The Art and Science of Enrollment Management

Brenda Porter Poggendorf, PhDLECNA Presidents MeetingFebruary 2015

Background

•33 years in Lutheran higher education

•Admissions, financial aid, student affairs, president’s assistant

•Worked with two very different presidential styles

•Research in student persistence (based on ELCA data and colleges)

•Two high school daughters!

Recruitment

•There is no silver bullet.

Challenges are great.

•Changing demographics

•Ability and willingness to pay

•Increasing competition for fewer students

•Changing student behaviors

1.Process/Promotion

2.Product

3.Price

4.People

5.Persistence

Process/Promotion•Systematic (Funnel)

• Be strategic, not just busy • Message (product vs. process)?

• Timing?• How delivered?

•Reports/Data• Regularly• Power of projections• Know when to start and stop activities

Process/Promotion• Reliance on others from across campus

(admissions as generalists, specialists or matchmakers?)• Public relations• Information technology• Faculty• Coaches and other staff• Students• Alumni and parents

•We don’t control the messaging (as much) anymore.

Process/Promotion

•Vendor Partners• Value added?• Who’s in control?• How many should you have?

•Print vs. Digital?

Questions you might ask about process/promotion

1.Are we watching the hood ornament or the roadmap?

2.How many vendors do we have and what are their roles?

3.What can we stop doing in order to redirect funds toward a more fruitful endeavor?

4.How diversified are our communication streams?

Product

•Difficult to tweak our way to increasing enrollment.

•Just as we need to find new ways to craft and broadcast/target our message to expanding markets, we need to focus on new programs.

Product

•Academic (flagship programs?)

•Out-of-the-Classroom

•Focus on Mission

•Outcomes, Outcomes, Outcomes

Questions you might ask about Product1.Do we have programs that are especially strong and that we can showcase more?

2.What new programs would attract and enroll students (new market)?

3.Does your website and other marketing materials clearly tell visitors what your graduates are doing?

4.Does our faculty have departmental recruitment (and retention) among their annual goals?

Price and Net Tuition Revenue

There is no silver bullet.

1.Merit vs. need aid

1. Can we go back?

2.Full pay students

3.Reducing the Discount Rate

4.High Price/High Discount vs. Low

Price/Low Discount

College Costs: The Rest of the Story The Atlanta Business Chronicle, January 2015

College Board report recently focused on increases in published costs and high price of 4-year private

colleges.

And

Average family income was lower in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2013 than it had been in 2003.

So

No wonder all the talk about cost of education

College Costs: The Rest of the Story The Atlanta Business Chronicle, January 2015

In 2004: sticker price for private college was $25,000net price was < $15,000

In 2014: sticker price for private college is $31,000net price is $12,000

College Costs: The Rest of the Story The Atlanta Business Chronicle, January 2015

Oglethorpe president suggests:

•Focus on core enterprise / unique value proposition•New revenue streams

• Enrollment growth (English Language Institute) 260 students in 2 years, now enrolling as degree seeking students.

• Partnership – long-term land lease with apartments for upper class students (50% increase in endowment with an up-front fee and at least one new campus building)

Questions you might ask about Price/NTR

1. How many full pay (even high pay) students do we have among our students? Who are they? Where do they come from?

2.What is the impact of our net price calculator?

2. Can we create a revenue stream of full/high pay students that allow us to discount for the ones who need it?

3. What other revenue streams can we initiate to take pressure off of growing enrollment and tuition increases?

People (Leadership & Staffing)

•There is no formal training program for enrollment leaders. It’s an apprenticeship program.

•The role of the admissions office is to find ways to better understand and overcome challenges, not to accept them.

(diagnosis vs. prescription)

Desired Qualities in EM Leaders

•People skills•Relationship building•Data analysis•Ability to collaborate•Ready, aim, fire (be nimble)•Tenacious•Energized by a challenge

Many good people are leaving the profession.

