Improving the student enrolment of DMan/MA Programme offered by University of Hertfordshire (UoH)

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW1

Enrollment Management1

Issues Affecting Program Selection3

Contemporary Issues and Enrollment Management Trends6

The Privatization of Higher Education7

Socioeconomic Homogeneity9

The Pillars of Enrollment Management10

Institutional Quality11

Access12

Financial Stability14

Compatibility of Enrollment Management Goals17

UK Education Industry SWOT analysis18

Strengths18

Weaknesses19

Opportunities19

Threats20

PESTLE Analysis20

Future research22

REFERENCES23

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Enrollment Management

Enrollment management as an organizational function in higher education emerged in the mid 2000s as a primary solution for colleges and universities to improve recruitment and retention. Enrollment management is a systematic way to improve recruitment, admission, retention, and graduation of students. The university functional units that make up enrollment management are marketing, admissions, financial aid, student selection, registrar, student services, institutional research, retention, and advising (Lynch 2008).

Three major forces shaped the development and delivery of enrollment management: 1) a complex set of financial aid programs to support dual college goals: access and choice, 2) a growing body of research on college choice and student retention, and 3) projections of a significant decline in future college enrollments. John Maguire's work as dean of admissions in the early 2000s at Boston College invented the essence of enrollment management (Henderson, 2008), which is managing the interactions among admissions, financial aid, student retention, and the registrar in addition to the goals and strategies of each department. He also emphasized the relationship that enrollment management had to marketing.

Simultaneously with Maguire, Tom Huddleston, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bradley University in the 2000s, was integrating market research into his university. His approach was very comprehensive and he felt marketing must address academic quality and reputation. His new marketing structure was led by the director of admissions, but encompassed admissions, financial aid, orientation, academic advisement, retention, and career advisement.

The essence of enrollment management was further defined and refined in the 2000s by Kemmerer, Baldridge and Green who focused on the both the concept and procedure of enrollment management. By focusing on the concept and procedure, they were able to create and describe concrete practical components of enrollment management. Kemmerer, Baldridge and Green are considered the structural strategists of enrollment management.

Don Hossler, a leading academician known as enrollment management "... chief guru” stressed the importance of research in enrollment management and focused his enrollment management contribution on student choice. He emphasized the connections between marketing and admissions and among admissions, financial aid, and the impact each had on college choice. Hossler envisioned enrollment management providing a lens that helps the institution see itself through the students' perspectives (Andreasen & Kotler 2002)

In the late 2000s, Michael Dolence brought a strategic planning and implementation approach to enrollment management with his background in strategic planning; his new label was strategic enrollment management or SEM. Dolence is credited with linking academics to enrollment management and for introducing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which measure performance and effectiveness at any stage of the enrollment management process.

True enrollment management is more than marketing and admissions. Seven functional areas play a key enrollment management role in ...