Tuition Reliance as a Driver of Admissions Policies
State funding of higher education has continued to decrease over the past few decades, and as a result most higher education institutions have made tuition policy a central piece of their operating budget. Bradley Barnes, Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions & Scholarships at the University of Alabama (UA), gave a presentation on how this reliance can be a driver of admission policy.
Citing Resource Dependency Theory (RDT), which states that œorganizations deprived of critical revenues will seek new resources,┬" many institutions have turned to the commercialization of enrollment management to satisfy student and organizational demands. The contentious issue for public universities is how to balance private interest and the stated public service they are entrusted to provide. In essence, how does a public flagship university maintain its institutional mission when it starts to view students as a source of revenue?
Mr. Barnes shared how UA reacted to drops in state funding by actively recruiting out-of-state students, a policy that has culminated in a near 40% out-of-state enrollment today. The potential for in-state residents to be œcrowded out┬" runs much higher in this model, but he argues that budgetary constraints necessitate it, to an extent. While potential solutions to the problem vary, all agreed that tuition policy alone must not dictate admissions policies.
Understanding, Adapting, and Re-defining “Graduate” Enrollment Management
The National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP) is conducting a study on the evolution of Graduate Enrollment Management (GEM) in order to develop a set of best practices. The GEM model is an emerging enrollment management model that offers students a one-stop shop in multiple areas such as graduate recruitment and admission, financial aid and degree certification. True GEM models follow the student through their entire life cycle, often requiring GEM professionals to cross-train in responsibilities outside recruitment and admissions.
Results from NAGAP's first focus group found that 80 percent of respondents (43 people) reported that their role has evolved from recruitment and admissions, expanding to address additional responsibilities such as institutional strategic planning, financial aid and alumni relations.
However, preliminary findings also show institutions lack the structure to execute the true GEM model, ultimately failing to sufficiently address the diverse needs of the graduate student population. Institutional structure at some colleges and universities maintain an undergraduate enrollment management œone-size-fits-all┬" focus. In other cases, institutional strategic alignment of GEM reveals isolation at the senior leadership level.
NAGAP will continue to distribute surveys and conduct focus groups through their winter and summer institutes and Annual Conference. NAGAP expects to release a publication of findings and recommendations for best practices in winter 2014.
Knocking at the College Door
Brian Prescott of the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (WICHE) presented a dynamic session on his organization's most recent Knocking at the College Door report, which estimates demographic changes in the graduates of public and private high schools throughout the country.
The new projections note increasing rates of minority high school graduates, especially relative to traditional 'majority' demographics, by 2020. The report, which uses cohort survival rate (CSR) methodology for its population projections, predicts a 41 percent increase in Hispanic graduates, a 30 percent increase in Asian/Pacific Islander graduates, and a 2 percent increase in Native American graduates by 2020. Meanwhile, data suggests that white and black non-Hispanic graduates will decrease by 12 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Nationwide, the number of high school graduates is expected to drop and then stabilize until 2020.
The report's predictions will come to bear on the decision-making of college administrators, especially. Changes in both the size and identity of the applicant pool in the coming years will require evaluation of current and future recruitment and application practices, as well as student services.
By: AACRAO Connect