People (Leadership & Staffing)

•Compensation • According to Compease:

Adm Counselor $33,200-$49,800Asst. Director $37,200-$55,700

•Staff development and retention • Who are you hiring to recruit?• Revolving door vs. longevity models

Grooming EM Leaders

•Professional development• Conferences, programs, education

•Mentoring

•Consultants

•Provide clear and helpful feedback and evaluation

How can presidents help?

•Set realistic expectations

Number ++ Quality ++ Net Revenue• Balance and prioritize competing desires• Agreement across Cabinet/Campus

•The importance of outcomes

•Create culture where everyone helps.

•Everyone’s an expert (not)

Questions you might ask about People

1.If our chief enrollment officer does not have all the desired qualities, is he/she surrounded by others who have them? (gap analysis)

2.Does our institution have depth in the admissions team?

3.Does my chief admissions officer offer prescriptions with the diagnosis?

4.Can our recruitment staff speak “financial”?

Persistence (Student Retention)•More expensive to recruit replacements than to keep the students you’ve got.

•Despite years of focus, graduation rates among all higher education institutions have not improved.

•4-year graduation rate for Lutheran colleges:• Range 15% - 82%• Mean 47%

•Institution-specific.

•There is no silver bullet.

An approach to measuring your persistence rates

Who did I talk with?

•Faculty taught primarily 1st year students

•2nd year students• Administrators with significant experience at their current institution or were familiar with their institution

• Academic Affairs

• Student Affairs

• Enrollment Management

Findings:

•Student-Institution Fit

•Culture of Community

• Facilities

•Student Support Services

•Early Alert/Early Warning System

•First year advising

•Orientation programs

• Student Affairs

• Enrollment Management

Student Institutional Fit:

•Students who know, understand & accept the institution (culture, expectations, location)

•Student responsibility

•Institution responsibility

• Admission office often cited

Culture of Community

•Friendly

•Learn names early

•Set by institutional leaders

•“customer service”

•Involvement and engagement

•Expect persistence

•Fellow students as supporters, not competitors•Importance (for students) of relationship between faculty and administrators

“Retention is not the goal, it’s what is reported. It’s a result of what we normally

do.”

“How do we create a culture in which people view themselves as practitioners of

student success? That’s a mindset.”

Questions you might ask about Retention

1.What is the predicted retention of our students given who they are and are they persisting at a rate higher or lower than that?

2.How can we better focus on student-institutional fit as we recruit students? Who should be involved in the discussion?

Questions you might ask about Retention

3. Is our entire campus community focused on student success?

4. Do our policies and practices encourage student persistence?

Lawlor Group Study

Enrollment Officers

1.Perceptions of value/willingness to pay

2.Ability to pay

3.Competition from peer institutions

4.Demand for evidence of successful outcomes

5.Negative publicity about expense/ROI

Lawlor Group Study

College Presidents1. Ability to Pay (2)

2. Perceptions of value/willingness to pay (1)

3. Demand for evidence of successful outcomes (4)

4. Sustainability of financial aid discounting model (7)

5. Expectation of targeted (personal and relevant) communication. (8)

Lawlor Group Study

Public Institutions1. Changing demographics (ethnicity)

2. Insufficient net tuition revenue

3. Negative publicity about the expense/ROI of college

4. Demand for pre-professional course offerings

5. Sustainability of financial aid discounting model

Final Thoughts

Recruitment isn’t just for admissions anymore. It takes a campus.

Is your campus more like the speedboat that can turn on a dime or the ocean liner that must go miles as it slows before it can make a U-turn?

Does your senior leadership team include at least one person who questions and encourages “other” thinking?

Final Thoughts

Yes, we live in challenging times in higher education, but

As we apply our liberal arts critical thinking skills, we can find opportunities that will help us move forward in positive directions for our colleges.

Many good ideas are born out of a crisis. How can we create a campus environment that fosters those same creative ideas in the absence of a crisis? If we wait, that crisis is likely to appear.

There is no silver bullet, no one-size fits all.

Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where

people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a

participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values.

-Michael Vance