How to Pick the Right Enrollment Management System

Increasing higher education enrollment is a complex group challenge. Low or stagnant enrollment isn’t caused by a single factor, and thus, increasing the number of students enrolled at a college or university isn’t possible through a single initiative overseen by any one office. 

Instead, institutions of higher education must implement strategies across multiple departments to attract more prospective students, increase retention, and lower attrition. Managing it all requires steady communication, streamlined processes, data-informed decision-making, and smooth collaboration. 

An Enrollment Management System (EMS) makes it possible—even with limited staff resources. 

What is a student Enrollment Management System?

An Enrollment Management System is a software solution designed to help colleges and universities manage the student enrollment lifecycle. Its tools help institutions adopt efficient strategies to better attract prospective learners, support the persistence and retention of current students, connect alumni with upskilling and reskilling opportunities, and more.

Features are community-designed to support initiatives related to the admissions process, marketing, financial aid, course registration, catalog management, student records, student affairs, alumni engagement, and continuing education. 

When implemented well, these systems enable institutions to improve staff efficiencies and exceed modern students’ expectations. In other words, an EMS optimizes institutional resources while improving the entire student experience to support increased enrollment, revenue, and longevity. 

Key Features of Enrollment Management Systems

Begin by identifying your institution's specific goals and needs. Then, choose an enrollment management system equipped with key features that directly support those objectives. It's essential to prioritize seamless integration with existing systems, robust analytics for accurate forecasting, and customizable communication tools to effectively engage prospective students. 

For example, content management systems help universities simplify class publishing for administrators and marketing teams, enhancing student recruitment and boosting website engagement through personalization.

Catalog, curriculum, and class scheduling solutions ensure seamless registration experiences, helping students stay focused on their academic goals.

Co-curricular features expand learning opportunities by making non-traditional and non-credit programs accessible to all, while workforce development tools ensure that the university fully prepares students for life after graduation.

By focusing on these key elements, you can ensure that your institution optimizes its enrollment processes, making informed decisions that align with strategic objectives and enhance overall efficiency. Modern Campus has aided numerous universities in addressing declining enrollment rates by providing robust enrollment management systems, ensuring institutions have the necessary backend support to effectively accommodate more students.

How to pick an Enrollment Management System?

Evaluate your institution’s needs and goals

Start by identifying your institution’s current enrollment challenges and goals. 

Consider student demographics, enrollment targets, processes that need improvement, and unmet needs from staff and students alike. If possible, consult institutional data or conduct surveys to better understand what your prospective students want out of their first-time enrollment experiences and what challenges led them to stop or drop out. 

Understanding what your peer institutions are doing well in support of enrollment can also inform your institution’s strategies, as can consulting regional or national reports on enrollment, admissions and retention trends. 

Define key features

When choosing an enrollment system, it's important to prioritize features that are essential for your institution's specific needs. This ensures the system remains focused and relevant, aligning closely with your priorities. Whether you prioritize seamless integration with existing systems, robust analytics for informed decision-making, or user-friendly interfaces for staff and students, focusing on these key features will ensure the system effectively supports your enrollment goals.

Consider the integration with other systems

Ensure that the EMS can effectively integrate with other systems your institution and individual departments use, such as your student information systems (SIS) or learning management systems (LMS), and customer relationship management systems (CRM). 

A seamless integration and data migration can improve data accuracy, simplify processes, and enhance the overall efficiency of your enrollment management efforts.

Look for customizability and scalability

Just because an EMS works wonderfully for another institution, that doesn't mean it will work well for yours. Look for an Enrollment Management System that is flexible and can be customized to fit both your current needs and the unexpected needs that may arise in your institution’s future. 

Consider also how your institution might grow. Will your enrollment solutions keep up with a larger pool of prospective students, additional offices, or more academic programs? The right EMS will drive an increase in scale. 

Seek a user-friendly interface

No EMS will be useful if, well, you don’t use it. The most effective systems will be easy for staff and students alike to use frequently, customize, and experience the top benefits from. 

Ideally, it should be intuitive enough for new users to learn with little or no direct assistance from the system’s administrators on your team. Overall, it should provide a smooth and rewarding user experience. 

Evaluate data security and privacy 

Your Enrollment Management System should comply with relevant data protection regulations, such as FERPA or GDPR, and provide robust security measures to protect sensitive student information. 

Your IT team should consider other elements like encryption, security audits and monitoring, data minimization and integrity, and access controls. 

Understanding the data, reporting, and analytic capabilities

A data-centric EMS can make your enrollment strategies possible and inform your development of those strategies in the first place. 

The ability to track enrollment trends, software usage, academic success, co-curricular engagement, student demographics, and other key metrics—including the effectiveness of your enrollment strategies—can help you make informed decisions and continually rework your initiatives in line with student needs. 

Consider not just what metrics your EMS will supply but how. Ask about the possibility of customizing filters, segmenting demographics, simplifying student data integration, reviewing real-time event analytics, and generating visual reports. 

A robust, intuitive analytics dashboard will enable more departments to understand your students better and make data-informed decisions.

Review training and support

Consider how the company behind the EMS will support your usage. 

A responsive support team can guide you through a smooth and timely implementation process and provide ongoing support to customize your usage and manage your enrollment initiatives successfully. 

 

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Managing enrollment and providing learners with a strong experience across the entire student lifecycle requires colleges and universities to embrace new trends, take creative leaps, and evaluate ongoing processes. 

An Enrollment Management System makes this possible with tools specifically designed to support departments and professionals across the institution while promoting collaboration.

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Last updated: March 4, 2024