Profile of an Effective Enrollment Manager

The concept of enrollment management has been around since the mid 1970s. Enrollment management involves planning strategically to achieve a sustained competitive advantage and bringing together functions related to recruiting, funding, and retaining students in order to implement the plan. Enrollment management organizations are as varied as higher education institutions themselves. There really is no one right model. The best model for an institution depends on institutional history, the enrollment challenges being faced, and the strengths of the people involved. Regardless of the title and official portfolio of the campus leader who heads the effort, however, there are five key attributes common to all successful enrollment managers. Attribute #1: Fact-based Management The successful enrollment manager must be data-driven-must be willing to use data to plan, monitor, and strategically deploy resources, which are often limited, to meet enrollment goals. While enrollment managers themselves need not have extensive quantitative training, they must respect the effectiveness of a quantitative approach to decision-making, and be willing to work with and learn from experts well versed in statistical analysis and measurement techniques. For example, as institutions seek to expand their geographic draw, using data on likely markets is critical to effective targeting of outreach efforts. Without data, it is easy to try to do too much in too many places, resulting in a diluted effort that produces little byway of significant results.Tools like College Board's Enrollment Planning Service (EPS) are available to help enrollment managers better understand, with data, which markets they have saturated, and which still have opportunity for growth. In addition, using data available in the student systems on campus, staff can identify primary, secondary, and tertiary markets for travel planning and consequently develop appropriate levels of relationship building with each market. Attribute #2: Collaboration Because managing enrollments ideally involves everyone on campus from staff to faculty to senior administrators to alumni, the enrollment manager must be able to build support for enrollment efforts, engaging everyone-even those not reporting in the enrollment division-to play their appropriate role in the effort with enthusiasm. This requires excellent skills of persuasion and motivation on the part of the enrollment manager, as well as the ability to listen and seek insight from others. Developing and sustaining an institutional commitment to achieving stated enrollment goals is a race without a finish line. Typically, in addition to the enrollment management division itself, there will need to be a committee structure comprised of a cross-section of faculty and staff from inside and outside the enrollment division to ensure that the necessary communication and consensus building takes place. However, plans with no follow-through won't be productive. Here is how Barbara Fritze, Vice President for Enrollment and Educational Services at Gettysburg College has ensured successful collaboration: The key to success is solid data, collaboration, communication, and a willingness to bring everyone around the table (Chief Financial Officer, Admissions, Financial Aid, Institutional Research, College Life, and Academics) to inform and to focus on the important issues. On my campus, we established an Enrollment Management Committee to deal with everything from financial aid strategy, to researching tuition levels for board consideration, to retention research. The committee is knowledgeable about enrollment issues and is poised to address and respond to questions in other conversations on campus. We listen, listen, and listen. We effectively use data and research to inform decision-making. Then the enrollment management team persuades, informs, and motivates people to take action. Finally, we celebrate our success! …