Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) as a
Transformation Agent:
KCTCS Enrollment Symposium
May 18, 2015
Tom Green, Ph.D.
Associate Executive Director, Consulting and SEM
About AACRAO
• Non-profit - 100+ years old professional
organization
• Largest publisher of SEM content in the world
• Our publications, webinars and conferences set
the industry standard for approaches to longterm enrollment health
• Access to the best practices and leading
thoughts of our 11,000+ higher education
admissions and registration professionals
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About AACRAO Consulting
1. Developed in 2005-2006 in response to member
requests for unbiased assistance from experts:
– No representation of specific products or services
but recommendations on those methods, services
and products in the market that best fit the needs
of the institution.
2. Based the concept of “colleagues helping
colleagues.”
3. Action orientation: practical solutions that
produce results.
4. Roughly 50-80 projects per year.
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SEM History and Definitions
A brief history of Strategic Enrollment Management
(SEM)
1. Earliest written references are in 1972 by Maguire
and Campanella from Boston College to “enrollment
management”.
2. Adopted by admissions and marketing professionals
in the mid-1980’s in response to “baby bust”
demographic shifts:
•
Large infrastructure development from 1960’s to 1980’s to
accommodate “massification” and “baby boom”.
•
Sharp declines in 18-year-old population.
•
Most popular among private colleges and universities.
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A brief history of SEM
3. Early versions featured enhanced marketing and financial
discounting methods.
4.
1990:
– Hossler and Bean publish “Strategic Management of College
Enrollments”.
– AACRAO forms first SEM conference.
5.
1990’s:
– Expansion of tuition discounting practices among privates.
– Enrollment management divisions start to form.
– Emphasis on retention starts to emerge.
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A brief history of SEM
6.
7.
Early 2000’s:
•
Public universities become engaged in SEM.
•
Tuition discounting expands to public sector.
Mid-2000’s:
•
Community colleges become engaged in SEM.
•
Disruption to marketing and communication methods by Internet:
•
8.
New techniques and concepts begin to emerge.
2010’s:
•
SEM spreads worldwide.
•
Information-age marketing and communication becomes robust.
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What is Strategic Enrollment Management
(SEM)?
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.
Hossler, 1990
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What is Strategic Enrollment Management
(SEM)?
Strategic enrollment management is
a concept and process that enables
the fulfillment of institutional mission
and students’ educational goals.
Bontrager
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What is Strategic Enrollment Management
(SEM)?
SEM is an organizational mindset that is
focused on internal student success and
experiences and the external
environment as a means to more
effectively relate its institutional mission
and values to its key stakeholders and
audiences.
Green, 2014
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The purposes of SEM are Achieved by…
1.
Establishing clear goals for the number and types of students
needed to fulfill the institutional mission
2.
Promoting students’ academic success by improving access,
transition, persistence, and graduation
3.
Promoting institutional success by enabling effective strategic
and financial planning
4.
Creating a data-rich environment to inform decisions and
evaluate strategies
Bontrager
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The purposes of SEM are Achieved by…
5. Improving process, organizational and financial
efficiency and outcomes
6. Strengthening communications and marketing with
internal and external stakeholders
7. Increasing collaboration among departments across
the campus to support the enrollment program
Bontrager
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SEM planning is…
1.
Future and long-term focused:
•
2.
Data-informed:
•
3.
Knowing what we want five to ten years from now, not just for next
year’s budget.
We seek evidence to support our goals and claims.
Challenging:
•
Focusing the institution’s resources on a few highly important items
requires narrowing down choices and agreeing that not everyone’s
ideas will make it into the plan.
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SEM planning is not…
1.
Fixing operational issues:
•
2.
Silver bullets or even silver buckshot:
•
3.
Those are inherently not strategic and the SEM plan should not be
used as a cover to address management concerns or problems.
There are strong practices and good models but no quick fixes or
single solutions.
Isolated to one office or area:
•
To become a strong SEM organization, the campus has to link arms
and build an infrastructure that is both formal and informal in
nature
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Why is SEM important today?
1. Accountability for our actions in higher education is greater
than ever:
• Demands for outcomes as prices rise.
• Rankings and ratings.
2. We must be as effective and efficient as possible with
limited resources:
•
•
•
Students and parents are less able and less willing to pay everincreasing costs.
Technology changes rapidly and presents opportunities but also
challenges and expectations.
Inefficient practices ultimately pass on costs to students, making
it harder for them to access and complete degree programs.
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Why is SEM important today?
3.
4.
5.
Student success is the right thing to do:
•
While students must take responsibility for their own education, we
must help them have every reasonable chance to do so.
•
We can no longer associate lack of academic achievement with lack
of will.
Competition for the best students means offering the best
possible services:
•
You are competing with very strong and well-organized institutions.
•
Seamless services can be a competitive advantage.
Institutions must effectively use their resources to attract, enroll
and retain the right students for the institution.
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A look at our SEM status
Purpose & Definition
1. Traditional SEM Model
Strategic
Tactical
Structural
Nominal
Denial
Adapted from Dolence
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Purpose & Definition
1. Traditional SEM Model
Strategic
Denial
Enrollment Trend: Down
Messages:
• “We are subject to forces beyond our
control”
• “It’s just demographics/competition/
economy (pick one)”
Denial
Action: Form a committee, discuss
options
Adapted from Dolence
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Purpose & Definition
1. Traditional SEM Model
Strategic
Nominal
Enrollment Trend: Down
Messages:
• “We have to do something.”
