Eduventures Enrollment Management Learning Collaborative

The Eduventures Enrollment Management Learning Collaborative (EM-LC) is a member-based research consortium designed to help colleges and universities improve the functioning of core marketing, recruitment, financial aid, and retention processes. The EM-LC provides insight and direction to identify best management practices, benchmark performance, and improve these core processes through research, analysis, and networking opportunities.

The EM-LC provides Collaborative Research, Custom Analysis, and opportunities for interactions with our analysts and decision-makers at peer institutions. Research is organized into seven themes: affordability and financial aid; branding and identity; community college transfers; marketing, recruiting, and admissions; organization and staffing; regional/out-of-state recruiting; and student retention and persistence.

Recent and upcoming Collaborative Research studies include:

Managing Affordability: Private Debt, Institutional Debt, and Ability to Pay
Ongoing increases in tuition costs and rising levels of student debt are increasingly influencing students’ ability to attend and persist at the college or university of their choice. This study will take a comprehensive look at total student debt by adding institutional debt obligations (i.e., state, federal, and institutional loans) and private debt obligations (i.e., credit cards, personal loans, and home equity loans). It also will look at how debt loads vary by major and student demographics. The outputs of the study will allow member institutions to benchmark their total debt levels and affordability indicators with peer institutions, and to identify student groups most at risk for not enrolling or not persisting as a result of concerns about debt. Data collection for the project will include a survey of fourth-year students and their parents, where possible, as well as secondary data collection and analysis.

Authentic Messaging in Recruiting
Previous Eduventures Collaborative Research has shown that students are seeking high-quality authentic information about colleges and universities in order to best inform key decisions during their college search, and that the most trusted sources of information for prospective students are campus visits and institutional Web sites. As such, this next phase of Collaborative Research seeks to elaborate on the uses of admissions Web sites and campus visits during specific phases of the college search. Data collection will include focus groups with high school seniors to draw out detailed qualitative data on authentic messaging during recruiting, a survey of high school seniors, and case studies about campus visits. The study will be reported in two chapters, the first focusing on student perspectives on authentic messages, and the second focusing on practices in presenting authentic messages during campus visits.

Parents as Influencers: College Search From the Parental Perspective
Eduventures’ research has identified parents as the most important influence on a student’s college search process. This Collaborative Research study will explore the influence that parents have on their children’s college search. A survey of a representative sample of parents will investigate parents’ involvement in the college search, including the onset of search activity from parents’ perspectives, usage of information sources, types of information sought, frequency and nature of college-search discussions with children, interactions with admissions and financial aid personnel, and level of perceived influence on a child’s college choice.

Some examples of past topics covered by Collaborative Research include:

• Key Drivers of Student Value: The Emergence of Educational ROI
• College Search and the Millennial Generation I: Information, Influencers, and Readiness
• Building the Low-SES and First-Generation Pipeline
• Maximizing the Effectiveness of the Admissions Web Site

Some examples of topics covered by Custom Analysis include:

• Financial Aid Leveraging: With Particular Attention to Out-of-State Students
• Regional Comparison of Brand Awareness: An Early Look at Perceptions of High School Sophomores
• Virginia Community College Transfer Students: Historical and Projected Accounts
• Key Drivers of Student Value: Profile of Faith-Based Students
• Balancing Out-of-State Enrollment

Please contact us to explore how membership in the Eduventures Enrollment Management Learning Collaborative can help you make better, more-informed decisions.