Top Five Criteria For Driving A Strategic Enrollment Management Plan

By Patti Franz, VP of Student Engagement & Enrollment Services

Here’s a fact none of us can ignore any longer: Enrollment is challenging. Indeed, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions have legitimate concerns that when it comes to their enrollment projections, the situation is even more dire than they had anticipated. The notion that enrollment is not just challenged but imperiled strikes many as both realistic and reasonable. Among higher education institutions, there is less certainty than ever before that students can be brought to their doors — actual or virtual. None of these fears is unfounded — 16 percent fewer freshmen enrolled this fall as compared to last year — but there are still ways to develop a strategic online enrollment plan that gets results.

Notably, institutions that were primarily online before the pandemic are making gains with both undergraduate and graduate students. At colleges where more than 90 percent of students took courses solely online pre-pandemic, undergraduate and graduate enrollments grew by 6.8 and 7.2 percent, respectively. It’s clear that the pandemic has not stopped students from seeking higher education, but it has revealed which institutions are capable of rising to the challenges in every arena, from instruction to enrollment. And crucially, the pandemic has demonstrated that online offerings present tremendous potential for enrollment growth on an ongoing basis, as these options give organizations the opportunity to reach students beyond their own campus borders.

Looking at newfound successes in this tumultuous period and evaluating some longstanding best practices, we’ve identified five critical areas that drive the success of a strategic online enrollment plan, each with challenges, solutions, and notes on how to take action.

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Update Your Technological Infrastructure

It will come as a surprise to absolutely no one that technological infrastructure, while significant in recent years, has become tantamount to success or failure in the pandemic landscape. COVID-19 has advanced already high expectations around digital capabilities and communication. Without effective, technology-enabled communication between institutions and potential online students, there is little hope for successful enrollment. Ultimately, advanced technology is the catalyst for the operational enhancements that lead to enrollment growth. The first step to success is gaining a realistic understanding of your institution’s infrastructure, abilities, and gaps. Only from there can you make meaningful changes to improve student access and communication.

Advance Your Admissions Approach

Historically, admissions strategies focused on processing applications with the receipt of unofficial and official transcripts, matching candidate background to program admission requirements, and producing admission letters. While these tasks amount to the bread and butter of admissions, converting prospects from applicants to students, each of them carries a cost — consider qualification, FAFSA processing, communications, file management, and more. Institutions have a vested interest in every inquiry received, but most institutions carry an applicant-to-start ratio of only about 50 percent — which means that 50 percent of potential enrollment growth can be lost to processing and relationship management issues.

With more qualified and motivated applicants identified by improved recruiting efforts and more hands-on support for applicants via the student success team, the burden on the admissions infrastructure can be reduced. This makes every effort more purposeful and focused on prospects that are most likely to contribute to enrollment growth. The fluidity demanded by COVID-19 has encouraged many organizations to reconsider their processes and enrollment approach to the benefit of their overall operations. Going forward, if the modified processes are working, it is better to iterate upon them than to revert to pre-pandemic approaches simply because we may be able to do so.

Emphasize Student Success

Given the insights around opportunities for transformation in recruitment and admissions, it should come as no surprise that the function and importance of student success teams are magnified when approaching an online enrollment strategy with a growth mindset. Ideally, the student success team should act as a bridge between new students and first-term faculty, advocating for entering learners at every point of their early journey. 

Frequently, there are two components to student success: start coaches and academic success coaches. In terms of enrollment growth, start coaches are essential to creating the bandwidth for reimagined recruitment and admissions departments to focus primarily on those tasks that move online students through the funnel, knowing that a dedicated point of contact is furthering the relationship and providing support. The academic success coach, meanwhile, continues that support for students between their first and second terms and often first and second years to prevent attrition — an essential function for sustained growth.

Organizations making shifts to prioritize strategic enrollment management will find that designating areas of focus for their student success teams will support greater efficiencies at other points in the online enrollment journey.

Expand Your Program Offerings

Intrinsic to enrollment growth is taking steps to consistently shore up program offerings that better serve the needs of prospective online students. At this time, the ability to learn remotely has become the greatest concern for most students, prompting many institutions to reconsider which courses will be permanently available in a remote capacity. Institutions wishing to emphasize their online offerings and see a return on their spending to promote those offerings find the most success with a good mix of programs — both undergraduate and graduate — as this naturally casts the widest net and engages the most potential online students.

Further, many institutions are reconsidering the time constraints placed on their online courses. Online students do not necessarily want to move through their coursework in lock-step with traditional term starts, but rather, may be motivated to start and finish as early as possible. Embracing flexibility in the timing of online courses creates the opportunity to continually welcome new students, particularly those who wish to operate outside more traditional timeframes. And that’s just one example of how institutions are optimizing their offerings with evolving online education models. The greatest key to success is embracing new ideas and measuring their success to determine what changes to make permanent and what still needs refinement.

Now What?

Every action starts with a plan. And every plan starts with discovery. If strategic enrollment management and enrollment growth sit high on your priority list, take steps to understand your current situation before making any changes. Only with a realistic view of your current challenges and opportunities relative to your technological infrastructure, admissions process, student success structure, and program offerings can you build an effective plan to support better enrollment processes and a growth mindset. 

Ready to find a partner capable of bringing enriched life to your online student enrollment? We can help — connect with Perdia Education to discuss growth solutions with no long-term contract and no upfront fees.

To learn more about how to enhance your online student enrollment, view my ScheduleOnce and we can discuss growth solutions with no long-term contract and no upfront fees.

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