Re-Imagining Strategic Enrollment Management in Higher Education

Resumen

Nationally, higher education institutions of all types are facing increasing challenges with reaching enrollment benchmarks. According to Inside Higher Education, (June 21, 2018), community college enrollments specifically will continue declining over the next several years.

This challenge is further complicated by declines in state funding and rising demands for improved performance outcomes, as well as projections that a lower number of traditional- age college students age 18 to 22 years old will be entering college beginning in 2025 due to lower birth rates during the recession.

The withdrawal of adult learners aged 25 and older who have typically enrolled at greater rates during weaker economic periods with high unemployment will also contribute to widening the gap in enrollments.

The conversion of all of these factors does present a critical challenge for colleges and universities. This is a challenge that will require an examination of institutional practices and the generation of innovative solutions. One such solution is the reimagining and expansion of strategic enrollment management approaches to provide an answer, or, at the very least, lead institutions in the right direction.