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ERIC Number: EJ1463845
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Oct
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2325-4750
Available Date: 0000-00-00
College Enrollment and Digital Maturity: A Quantitative Study of Small New England Colleges
Jas Singh; Leonard Samborowski
Strategic Enrollment Management Quarterly, v12 n3 p9-19 2024
Smaller colleges and universities feel an increasing urgency to respond to an enrollment cliff, a decline in student matriculation created by demographic changes and the convenience and efficacy of online teaching modalities. This research study investigated the impact of digital maturity on enrollment in small colleges with registration of less than 5,000 in the New England region of the United States. The study focused on understanding the impact of digital maturity through a comprehensive analysis of 77 college websites. It used a Poisson regression model to analyze domain rating, URL rating, backlinks, keywords, traffic, paid marketing, and a proprietary ranking ("Ahrefs") to understand the impact of these components of digital maturity on enrollment. "Ahrefs" was chosen as it is a respected search engine optimization (SEO) online toolset used by marketers from world-leading companies to analyze and improve their websites. The findings suggest a positive impact of digital maturity on college enrollment. Moreover, the study highlighted that digital maturity is an integral part of the stature and reputation of a college. The research proposes that digital maturity was one of the key pillars of attracting students to new colleges, inseparable from other factors like "athletics," "housing," "campus beauty," "community feel," and "reputation of faculty." This research is significant for college administrators who aim to improve their enrollment rates, particularly considering the constrained demographics and continued changes in education delivery. This research also proposes a framework of digital maturity assessment that college administrators can use to assess and create their enrollment strategy.
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. One Dupont Circle NW Suite 520, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 301-490-7651; e-mail: pubs@aacrao.org; Web site: https://www.aacrao.org/research-publications/quarterly-journals/sem-quarterly
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A