Managing Student Enrollments, Resources, and University Image:

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Managing Student Enrollments, Resources, and
University Image

• An International Perspective
• Don Hossler
• Vice-Chancellor for Enrollment Services
• Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy
  Studies
• hossler_at_indiana.edu
• Chris Foley
• Senior Associate Director of Admissions
• cfoley_at_indiana.edu

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The Institutional Context Why Are Student
Enrollments So Important?

• Resource
• Dependency
• Theory

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Laws of Higher Education

• Universities raise all the money they can and
  spend all the money they raise in an unceasing
  effort to increase their power, influence, and
  prestige. (Increasingly students are a mechanism
  for more money and/or prestige)
• No university ever has enough excellent students
• No university can be sufficiently diverse when it
  comes to being representative of its citizens

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Societal Context is Everything Massification,
Markets, and Commodification

• Throughout much of the industrialized world the
  trend is toward massification
• Finite resources and shifting ideologies are
  resulting in a shift toward mixed funding models
  placing more responsibility on families and
  students
• Resulting in a global shift toward market models
  of higher education
• Resulting in a shift toward a university
  education being viewed as just one more commodity

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Current Global Trends

• More universities are developing plans that focus
  on expanding their market areas
• Goals for diversity, quality, and class size can
  be included in enrollment plan
• Institutions budget for the tuition income as
  well as recruitment expenses

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Global Competition for Students

• There is a growing sentiment that institutions
  must be more aggressive in recruitment efforts
  because of competition from their peer
  institutionsboth international and domestic

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Competition, Prestige, Image,

• More competition for students
• Image, prestige matter more
• More emphasis on links to labor market success
• More choice
• Emerging role of tuition on institutional
  resources
• Impact of tuition on ability of students to go on
  to university

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Keys to the Ability of Universities to Manage
their Enrollments

• Easy geographical mobility among students
• Regional or national entrance tests
• Some flexibility with curriculum, pricing, and/or
  financial aid
• Centralized admissions

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Its Not Just Recruitment Some Examples of
Managing Enrollments

• Organizational Coordination to Recruit Students
• Admissions
• Financial aid
• Orientation
• Involvement of faculty at key points

• Organizational Coordination to Retain Students
• Academic advising
• Academic planning
• Academic support
• Student involvement activities

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Thinking About Managing Enrollments

• Number of students
• Characteristics of students
• Budget strategy
• Institutional Image

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What Influences Enrollments?

• Fixed Characteristics
• Mission
• Location Cost
• Fluid
• Recruitment
• Net Price

• Mixed
• Academic Programs
• Student Experience
• Perceived Quality
• External Public Policies

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Competition Expectations

• Competition for students empowers the students
• Students expect universities to be interested in
  them and to receive timely and good customer
  service from them
• Meeting these expectations can lead to further
  challenges (for example, staffing, technology,
  processing, financial aid)
• Students (especially good students) expect to be
  pursued and wooed

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Tools for Recruitment

• Technology and mobility has led to fewer barriers
  between students and universities and vice versa
• Standardized examinations (for example, SAT, O
  Levels) help plug students into post-secondary
  educational systems
• Examinations can also enable universities to find
  students who are preparing for their style of
  education (for example, purchasing names of test
  takers with high scores)

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More Tools

• Databases
• E-mail
• Web
• Desktop publishing
• Videoconferences
• Prospecting software

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Students Expect to be Recruited with Technology

• More students from around the world not only use
  these new technologies, but they expect
  universities to use them as well. This can place
  the bar very high for institutions to meet these
  expectations.