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 SEM America |
| Strategic Enrollment Management WORKS |
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| SEM WORKS AMERICA E-NEWSLETTER, Volume 2, 2008 |
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INTRODUCTION
Enrollment leaders know that it is both and art and science to effectively recruitment, admit, and retain students in the new millennium. As the demographic profile of enrolled students in the USA becomes less and less homogeneous, enrollment managers are faced with an increasing number of variables that impact their work. Effective enrollment management includes understanding the many external and internal facets of the business. This takes into account parents of today, student demographics and characteristics, the economy, and the types of support services offered by cinstitutions.
The articles that follow touch on a variety of current recruitment, admission, and retention issues. Topics include the role of parents as the child enters and remains in college, branding, how the economy is impacting enrollment, the "engagement" process, and strategies established to support students after graduation.
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RECRUITMENT
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- The Role of Mom and Dad as They Help Their Teen Attend College: Audrey Kahane, a private college admissions counselor, offers some great advice to parents who are attempting to help their teenagers cope with the pressures of researching, selecting, and qualifying to attend the college of their choice. While this article is clearly geared to the parents of these rising seniors, it may also offer some insight to colleges and universities on how to communicate with and inform parents as the college works to recruit their children. http://www.theacorn.com/news/2008/0731/Schools/080.html
- Traditional Branding vs. Contemporary Branding: While branding is an important part of any effective marketing plan, Rex Whisman makes the case that the traditional corporate model of branding products is difficult to apply to service organizations and non-profits. He also talks about how attempting to use "product" branding strategies for service organizations can result in "superficial tinkering" rather than substantive branding change. He suggests that contemporary branding efforts in educational environments need to be a participatory process that includes all stakeholders. To read more, go to http://www.semworks.net/papers/two-schools-of-thought-on-branding-education-whisman.pdf
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ADMISSIONS
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- The Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics has recently released a report profiling community colleges in the USA. Of particular interest, is the 'student characteristics' section which reviews the college enrollment patterns of recent high school seniors as well as the short-term persistence rates of community college students in general. This report offers a national picture by which individual community colleges can benchmark their own demographic profile and persistence/attainment success rates. To check out the 'student characteristics' section of this article, and to access links to the entire report, click here: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2008/analysis/sa03.asp.
- Economy Turns Down - Enrollment Turns Up: It has often been said that working for the community college system is a fool-proof career decision when the economy takes a downward turn, because enrollment (and therefore business and career stability) goes up. And this fall has been no exception. Community colleges are experiencing record enrollment increases this fall and by most accounts it has been spurred on by rising living costs and decreased job opportunities across the state. To read more on this phenomenon as it relates to North Carolina, click here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1221672.html
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RETENTION
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- "Engagement" is more than what happens when boy-meets-girl. It has become a foundational concept in the research and discussion of how to retain students in a learning environment. In an effort to illustrate to educators the realities of being a 21st century learner, BJ. Nesbitt has created a 4+ minute you-tube video profiling the experience, expectations, and needs of K-12 students today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&NR=1). Michael Wesch from the University of Kansas takes this one step further by creating (with his students) another 4+ minute you-tube flick, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o, that offers a look at the characteristics of students in the college classroom, how they learn, what they want to learn, their concerns, and their aspirations. Understanding this generation will serve as a critical factor in knowing how to engage and retain them in the classroom.
- Getting to Know You… One of the signs of good relationship building and communication is in the ability of one person to really understand another and then interact with his or her with that background knowledge. Katie Beres's book review of Tim Clysedale's The first year out: Understanding American teens after high school, highlights the importance of advisors having this "knowing" to enhance the advisor-student relationship. She even goes so far as to suggest that Clysedale's research on the inner workings of the millennial generation challenges traditional theories of student development. For more, click here: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Journal/bkrev_1060.htm
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SPECIAL TOPICS
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- Supporting Students Through to Graduation and Beyond: Career services for alumni is becoming more prevalent as graduates face tougher job markets, and colleges seek to cultivate strong bonds with their alumni and industry-players seeking qualified employees. According to Joanne Lublin, there has been a five year increase from 5% to 20% of US colleges and universities now offering some type of career support for their alumni. To learn more about some innovative approaches to alumni career support as well as which career areas seem to experience less support after graduation, click here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121485622574117001.html?mod=2_1559_middlebox
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Return to Top
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This e-newsletter was edited by Maggie Killoran for SEM WORKS, based on publicly-available information. Neither the editor nor SEM WORKS assume liability for comments or information posted by others. Please send your comments to Kara Mohre, Director of Marketing at kmohre@semworks.net
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