Strategic Enrollment Management and the
Academic Enterprise:
Indiana State University
September 18, 2012
Tom Green, Ph.D.
Senior Consultant
Overview
1.
Ground rules
2.
SEM reminders
3.
Academics as a choice factor among prospective students
4.
Remediation
5.
The changing nature of academic advising
6.
Articulation and community college partnerships
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Ground rules for the session
1.
This is an open discussion – not a lecture
2.
Make sure to ask questions as we go
– There are several topics and waiting until the end may miss an
important point
3.
The information today is taken from:
– Higher education research
– Current practice among SEM professionals
– My own observations from working with colleges and universities
across all sectors of higher education in the U.S., Canada and the UK
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What is Strategic Enrollment Management
(SEM)?
Strategic enrollment management is a concept and
process that enables the fulfillment of institutional
mission and students’ educational goals.
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The Purposes of SEM are Achieved by…
1.
Establishing clear goals for the number and types of students
needed to fulfill the institutional mission
2.
Promoting students’ academic success by improving access,
transition, persistence, and graduation
3.
Promoting institutional success by enabling effective strategic and
financial planning
4.
Creating a data-rich environment to inform decisions and evaluate
strategies
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The Purposes of SEM are Achieved by…
5.
Improving process, organizational and financial efficiency and
outcomes
6. Strengthening communications and marketing with internal and
external stakeholders
7. Increasing collaboration among departments across campus to
support the enrollment program
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SEM Planning Framework
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Tactics
Strategies
Campus Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan
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SEM Process Framework
Performed by
Process steps
Align institutional strategic plan with
broad enrollment targets and desired mix of students
Develop action steps, accountability, and metrics
Implement action steps
Monitor progress,
Report results to campus and executive leadership
Mid-course adjustments
New or revised goals
Approve strategic goals and enrollment projection
models
Changes
to goals
Use data and information results to establish
focused goals each for recruitment, retention,
service, etc., and enrollment projection models
Additional requests,
clarifying questions
Data and information gathering and assessment:
Internal culture/ environment, student enrollment
behaviors and scan of external environment
President Bradley’s Cabinet,
SEM Steering Committee
Data Team
Goals recommended by Recruitment
Council and Student Success Council;
models developed by Data Team
President Bradley’s Cabinet,
SEM Steering Committee
SEM councils and sub-committees
Appropriate staff and
faculty departments
SEM Steering Committee
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Why do students go to college?
1.
Students have long been attracted to higher education as a
means to pursue ideas and interests that matter to them.
2.
The role of academic program quality and availability is vital in
student choice.
3.
The issues that the list as driving them to attend college almost
all revolve around the pursuit of an academic major.
4.
The pursuit of culture and ideas, however, are not lost in this mix
of factors.
5.
Quiz time:
– What percent of college freshmen say that gaining a general
education and an appreciation of ideas is an important reason to
attend college?
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Changing values for going to college
Source: Pryor, J. H., DeAngelo, L., Palucki Blake, L., Hurtado, S., & Tran, S. (2011). The American freshman: National norms fall 2011. Los
Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA.
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Reasons students
choose a
particular college
or university
Source: Pryor, J. H., DeAngelo, L., Palucki Blake, L., Hurtado, S., & Tran, S. (2011). The American freshman: National norms fall 2011. Los
Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA.
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What motivates high-achieving students to
come?
1.
Quality of individual programs beyond overall institutional
reputation:
– They are interested in specific program strengths.
2.
Opportunities for student research at the undergraduate level.
3.
Opportunities to have a close and meaningful relationship with a
faculty member (mentoring experiences).
4.
While they likely expect to receive them or may not need them
as much, high-achieving students rate finances and scholarships
much lower on the list than these other factors.
Source: Lipman-Hearne and Associates (2006). High-Achieving Seniors and the College Decision. Chicago,
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What does this mean for academic programs?
1.
Web sites must be relevant and contain information that helps
students understand their key issues:
– Program quality
– Success of graduates
– Opportunities for undergraduate research
2.
Hearing from faculty during the search process is pivotal in
influencing enrollment decisions:
– Today’s students are savvy and want to hear from faculty, not just
counselors
– Prospective student events should be taken seriously.
3.
Work closely through admissions to provide information and
resources for prospective students.
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Remediation
1.
Starting in the 1960’s, the United States changed long-held views
on who should attend college:
– “Massification”
– Students who previously had been denied access.
– Affordability programs funded by the federal and state governments.
2.
As growing numbers of students anticipated that they would
need to attend college and more of them entered, it also meant
that many were unprepared for the rigors of this level.
3.
Admissible ≠ Prepared
4.
Estimates of spending on remediation today in the United States
are somewhere between $10 – 12 billion.
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Student academic aspirations are out of sync
with behaviors that would prepare them for
college-level work
1 in 4
anticipates
needing
math help
Minority of
students
exhibited
behaviors
we expect
in college
More time
spent in
online
networks
than leisure
reading
Source: Pryor, J. H., DeAngelo, L., Palucki Blake, L., Hurtado, S., & Tran, S. (2011). The American freshman: National norms fall 2011. Los
Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA.
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So how do we help students learn what we
expect from them?
1.
“Sink or swim” is gone:
– The public expects us to help students succeed for the price they are
paying for tuition and fees.
– Accountability in higher education is shifting from access to
attainment.
2.
How do we know what works?
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Hossler and Kalsbeek Analysis, 2010
Over recent decades, student retention has been one of the most
studied aspects of college enrollment…with abundant articles and
journals, studies and dissertations, models and theories, practices and
programs, consultancies and conferences all devoted to improving
retention and rates of degree completion… Despite this, in terms of
overall rates of degree completion… If anything, 4- and 6-year
graduation rates have declined…
College & University Journal, vol. 85, no. 3
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Hossler and Kalsbeek Analysis, 2010
Key factors in retention success

