What is Strategic Enrolment Management?

Posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2022

Authored by: Jamie Bramburger, Manager of Community and Student Affairs – Pembroke Campus

Enrolments are the backbone of any post-secondary institution, but enrolling students is more complex than most people realize. It is not only a matter of “building it and they will come.” Rather, it requires a concerted effort by all areas of the institution in a process called Strategic Enrolment Management.

In today’s post-secondary environment there are mounting pressures that require colleges to invest in enrolment planning. Increased competition, changing demographics, declining government funding, advancements in technology, higher expectations from students [to have more choice in an ongoing world-wide pandemic] have created the perfect storm.

The world was different in the 1970’s when the concept of strategic enrolment management was born at Boston College. The baby boom was over and for the first time in decades, enrolments were declining; this led to a panic among the American higher education system. The linear, relied-upon process of moving students through the admission funnel was no longer working and in response, more areas of the college were brought into the process to create a “cradle to endowment” approach to student recruitment. It was focussed on relationship building and creating a life-long attachment to the institution. As enrolments improved, the strategic enrolment management framework expanded and data became a critical component to enable schools to make informed decisions on how to influence their enrolments, but it didn’t take away the issue of competition for students. Instead, competition intensified.

Over time SEM has matured, but in Canada it is still relatively in its infancy and not broadly understood. At its best, strategic enrolment management involves all areas of the college. It is informed with an academic context with a laser focus on being aligned with the college’s mission. For us it means fulfilling our promise to transform hopes and dreams into life-long success.

American Strategic Enrolment Management practitioner, Mr. Michael Dolence, described it in this way when he spoke about the need to look at strategic enrolment management through an academic lens. Dolence said “Curriculum drives enrolment, enrolment drives revenue and revenue drives everything else.”

But, that doesn’t mean that it is only the academic area of an institution that should be concerned about enrolments. We all should be because enrolments are the foundation of our school.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all post-secondary schools to be more responsive to student needs. It has also caused some financial strain within schools and therefore has created intense pressure to meet enrolment targets. As a College, strategic enrolment management is a tool that will help us navigate the storm.

Strategic enrolment management has many layers. It is a data-informed process that helps colleges develop strategies that positively influence their enrolments, examples include [but are not limited to]:

  • Determining new programming areas;
  • Setting enrolment targets;
  • Supporting student success through effective retention initiatives;
  • Staying abreast of labour market changes that impact enrolments and managing waitlists.

It requires strong leadership, but it also requires buy-in from all areas of the college. All employees can make a difference. Sharing a social media post that promotes the colleges programs and services to your personal network can help the college reach more prospective students. Our janitorial teams keeping out campuses clean and vibrant supports our recruitment team when they tour prospective students, and faculty and student services staff working together to create reach ahead programming for incoming students are prime examples of Strategic Enrolment Management at work.

In contributing to the College’s strategic enrolment efforts, it takes a village, and Algonquin has continually united to support great causes. There’s none greater that helping the college recruit and retain students so they can make us Algonquin proud.


Comments

Comments are closed.