Making Space for Stepping Back

Time is a precious commodity for everyone in higher education. Every day you balance short-term demands with long-term planning. If you are like me, it’s easy to be in “reaction mode” every day and it’s challenging to carve out time to think about strategic topics. How many times have you had your best ideas on a run, on a long flight without WiFi, or even in the shower? Stepping back from day-to-day issues (even for a few hours) allows for much needed space to contemplate higher issues.

That’s why we are bringing back the one-day RNL Enrollment Workshops, coming to St. Louis, Seattle, and New York City this fall. We want to create a space where you can spend a day off-campus to focus on strategic initiatives, learn from colleagues, and better understand market trends. We’ve packed the day to deliver critical content—research, trends, strategies, innovations, interactions.

These enrollment workshops this fall will have two tracks:

• Traditional student enrollment
• Graduate and online enrollment

We’ve built the traditional track with four key objectives:

1. Discuss New Research the Traditional Population and Behavioral Trends

We will dive into:

• Updated national and regional benchmarking data
• Current admission and student retention metrics and best practices
• Evolving market expectations
• Addressing the escalating costs of recruiting and retaining traditional students (for instance, see our Cost of Recruiting an Undergraduate Report).

2. Leveraging Analytics to Maximize Traditional Enrollment ROI

ROI and data-driven decision making go hand-in-hand. In this session we’ll talk about the growing availability of data and key performance indicators you need to gather and which data will be the most important in setting priorities and making decisions. We will discuss this in the context of the entire traditional enrollment funnel, from search and inquiries, to applicants, through late-funnel campaigns to increase yield.

3. The Growing Importance of Student Success

The “enrollment cliff” has made it more important than ever for colleges and universities to retain and support students through graduation. At the same time, more students (and their parents) are asking if college is worth it, if they will graduate, and if they will find a job in their field. We’ll discuss best practices and innovative ways universities are supporting students to persist.

4. Building a Framework for Growth

As you take this day to step back from day-to-day responsibilities, we what to discuss three critical factors for growth:

• Data-informed decision making
• Ensuring that your budget is aligned with your goals
• Using predictive analytics to guide your strategies and focus your resources

We will explore practical tools and uncover insights for creating action and business plans to back up your strategic enrollment plan.

Spend a day working toward sustainable enrollment

I hope you will join us for one of our three workshops. You can register and learn more about each:

• St. Louis, October 18
• Seattle, October 20
• New York City, November 3

It will be a great opportunity to connect with enrollment experts and colleagues from other institutions. I know you will find it a day well spent.