Adequate coordination
− Time and resources devoted to retention
− Level and authority of the chief retention officer and committees

Data
− Often new initiatives are not assessed for effectiveness
− The importance of “action research”

Broadening focus from “high-risk students” to “high-risk
experiences”
− Could be courses or transaction points
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Hossler Study, 2005

Analysis of retention literature between 1980 and 2002

Prevalence of the: laundry list model
– Based on
• usually non-empirical analyses testing theoretical models
• propositional literature, practitioner articles on what they believe should
improve student persistence
– A quick scan of campus reveals “we are doing almost everything we
should be doing to enhance student persistence. We have academic
advising, we have orientation, we have career planning offices, we have
learning communities, we have academic support centers, we have
culture centers for students of color, and our faculty have frequent
interactions with our students.”
College & University Journal, vol. 81, no. 2
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Hossler Study, 2005

Found only 16 empirical studies of institutional efforts to
improve persistence published in mainline higher education
journals

Multiple studies reported positive effects from:
– Supported instruction targeted at courses in which many students
evidenced poor levels of academic performance
– Transition/orientation/university 101 programs
– Programs to enhance student-faculty interaction
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Summer bridge programs
1.
Currently serving as the external evaluator and consultant to a
program for low-income, first-generation students:
– Admissible but ill-prepared for college work.
– Most need two semesters of remediation before ready for freshman
courses.
– Most are students of color from urban areas.
2.
Summer bridge program implemented in 2010:
– Six-week skills building courses.
– No tuition fees for students (grant funded).
– Peer mentoring on academic success, time management and “college
knowledge”.
– Close advising support through the first year of studies.
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First-year retention results
90.00%
80.00%
60.00%
Implementation of
recommendations
Initial known status of
retention rates with
AACRAO hired to help
enrollment
70.00%
59.90%
Results
achieved
Retention study and
recommendations
developed
63.20%
77.60%
66.80%
67.60%
Fall 2008
Fall 2009
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Fall 2006
Fall 2007
Fall 2010
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Academic advising in today’s environment
1.
Two types of advising (NACADA):
– Prescriptive
– Developmental
2.
Technological impact on advising roles:
– Web site
– Degree pathway sites
– Degree audit
3.
What is the role today for an academic adviser?
4.
Possible roles:
– Referrals to help or services.
– Mentoring/guidance on how courses and degrees prepare students
for next steps/graduate programs/careers.
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Additional impact of degree audit systems
1.
Degree requirements are programmed into a system that can
check completion of courses and requirements:
– This eliminates the need to check degree completion manually or
“certify” degrees in academic departments.
– The requirements are approved once and every time they change.
2.
Students expect that all changes to published requirements are
processed immediately:
– Petitions (substitutions and waivers).
– Transfer credit.
– Credit by exam.
3.
Information cannot be “held” in the department for processing at
graduation.
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New patterns of starting college
Source: Hossler, et. al. (2012). Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Pre-Degree Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions
Bloomington, IN, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
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How many students transfer?
Source: Hossler, et. al. (2012). Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Pre-Degree Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions
Bloomington, IN, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
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Where do they start and where do they go?
Source: Hossler, et. al. (2012). Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Pre-Degree Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions
Bloomington, IN, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
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A permeable higher education environment
1.
As we created a permeable system of higher education in the
United States, students took advantage of it:
– It purports to provide a set of equivalent courses across higher
education.
2.
What we have not standardized are the expectations of quality
and depth of coverage across courses that appear to have similar
content and learning outcomes.
3.
This creates a mismatch:
– Students assume that earning credit in a course means they are
prepared.
– Faculty assume that students are prepared when they enter their
courses.
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How articulation is improving the situation
1.
Matching course equivalencies across institutions provides the
initial raw material for students to find their way across
institutions.
2.
2+2 or 60+60 programs are the next step:
– They provide a pathway of courses that minimize the costs and time
required to earn a degree across two institutions.
– The most difficult aspect of these programs is getting information into
students’ hands before they seek transfer.
3.
These steps still do not bridge the gaps in expectations.
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Partnership programs
1.
Institutions sign agreements to collaborate on a number of issues
regarding transfer credits.
2.
Faculty groups work together to establish common learning
outcomes:
– These are often very small changes to community college courses that
increase the alignment between content and expectations.
– This work often results in greater collaboration between academic
departments at the partner institutions:
• Guest lectures.
• Attendance at special events/speakers.
3.
Promotion of pathway information to community college
students.
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Additional collaborative efforts
1.
Housing
– Allows community college partnership students to live at the fouryear institution.
2.
Campus access
– Library
– Athletic events (or access to tickets)
– Student clubs and organizations
3.
Reverse transfer
– Allows students to earn an associate’s degree along the way if they
transfer to the four-year partner before earning it at the community
college.
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Thank you!
Tom Green, Ph.D.
Senior Consultant
Tom.Green@aacrao.org
consulting.aacrao.org
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