Lecture Notes

Enrollment management is becoming one of the core administrative functions of colleges and universities. EM is a key component of strategic planning, financial stability, and institutional effectiveness.

But EM takes place within a context, so this week's lesson begins by examining that context using a systems approach. My colleague at SUNY, Albany, Dr. Bruce Szelest, and I, have developed a Systems Dynamics Model of University Enrollment, Financial and Faculty Resources, or Influence Diagram, that explains the relationships among enrollment management and the other academic, financial, and support activities within the organization. Please view this system to understand how these relationships are intertwined.

On most campuses, enrollment management has become a key strategic planning ingredient. Not only does EM focus the institution’s attention on the need to capture market share in a competitive admissions environment, but the success of EM impacts many other areas of institutional activity.  As noted in the Szelest model above, the reputation and financial health of public and private institutions alike is substantially enrollment-driven.  Student enrollments not only generate revenue from state appropriations, federal financial aid, and tuition, but they also support residence hall operations, athletics, student activities, food service, bookstore, and vending. Student recruitment, admissions, orientation, and instruction are expensive activities that become even more costly under conditions of high turnover. To reduce turnover and attrition, E. M. serves as an important mechanism for improving student-institution fit. Thus, E. M. has also become a means of demonstrating institutional effectiveness to accreditation bodies and legislators.

Enrollment management has received scholarly attention for about three decades. Kemerer, Baldridge and Green (1982), Hossler and Bean (1990), and Kroc and Hanson (2001) are among the many authors who view enrollment management as an institutional research and planning function that examines and seeks to manage the flow of students to, through, and from college. Traditionally, two domains of enrollment management have received the most administrative and analytical attention:

1. student recruitment, and
2. student flow.  

Important activities of student recruitment include admissions marketing, applications management, financial aid, and enrollment yield projections. Student flow embraces activities and issues related to attrition and retention, student satisfaction, curricular attractiveness, student support services, and campus climate. More recently, assessment of student learning and student/alumni success have been recognized as important extensions of an integrated enrollment management program. Thus, in my years as an institutional researcher, I always thought of enrollment management as a three-stage process.