How to Engage with More Prospective Students and Increase Enrollment

It’s a difficult enough task for admissions departments to attract students to their university or college at the best of times. Now this challenge is even bigger. 

Higher education enrollment is at a record-breaking low. From Spring 2020 to 2022, U.S. post-secondary enrollment dropped by 7.4%. The numbers are even worse for international student enrollment, down 22.7% across the same time period. 

To reverse this trend, colleges need to engage with more prospective students – how, where and when they want to be. But first, they need to understand what the key barriers to engagement are, and how it’s affecting them. 

1. Declining enrollment 

Enrollment numbers are down and have been for over 2 years. With 9.4% less undergraduates enrolled in US colleges today compared to 2020, the same number of colleges are fighting over a reduced pool of prospective students. 

2. Expectation for immediate support 

Grown up surrounded by the instant gratification of technology, today’s students demand fast support from their higher education institution. 72% of Gen Z expect to interact with someone immediately when they reach out. Admissions departments must meet Gen Z’s need for speed or lose students to competing institutions. 

3. Student “melt” 

Student melt refers to students enrolling in college but failing to attend when classes begin. This figure can be as high as 40%. To keep students on track during the summer months, admissions teams need to make information easily accessible to prospective students and keep communication lines open. 

Now you know what the key engagement challenges are, it’s time to learn how you can tackle each of the to raise intake at your school. Download the free guide below for all this insight and more. 

Top 3 Admission Engagement Challenges and How to Tackle Them

Learn how your college can overcome the key prospective student engagement challenges and being increasing enrollment.

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