I have just finished my first year in the Ed.D program and, I must confess, the workload was significantly more intense than I had anticipated. Nonetheless, I have been able to remain engaged with other facets of my professional life. To wit, I have been busy working with the research committee for the National Association of Graduate Admission Professionals. Our mandate has been to facilitate the critical study of the field of graduate enrollment management for the purposes of increasing the effectiveness of graduate enrollment management professionals. Thus, this post considers the growing definition of a new class of professional: the graduate enrollment manager.
Now, the concept of enrollment management (EM) has been around for quite awhile. Coomes (2000) traces the arc of professional enrollment management back to the 1920s, when the first Dean's of admission were hired, and into the 1970s when the EM concept was coined in response to work in the field of student retention. Thus, the professional enrollment manager became linked to students' choices to persist and the institutional programs designed to influence such choices.
Astin (1977) and Tinto (1987) both took longitudinal looks at the causes of student choices to persist and theorized about the causes of attrition. Their work has shaped the profession of student affairs in significant ways over the past 30 years. It was found that students' levels of involvement on campus correlated with decisions to persist, which also correlated with increased odds of completing a degree program. If you ever participated in a "snowboarding club" or joined a greek letter organization, a big reason these programs receive institutional funding is because such programs were found to be somehow linked to students' choices to "stick around" and complete their degree programs. However, their research revealed differential effects on students' choices to persist and leave,which prompted further investigation.
Hossler, Bean, and Associates' (1990) work on the subject of EM formalized the forms and functions of EM and informs the development of a graduate EM model. The authors found that EM is not simply an admissions function, but is a function of many separate divisions, offices, and postsecondary education professionals. While admissions offices play a key role in the EM process, EM activities extend into advising offices, extracurricular activities, and even after graduation. EM is therefore to be regarded as any activity directed at securing institutional vitality by attending to the affective and cognitive needs of all institutions' most precious resource: students.
On its face it seems that graduate EM is no different from undergraduate EM and that the distinction is only a difference in name. However, I am finding that the graduate EM professionals of NAGAP disagree. The NAGAP Research and Global Issues Committee is presently conducting a large, qualitative study on the topic of Graduate EM. A large data collection was conducted at the annual conference and the committee is preparing to analyze data from the 62 participants in the focus group session. Other colleagues are hosting conversations on Twitter using #GEM and #EMChat to help add to our knowledge of what distinguishes the graduate EM profession from the undergraduate EM profession.
It is an exciting time to be involved with NAGAP and I look forward to sharing the results from our current projects. Graduate EM is a complex activity and I am confident that NAGAP will muster the necessary financial and intellectual resources needed to increase our understanding of how to influence graduate students' decisions to enroll, persist, and succeed. Lastly, I will try to post some of my reflections from my doctoral program as time allows. Now, please excuse me, as I have readings to start for the first week of the summer session!
Astin, A. W. (1977). What matters in college? Four critical years. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Coomes, M. D. (2000). The historical roots of enrollment management. New Directions for Student Services, 2000(89), 5-10. doi: 10.1002/ss.8901
Hossler, D., Bean, J. P., & Associates (1990). The strategic management of college enrollments. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
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