Enrollment Management:
Strategies, Tips, and Techniques
Ken Meehan
Director of Institutional Research
Fullerton College
Jim Fillpot
Director of Institutional Research
Chaffey College
Enrollment Management
In God We Trust.
All Others Must Use Data”
Edwards Deming
“
Enrollment Management
The bottom line is to find, enroll, and
retain sufficient numbers and kinds of
students who are desired by the
institution (Penn, 1999)”
“
Enrollment Management
Enrollment Management is a relatively new term that has
evolved through several developmental stages. Only within
the last decade has the concept found its niche in the
academic community and become a key player on the
senior administration team. Enrollment management’s
roots are deeply embedded in admissions, but its present
and future role is as a campus-wide, and research-oriented
operation whose primary task it is to locate, attract and
retain the students the institution wishes to serve.
University of Maine
Enrollment Management
Enrollment management is fundamentally linked to
educational programs and services and is guided by
the overall institutional strategic plan.
University of Maine
Enrollment Management
Enrollment management is … an organizational
concept and a systematic set of activities designed to
enable educational institutions to exert more
influence over their student enrollments. Organized
by strategic planning and supported by institutional
research, enrollment management activities concern
student college choice, transition to college, student
attrition and retention, and student success.
Hossler and Bean, 1990
Enrollment Management
Strategic enrollment management is a
comprehensive process designed to achieve and
maintain the optimum recruitment, retention, and
graduation rates of students where “optimum” is
defined within the academic context of the
institution.
Dolence, 1995
Enrollment Management
¾Student Flow
¾Establishing FTES Targets
¾Apportionment Reporting
¾Projecting and Monitoring FTES
¾Curriculum Management
¾Scheduling
¾Maximizing Facilities
¾Enrollment Manager/Enrollment Management
Teams
Student Flow Approach –
Research on Specific Groups
¾The Unknowns - never contacted the college
¾Prospects – contacted the college, have not applied
¾Applicants – applied, have not enrolled
¾Students – applied, enrolled
¾Alumni – left the college but may always return and
get some of their friends to come too!
Student Flow Approach –
Research on Specific Groups
Students
¾ “Non-committed” – enrolled, dropped all courses before census
¾ “Short-timers” – enrolled, completed one or two courses, have not reenrolled in subsequent terms
¾ “Stop-outs” – enroll, stop, come back cyclically over a period of
several years
¾ “Lifetime learners” – enroll in one or two courses on and off over
many years (15 or more years!)
¾ “Committed” – enroll, carry at least a half time load, persist through
a number of terms with no or limited stop out, may complete a degree
or certificate or transfer to a four-year institution
Student Flow Approach –
Business Process Analysis (BPA)
¾Mapping of all processes involved in student
recruitment, matriculation, enrollment, retention,
graduation
¾Identifying roadblocks and making adjustments,
where possible
¾Periodic review and alignment
Student Flow Approach – Data Sources
¾ Primary Data Sources
¾U.S. Census – www.census.gov
¾California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/
¾Local student information systems
¾National Student Clearinghouse – www.nslc.org
¾State MIS data
¾CalPASS
¾Other local, regional, national data repositories (e.g.,
cohorts tracked by the National Center for Education
Statistics - nces.ed.gov)
Student Flow Approach – Data Sources
¾Secondary Data Sources
¾Studies, analyses, syntheses
¾Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
– free full text studies available at
www.eric.ed.gov
Student Flow Approach –
Tools and Techniques
¾ Intervention, Communication, Tracking and Follow Up
Technologies
¾Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
¾Prospect tracking
¾Early alert systems
¾Custom automated communications to prospects,
applicants and students based on selected criteria
¾ Research Tools
¾Reporting and analytical tools
¾Inferential statistics
¾Data mining
¾Data warehousing
Types of Analyses
¾Descriptive
¾What is
¾Student profiles
¾Segmentation analyses
¾Predictive modeling
¾What will/could be based on prior history
Establishing FTES Targets
¾ Growth rates
¾ Basic skills guarantee
¾ Apportionment reports
¾ Statewide budget workshops
¾ Institutional FTES targets for upcoming year
Monitoring Enrollments and FTES
¾ Deploy decision support system – deans, managers, department
chairs, faculty run their own reports and monitor enrollments
¾ Provide daily point-in-time comparative enrollment reports
¾ Overall headcount
¾ Distribution by units
¾ Enrollments and fill rates by section
¾ Iterative FTES calculations and estimations throughout the
term; adjustments/additions of sections as needed
Defining Needed Information
¾Data
¾ Faculty, contract type, load, FTEF
¾ Students, units, FTES
¾ Divisions, departments, courses, course limits
¾ Classes, sections, seats, dates
¾ Rooms, types, capacities
¾Assessing physical resources
¾Assessing scheduling practices
Collecting and Transforming Needed
Information
¾Collecting and transforming the data
¾Current and prior term data for:
¾ Courses
¾ Facilities
¾ Personnel
¾Tools to extract, transform and report data:
¾ Oracle/SQL/Discoverer/Excel
Analyzing Needed Information
¾Analyzing the information
¾ Calculated variables
¾ Fill rates, percent of seats,WSCH/FTEF
¾ Aggregations
¾ Projections
Projecting and Monitoring FTE
¾ Five year comparison report
¾ Enrollment projection report
¾ Current enrollment report
¾ Tools for Deans
Developing and Assessing Essential
Information
¾Assessing physical resources
¾Assessing scheduling practices
Assessing Physical Resources
¾Conduct space inventory
¾State accountability formula
¾Capacity-to-load ratio
¾Hours of use X enrollment at census
¾Determine practical capacity of each classroom
¾Dimensions, features, furniture configuration
Assessing Physical Resources
¾Configuration and room change impacts
¾Produce reference list of classroom scheduling
capacities
Assessing Scheduling Data
¾Develop room use chart for each classroom
¾Calculate capacity-to-load ratio for each classroom
using census data
Reviewing Room Use Charts
¾Class size and room capacity match
¾Criteria for increasing number of sections for a
scheduled class
¾Criteria for faculty assignment to multiple sections
¾Identify scheduling practices that reduce student
access
Impact
¾ Increase in efficiency
¾Better alignment of curriculum class size with
classroom resources
¾Increase in hours of instruction available
¾Increase in number of students served
¾Increase in number of successful students
Room 415 Utilization
Indicator
Spring 2000
Spring 2001
61%
103%
Classes
30 hours
39 hours
Fill rate
86%
90%
Enrollment
614
1,168
Retention
86%
85%
Successes
392
638
Percent utilization
Enrollment Management Models
Model
Degree of Restructuring
Necessary
Authority
Committee
Low
Influence
Coordinator
Some
Networks
Matrix
Moderate
Cooperation
Division
High
Direct
29
AS
Enrollment Manager
Enrollment Management Team
¾Enrollment Manager
¾“Works with unit leaders to examine goals,
develop enrollment plans, coordinate efforts to
achieve them, and prepare assessment programs”
(Stewart, 2004)
¾Enrollment Management Team
30
AS
Impact
¾ Meeting enrollment targets
¾ Capturing all growth and basic skills funding
¾ Improving potential to access state funding for new
facilities
¾ Ensuring the vitality of the college
31
AS
Your Role – Among Many Others!
¾
Institutionalize the use of data and data-driven
decision making
¾
Promoting the importance and use of institutional
research
¾
What gets measured, gets valued
32
AS