• “We need a silver bullet
recruiting/marketing strategy”
Action: Ad hoc, short-term strategies
Denial
Adapted from Dolence
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Purpose & Definition
1. Traditional SEM Model
Strategic
Structural
Enrollment Trend: Variable
Messages:
• “This isn’t as easy as we thought.”
Denial
Action:
• Limited restructuring
• Continue with short-term strategies
with minimal enrollment management
expertise (or expertise isn’t listened to)
Adapted from Dolence
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Purpose & Definition
1. Traditional SEM Model
Strategic
Tactical
Enrollment Trend: Building to Optimum
Enrollment
Messages:
• “Achieving optimum enrollment will require
fundamental change and campus participation.”
Denial
Action:
• Substantive restructuring
• Strategic planning based on reliable data
• Targeted funding
Adapted from Dolence
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Purpose & Definition
1. Traditional SEM Model
Strategic
Strategic
Enrollment Trend: Achieving Optimum
Enrollment
Messages:
• “We control our enrollment outcomes.”
Denial
Action:
• Stable organizational structure and funding
• Top-level EM support (and leadership?)
Adapted from Dolence
• Consistent planning and assessment cycle
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Purpose & Definition
1. Traditional SEM Model
Strategic
Tactical
Structural
Nominal
Denial
Where Is your institution?
Adapted from Dolence
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How can SEM transform your
enrollment?
Transformational elements of SEM/SEP
1. Aligns expectations for long-term enrollment outcomes
2. Promotes the use of data in decision-making across the institution
3. Focuses efforts and resources on actions and initiatives:
– This is a major emphasis of the SEP process.
4. Brings together institutional teams to discuss and act upon
enrollment issues:
– Initially for planning and ongoing for implementation and monitoring
of the SEP.
5. Provides accountability for enrollment actions and their success.
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Aligning expectations
SEM Planning Framework
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan
Bontrager/Green
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Use of Data
Benchmarking
1. What are appropriate retention/completion rates for my
institution?
– College Results Online
– IPEDS/similar national data sources in Canada and other countries
2. Who are our enrollment peers and why?
– Do we have enrollment aspirational institutions and how do these
relate to our enrollment peers?
– How do we achieve apples-to-apples comparisons?
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Environmental scanning
1. How are demographic trends impacting my institution today and
for the next five to ten years?
– The “Echo Boom” has passed traditional learning ages and will cycle
toward adult learning and graduate, then exit the prime HE years.
– Draining of the Great Plains; declines in the Northeast.
– Aging of the population, generally, in Canada and many US States.
– If our region is declining and we all plan to grow, who will “win and
lose” in this competition for students?
2. Can my institution compete in today’s adult learning market?
3. What is our long-range plan for online education?
– How does that fit into our institutional mission and vision?
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Hope for the future in Kentucky
Source: Brian T. Prescott and Peace Bransberger. Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates (eighth edition). Boulder,
CO: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2012.
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Hope for the future in Kentucky
Source: Brian T. Prescott and Peace Bransberger. Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates (eighth edition). Boulder,
CO: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2012.
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Challenges and opportunities in the future
Source: Brian T. Prescott and Peace Bransberger. Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates (eighth edition). Boulder,
CO: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2012.
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Measuring and assessing enrollment at your
institution
1. Are you tracking KEI beyond one-year retention of freshmen,
entering student numbers or gross graduation rate?
2. How do you know if your enrollment/student success initiatives
are working?
– Do they have clear and measurable goals?
3. Have you identified the barriers to student success at your
institution?
– Multi-year, multivariate data analysis
– Why do students leave after earning 90+ credits but without a
degree?
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Focusing efforts and resources
1. Most SEM planning fails when institutions cannot limit their
ambitions or focus their efforts to the most important initiatives:
– Culture of inclusion and egalitarianism.
– Long lists of great ideas, most of which cannot be funded.
2. How can you determine the best initiatives?
– Impact the greatest number of students
– Have the greatest potential to improve enrollment results
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Building institutional infrastructure
1. Institution-wide teams to plan, implement and monitor
enrollment, long-term.
2. Faculty/staff/administration all have roles in these teams.
3. Clear agenda for planning and monitoring:
– What are the teams supposed to accomplish?
– When?
– Templates and examples to follow as guides.
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Accountability and measurement
1. Another common failure point of SEP/SEM Plans is the absence of
accountability in the plan:
– Who will be responsible for each initiative?
– Clearly-stated expectations/results
2. All initiatives have clearly-measurable results:
– Do the data exist?
– How, when and to whom are they reported?
3. Continuing call for results:
– Executive-level expectations for interim and annual reports of
progress toward long-term enrollment results.
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Getting Ready for SEP
Next steps
1. CAVEAT: We are just in the planning phases of the project and
details (timelines, specific personnel, etc.) are not yet known
2. With KCTCS and campus leadership, consider the right people to
be on SEP teams
3. SEM planning kick-off
4. Review data and information to develop specific and focused
enrollment goals
5. Work with AACRAO Consulting team to develop plans for your
campus
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Questions and
Discussion
Thank you!
Tom Green, Ph.D.
[email protected]
consulting.aacrao.org
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