The relationship between central and academic units can cause tension within an institution as there is a desire to define ownership over activities, policies, and processes associated with enrollment management (e.g., recruitment, admissions, academic scheduling). This article proposes a new enrollment planning model that can be used to navigate…

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…

Set in 2023, this study was deployed at the lowest point of enrollment in the California Community College (CCC) system since 2008, which was the highest point of enrollment in the system's history. The purpose of this qualitative, grounded theory study was twofold: (a) to understand the phenomenon of California community colleges (CCCs)…

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…

The landscape of higher education in the United States currently comprises 5918 institutions serving approximately 18.1 million students. Among them, 1833 are small institutions with full-time equivalent enrollments of 3000 or less. In this article, the authors examine financial and enrollment challenges facing small institutions and the potential…

This dissertation study examines the ways that a large, public flagship university uses automatic-consideration merit scholarships to meet the goals of the institution, particularly as they relate to enrollment, university prestige, nonresident-to-resident balancing, and funding. Employing a mixed-methods design, the author uses qualitative and…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the relationship between a One-Stop Shop unit and student retention rates at Texas public and private higher education institutions. This study entitled "Exploring the Relationship between a One-Stop Shop and Student Retention" seeks to explore the unit in which brings together the…

The ever-expanding role of marketing and its increasing influence as a primary driver for colleges and universities to grow awareness and consideration, invite applications, and deliver enrollment yield is more critical and relied on than ever. The marketing function's rise to prominence in higher education is fueled by many external forces,…

Determining best practices for graduate enrollment requires continuous dedication by graduate enrollment personnel to identify innovative and relevant recruitment strategies to attract potential graduate applicants. The dynamic landscape of higher education creates further complexity as these best practices must also align with institutional…

This study examines enrollment melt patterns in a community college campus, aiming to quantify the predictive factors associated with students' likelihood of melting. Using a combination of survey and administrative data from applicants to a California Community College campus in Southern California, the author estimates changes in enrollment…

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…

The COVID-19 pandemic created lingering challenges related to enrollment and made transparent the need for institutions to examine processes and remove enrollment barriers. Higher education may be perfectly poised to implement deep and lasting change that could result in increased access and improved retention. As student populations become…

Every year, the national high school graduation rate is declining and impacting the number of students applying to colleges. Moreover, the majority of students are applying to more than one college. This makes a lot of colleges to be highly competitive in student recruitment for enrollment and thus, the necessity for institutions to anticipate…

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…

We investigate operating costs at 682 public community colleges in the United States over a 15-year period (2004-2018). The results reveal that costs are spatially correlated across neighboring institutions, indicating the need for a spatial analysis. An institution's actions are associated with changes in costs for that particular institution…