If it's true that enrollment management (EM) was born on the East Coast sometime in the early to mid-1970s (Boston College lays the strongest claim), then the process would be "30-something" today. EM has certainly evolved and, if it is to remain relevant, should continue to evolve as institutional needs change and as institutions themselves change.
As Dennis O'Brien, former president of the University of Rochester (N.Y.), said in his inaugural address more than 20 years ago, "Institutions find their inner meaning from the leading forces which produce their present form." Our challenges and opportunities, internal and external, shape how we need to organize to meet our goals. Certainly by definition that means for EM there can be no perfect model or ideal organizational structure. Rather, it is a function of time and place, strengths and weaknesses, goals and ambitions, mission and vision unique to each institution-public/private, four-year/two-year, for-profit/not-for-profit, undergraduate/graduate/professional, liberal arts/pre-professional, etc.
EM's Roots and Purpose
Enrollment management was a logical response for higher education when suddenly the marketplace changed from seller to buyer and admissions directors transitioned from gatekeepers to salesmen. Simply stated, it was all in the numbers.
The unprecedented growth that higher education had realized since World War II was coming to a predictable end. Demographic forecasts were dire. The quality of American education took on national significance with the U.S. Department of Education's "A Nation at Risk" report, and costs-real or perceived-were reaching prohibitive levels at a time when traditional support from federal and state resources was staying flat at best, decreasing at worst.
If that wasn't enough to call previous business models and practices into question, the emergence of the for-profit sector as legitimate and worthy competitors forced many senior officers and governing board members to rethink how well they were positioned to handle a dynamic environment with unpredictable, and even unforeseen, changes. Although higher education had exhibited quite healthy skepticism for new management models (note the rapid death of Total Quality Management in higher education), enrollment management nonetheless became a common response to these megachanges.
Today, enrollment management has further mutated and evolved into an industry bellwether.
So what then is enrollment management? It is a process that brings together often disparate functions having to do with recruiting, funding, tracking, retaining, and replacing students as they move toward, within, and away from institutions. Goals often accompany enrollment management initiatives to detail the focus and intended outcomes or deliverables. The most generic goals would include:
The Organization for Enrollment Management: to organize departments that relate to the management of enrollments in such a way that the coordination of staff, flow of information, and the integration of decisions can most easily be facilitated
Student Information Systems and Research: to create an integrated student database and the capacity to use systems, including the web, for coordinated research, planning, recruitment, and communication
Admissions Marketing: to develop an admissions marketing program in order to attract appropriate students in sufficient numbers
Pricing and Financial Aid Strategies: to implement pricing and financial aid strategies that will optimize the institution's ability to generate net tuition revenue and attract and retain the desired academic, racial/ethnic, and social/economic mix of students
Demand Analysis and Institutional Response: to develop a capability to anticipate immediate and long-term student demand and methods of improving the institution's ability to respond to these interests
Retention and Transfer Students: to formalize an institutional retention program in order to identify reasons for attrition, to minimize it to whatever extent desirable, and to enroll qualified transfer students as replacements
