Student Enrollment Management: What to Know and How to Leverage It

For higher education professionals, strategic enrollment management is a topic that’s always top of mind. When enrollment metrics are high, campuses can grow and scale new programs and offerings. But when things start trending downward, proactive measures are often required to keep student growth afloat—and keeping upper leadership and stakeholders happy.

Enrollment management offers a strategic approach to academic success and student life. It’s a way to keep pulse on enrollment initiatives and stay directly involved in the student recruitment lifecycle.

In this post, we’ll offer a crash course in your strategic enrollment management plan. Whether you have well-defined processes already or want to breathe fresh life into your enrollment goals before next year, this overview is helpful for everyone.

Student enrollment management describes the strategic way that colleges and universities oversee and control the enrollment of new students. Because two and four-year institutions are constantly looking to attract prospective learners and improve student affairs, having a clear and methodical approach offers predictability and consistency.

Some sources also point out that enrollment management is focused on having a certain level of influence on the number of students that enroll—and how the student body represents the broader goals of the institution. 

For example, a college or university may want to recruit 2,000 new students for the upcoming academic year. Despite a well-established enrollment metric, it’s expected that those students meet specific criteria (high school GPA, standardized test scores, personal recommendations, or area of study). Enrollment management ensures that these institutions can directly enroll the intended number of students while guaranteeing that the new cohort meets the standards of the admissions process.

Depending on when and where you look, modern higher education enrollment numbers illustrate a number of different trends. One truth remains—college enrollment is cyclical and ever-changing. As a result, contemporary institutions must remain flexible and willing to adapt if they want to succeed. 

In late fall 2022, Inside Higher Ed reported that nationwide higher ed enrollment fell by roughly 1.1 percent. While the decline isn’t what many community leaders wanted to see, the number certainly wasn’t as drastic as it remained throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

In times of economic uncertainty or recession (like we’re experiencing currently), some schools may also be at risk of losing endowments or experiencing reduced financial flexibility. 

Believe it or not, macro-level trends and challenges also have an impact on enrollment management and planning. When outside factors are at play, it’s more important than ever to have a well-established and effective process for managing student interest, recruiting, and enrollment.  

Let the student drive the process before and after they apply — making the application and enrollment process easier than ever.

Perks of Using Enrollment Management Software

Fortunately, there are several options to create a process that's easier and more hands-on for enrollment managers. Specialized platforms and CRM solutions give schools more resources when managing enrollment efforts.

There are well-established advantages to implementing a student enrollment platform, such as Element451. These benefits include:

Greater access to data on students, ranging from basic contact and demographic information to more detailed enrollment data.

Real-time assessment on enrollment trends and factors that influence the student admissions experience.

More options for marketing to students in personalized ways that support and inform enrollment and conversion.

Ability to see and notice red flags early in order to prevent churn, reduce enrollment gaps, and solve issues before they become university-wide concerns.

Tips for Improving the Enrollment Experience—On Staff and with Students

It’s no surprise that the enrollment process affects everyone involved. While the right workflows can change how admissions counselors perform their jobs (and satisfy important benchmarks), these processes also shape the holistic student experience. 

Remember, students begin to form first impressions of a college or university early on in the enrollment cycle, so having student-friendly processes is the key to success.

If you’re looking to modernize the enrollment management process prior to the new academic year, here are a few tips to get started.

Before your enrollment team makes adjustments, it’s essential to know where you stand. Audit your existing enrollment processes to look for major risk factors, internal bottlenecks, frustration, or points of confusion for students and families.

As you go about this process, keep the results realistic. Are there available tools or software that could alleviate your department’s frustration? Do you spot opportunities to eliminate manual work through automation or smart technology? Identifying these pieces can help you reshape the process and encourage better results for everyone.

Make sure to report relevant findings to your leaders or decision-makers, who often want to see how these department-level changes impact the campus vision as a whole.

Have a Clear Plan for Managing the Way Forward

Accomplishing major enrollment goals doesn’t happen without systematic processes and broad adoption of plans. Enrollment leaders need to document a clear path and workflow for achieving enrollment metrics every single term. What does this look like in practice?

Documenting your current enrollment management workflows

Updating all enrollment personnel on current problems and changes prior to new terms

Assessing recent data to gauge impact on actual students

Re-evaluating the process to stay in touch with the current level of growth on campus

Investing in the right tools and platforms to create digital enrollment experiences

Although these strategies can instill positive change to your campus enrollment, they’re not worth much if they don’t have a tangible impact on real students.

Here’s the honest take—you can’t expect to improve your enrollment process without communicating more clearly with actual students. And with personalization tools like you’ll find in Element451, that work becomes even easier.

Put power and choice back into the hands of your students, and deliver customizable messaging that’s helpful and practical. Offer timely reminders, converse with applicants in real-time, and automate routine processes to improve student engagement at every stage of the admissions cycle. 

Harness the power of prompt engineering and reach your students better and faster with our step-by-step guide.

Increase Yield With ChatGPT Prompt Engineering

Expand Your Enrollment Initiatives with Element451

Is it time to re-evaluate the way that your school handles enrollment management? If so, look no further. Element451 is the platform you need to truly take control of engagement and student success, from application to graduation.

Student Enrollment Management for Colleges

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