. CIOs and instructional technology directors use this before signing or renewing platform contracts.

International Feasibility Study with Regulatory Mapping

Country-specific demand assessment built from student and employer interviews, competitive landscape analysis of existing institutions and online programs, and a regulatory roadmap covering accreditation requirements, licensing, and government approval timelines. Partnership structure recommendations (branch campus, franchise, articulation, online-only) are assessed for each target market. Recent feasibility work has covered expansion into the Gulf states, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

Commercial Due Diligence for Education Investments

Market sizing, competitive positioning, and customer retention analysis for PE firms and strategic acquirers evaluating education and EdTech targets. SIS interviews the target’s students, institutional customers, and competitors to validate management claims. Regulatory research covers Title IV eligibility, state authorization status, regional accreditation (HLC, SACSCOC, MSCHE), programmatic accreditation (AACSB, ABET, CCNE), and FERPA compliance. The output is a diligence report that investment committees can use alongside financial models.

THE SIS DIFFERENCE

Nossas ofertas de serviços incluem:

Research for Universities, EdTech Vendors, and Education Investors

Six Areas of Education Intelligence