Enrollment Management Planning

1. Enrollment ManagementPlanning 2006 Department of Technical and Adult Education The Technical College System of Georgia

2. Enrollment Management Planning Committee DTAE • Charge to the Committee: • Identify possible internal/system reasons for enrollment decline • Review policies and identify real and perceived barriers to enrollment growth • Identify policy and practices that can influence enrollment growth

3. Discussion DTAE • External factors impact student enrollment: • Complex, multi-faceted • Competition from proprietary schools • Escalating costs • Focus should be on systemic and internal factors on which DTAE can have an impact: policy, procedures, strategies, practices • Enrollment Management must encompass planning, recruiting, and retention

4. Methodology DTAE • 2006 DTAE Enrollment Management Decline Study • Focus groups of students, staff/administrators from 9 colleges chosen for diversity • Information from survey of college presidents

5. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • HOPE cap. Detriment to seamlessness and retraining. Impacts dual enrollment. • Recommendation: Advocate for the removal of the HOPE cap, particularly for high school students.

6. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Relevancy of Programs and Services. Flexibility, responsiveness, adaptation, and speed are critical to today’s student. • Recommendations: • Revise Probe and IFCC procedures • Strengthen distance education programs and support services • Change processes to emphasize student-centered practices

7. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Funding Constraints. Funding declines directly impact enrollment: faculty, recruitment, competitiveness, and currency of offerings • Recommendations: • External - Advocate strongly for funding formulas that provide parity with BOR two-year institutions. • Internal - Revise fee structure for high cost programs.

8. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Technology Fee. Cost prohibitive and perceived negatively by students • Recommendation: Advocate for HOPE legislation revision to pay technology fee

9. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Image and Brand. Statewide campaign is needed; funding constraints at local level inhibit marketing efforts • Recommendations: • Initiate a statewide marketing campaign • Advertise more aggressively and in broader venues

10. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Seamlessness between DTAE and BOR Institutions. Transfer issues are both critical and confusing to students. Transferability has strategic value for DTAE colleges. • Recommendation: Expand current transfer agreements with BOR colleges where applicable. • Orientation/catalogue should clarify issue

11. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Wait Lists. List currently exceeds 10,000. HOPE cap deters students from continuing education while waiting for program entry. • Recommendation: Revise tuition structure for high-cost programs to support additional classes that will reduce wait times.

12. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Retention. Retention is a statewide issue; 50% rate from 2005-2006. Retention and recruitment services have suffered under budget cuts. • Recommendations: • Conduct further study on underlying reasons • Provide training on retention and recruitment to all staff • Recognize the role and impact of funding as a key factor and identify ways to restore funding

13. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Customer Service. Efficient and student-focused admissions procedures are critically important to students. Flexibility and innovation in class scheduling and students services are impeded by funding declines. • Recommendation: Identify best practices for possible state models. Review all processes for efficiency and student focus.

14. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Enrollment Management. The issue encompasses a dynamic integration of multiple factors related to recruitment and retention. System-wide focus and systemic practices will influence enrollment. • Recommendations: • State-wide training from leaders in the field. • Establish best practices with strong recommendations for implementation at local level. • Provide state-level leadership position to guide efforts.

15. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Special Support for Rural Schools. Unique characteristics apply to northern and southern rural colleges that impact enrollment and retention. • Recommendation: Establish a committee to identify strategies for rural areas that will influence enrollment.

16. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Rules and Procedures. Program review and curriculum modifications need a rapid response process to be competitive. The IFCC process should be reviewed to insure competitiveness at the local college level • Recommendation: Establish a committee to drill down into rules and procedures and identify those that inhibit clarity, flexibility, and responsiveness • Recommend options

17. Policies to Review DTAE • Assessment V.B.2. • Rationale.TCCs offer short-term programs of study. Admissions and placement exam regulations stifle flexibility in admissions and responsiveness to training needs. • Recommendations. Clarify placement testing requirements for TCCs. Allow waiving of placement testing requirements for TCCs over 25 credit hours.

18. Policies to Review DTAE • Articulation and Transfer IV.J. • Rationale: Transfer and advance credit issues are critical to students; seamlessness and transferability between DTAE and BOR are hindered by testing regulations; seamlessness is hindered by out-of-date mini-core agreements. • Recommendations: • Clarify and standardize DTAE transfer and articulation credit policy; standardize procedures to guide local colleges. • Expand mini-core agreements for SACS accredited schools.

19. Findings and Recommendations DTAE • Overall, impediments to enrollment management are not policy driven. • Recommendations: • Identify the procedures most critical to enrollment management and review for efficiency, responsiveness, flexibility, and student-centered focus. • Disseminate revised procedures statewide; provide support at every level of execution.

20. Conclusion DTAE • No single solution will correct enrollment decline • Although policies need to be closely reviewed (other than the 2 identified), it is when they are operationalized at the campus level (and become procedures) that the student-focus seems often to be weak • Multiple and state wide approaches working in dynamic interaction are needed to reverse the decline. • System-level support and leadership are critical. • Effects of decreased funding and budget reductions have had a negative impact on recruitment, enrollment and retention.