enrollment mgt in time of challenge & change

#NYSFAAA2012Enrollment Management in a Time of Change and Challenge

Dan Lundquist

October 10, 2012

Agenda: Questions & Answers

• What IS our role?– What should it be?

– How do we best fulfill it?

• Situation analysis: Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object? – External Market

– Internal Constituents On-Campus: the “State of Enrollment Management”

• Call to action– We serve internal and external constituencies

– We need to be more than “just” tactical doers

– We must share the knowledge garnered from our positions astride internal and external for the betterment of all stakeholders, internal/external, current/future

– The Human Capital enterprise deserves no less

Accept no less: return to your office empowered and model a dynamic new role

What IS “Enrollment Management?”

• NO ONE REALLY KNOWS

– there is no agreed-upon definition

• It varies widely from campus to campus

• Responsibility and authority are often not connected

• It is safe to conclude it is

– inefficient,

– subjective,

– political, and

– often not connected to market realities

What SHOULD “Enrollment Management” Be?

• It should be a pre-enrollment to graduation process

• It should be a partnership among the Adult Mentors at an institution

• It should be everyone’s business and everyone should have a defined role and accountability

• It should be a conversation that supports education and commerce

• It should be engaging

• MOST of what it REALLY IS is fun and rewarding

Situation Analysis: the Market

• Of those who should be thinking about highered (which is not everyone)

– Despite data showing highered has never been more valuable, many are wary

– Question ROI (cost/value)

– Are unsophisticated about net cost

– Are worried about debt

• And that group – OUR “BASE” – is shrinking

HIGHERED VALUE: REAL

HIGHERED VALUE: GROWING

Supply Chain Gut Check: Income

Supply Chain Gut Check: Debt

Supply Chain Gut Check: Price

Gut Check: Stealth Money• BANK OF HOME: many families owe more on their

mortgages than their homes are worth. Since home values peaked in April 2006, home prices have dropped 34 percent.

• PLUS or minus: the size of Parent PLUS loans, available to the parents of undergraduate students, has shot up over the last decade.

– the average loan size at a few schools is particularly burdensome, with some parents taking out over $30,000 in debt in only one year.

• DYING BREED: more school counselors have been telling me about the role of “stealth money,” grandparents stepping in the help bridge gaps. The clock is ticking on that source.

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Trend in Family Ability to Pay and Willingness to Pay

PARENTS SAY

AVG EFC AVG OFFER

College Board and Art & Science Group, LLC.

Reality Check: You See

“You Say”: NYSFAAA member survey data

Future Check: from unwilling to unable to priced-out in a generation

• Across the affluence spectrum, ability and willingness to pay is decreasing at best.

• As ability to pay increases, willingness to pay decreases:

– more and more students are going to their “second choice” colleges because of cost.

• If the more-affluent current parents are balking at paying today’s costs what will the next generation of parents do?

– …the first American generation pundits predict less well off than their parents….

• The next cohort of less-affluent parents will have an even more difficult time paying if college prices freeze today.

Solutions?

• Affordability is the “hot new college amenity”

– The FINANCIAL FIT has never been more important

• Colleges need to be more affordable andeffectively promote that

– The dial must be turned back on costs colleges incur that have forced them to pass higher costs on to families

• We must be advocates for sustainability, for our institutions and for our “customers”

“Perfect Storm”: See It Coming?Expenses UP, Revenue DOWN

So What Do We Do?

• We need to be more than “just” tactical doers

• “Enrollment management” must be a financial aid/admissions partnership

• Financial aid and Admissions must view themselves as and be viewed as more than “just” recruiters and dispursers

• Enrollment managers must be recognized as important sources of strategic intellectual and financial capital

How We Doin’?


Grade:

B

Grade:

C-

So What Do We Do?• We must share the knowledge garnered from our

positions astride internal and external for the betterment of all stakeholders

– internal/external

– current/future

• We need to urge leadership to:

– square revenue with overhead expense

– focus on relevant metrics (revenue vs. discount)

– accept their stewardship responsibility to objectively look to the future

Call to ActionSettle for Nothing Less than the Enterprise Deserves

Accept no less:

Return to your office empowered to perform

and model a dynamic new role.

Higher Education deserves nothing less.

Read www.DanLundquist.blogspot.comFollow @DanLundquistWrite [email protected] or [email protected] www.EducationConsultancy.orgCall (518) 986-1842

enrollment mgt in time of challenge & change

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