Building a foundational approach for strategic enrollment management (SEM) is necessary to succeed in today's volatile higher education environment. It all begins with a mutual understanding of SEM and aligning the campus with the enrollment management organization. This article shares how to bring campus stakeholders together to optimize…

Demographic challenges, increased competition, and many other issues have resulted in trying times for all campus leaders, but especially for those who hold leadership roles in enrollment management. While there are numerous leadership texts that can be helpful in navigating these challenges, the author details two texts that have been incredibly…

Graduate enrollment management (GEM) is a relatively new organizational concept and discipline. As an emerging profession, a common body of knowledge to structure and regulate the profession is critical to its professionalization. Identifying competencies is one method to create that knowledge and is a well-established method of measuring a…

This article presents a practitioner-defined research agenda for enrollment management. This agenda consists of 45 topics for research identified by enrollment management practitioners as the most pressing topics/issues that they regard as ones that would benefit from a study conducted by researchers. Implications of this agenda for practitioners…

Enrollment management has been adopted by many institutions not only as a strategy, but also as an administrative division responsible for managing enrollment. This study aims to understand how institutional goals and environmental factors contribute to the organizational structure of enrollment management divisions, as well as how the composition…

The June 2022 60-Second Survey invited all AACRAO members to provide their perspectives on what the role of the registrar "should" be at their institution. Particular attention was paid to what the role of the registrar "should" be for student engagement and enrollment management. These data will be used to shape a roundtable…

College enrollment rates have been on the decline over the past years, with more high school graduates choosing alternative pathways such as getting employed in an entry level job, pursuing a technical or trade training program, starting a small business, and entrepreneurship. This phenomenon may have been exacerbated by major events such as The…

The chief enrollment management officer (CEMO) is often responsible for optimizing institutional enrollment in ways that exceed the direct authority and responsibility of that office. To be successful, the CEMO needs to develop a high level of influence across the campus. Three particularly effective ways that the CEMO can exert influence to…

The goal of this work was to build the leadership aptitude of managers in the Enrollment Management Group (EMG) at Duquesne University and to study the efficacy of an intervention--two specific and intentional leadership working sessions. The project used an improvement science framework with survey and interview methods to determine to what…

Portugal, a semi-peripheral player in international student mobility (ISM), has historically attracted few international students. Against a significant growth in international enrolments in recent years, this paper explores the institutional strategies underpinning this expansion in 13 Portuguese higher education institutions with the highest…

Colleges and universities are increasingly seeking innovations to enhance their strategic enrollment management (SEM) outcomes and processes (Bontrager 2008, Bontrager, Ingersoll and Ingersoll 2012). Linking SEM with systemic institutional strategic planning and assessment processes can enhance those outcomes and processes through integrated…

Kimberley Buster-Williams, Vice President for Enrollment Management at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, reflects upon her career progression and the early years, how she has approached leadership using her grandmother's quips, and what she's experienced, adjusted to, and learned along the way. Additionally, she shares how she would…

This article is the third of a three-part series based on the book, "Basic Guide to Financial Aid," which recently won NASFAA's Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award. The contents within are adapted from the publication, with additional emphasis on the impact federal student aid administration has on non-financial aid professionals in higher…

This empirical study presents a thematic analysis of the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) framework from the perspectives of senior managers and program manager in Hong Kong. Data were collected from 25 in-depth interviews with self-financing institutions in Hong Kong. They were processed qualitatively through thematic analysis. The study has…

The business/management problem addressed in this study is that as a result of the lacking organizational approach to service, the community college student experience in pre-learning service are inconsistent, contributing to the decade-long enrollment decline, resulting in fiscal challenges. The purpose of this qualitative systematic review is…