Category: Enrollment Growth

As 2024 draws to a close, the holiday season inspires gratitude and reflection. Personally, I’m very grateful for the incredible partners and colleagues I’ve had the privilege to work with this year. Together, we accomplished so much.

• We collaborated with our partners throughout the year to deliver great experiences for their students, alumni, and staff.
• We collectively navigated some of higher education’s biggest challenges, driving partner growth and enabling impact.
• We pushed the boundaries of innovation, embracing the power of data-enabled technologies.

I’m so proud of the positive impact the Collegis team generated with our partners across the entire student lifecycle, from the moment prospective students first inquire about a program to the day they graduate.

Let’s look back at some of 2024’s meaningful results

We supported double-digit year-over-year (YoY) enrollment growth –– as high as 57% –– for many partner institutions in first-year, program-specific, transfer, and graduate populations. Engagement from our enrollment teams was instrumental in connecting students with the right programs and guiding them through the admissions process.

Our IT team ensured seamless operations, providing reliable technology solutions that empower students and faculty. Some of my favorite examples from 2024 include:

• Integrating systems to drive process improvement across enrollment, financial aid, academics, and career services.
• Modernized campus infrastructures and networks to drive student engagement at a college’s main hall.
• Significantly improved student experience by implementing a user-friendly, single sign-on (SSO) solution across student-facing systems.
• Led an institution through a critical component of its digital transformation journey by migrating its on-premise, legacy ERP to a cloud-based, next-generation solution.

Our instructional design team enabled partners to grow their online course offerings on platforms such as Brightspace, Canvas, Coursera, and Blackboard Ultra, including course and online library development, course migrations, maintenance, faculty support, and term start/end deployment activities.

We collaborated with the nursing program at one partner to revamp the entire library of online courses to meet new accreditation standards. Another partner was able to add 200 online courses to fill the needs of 13 online programs at three schools.

Our web team conducted a user survey and other research to refine a partner’s website, which increased clicks to inquire by 82%, the request for information (RFI) click rate to 71%, and clicks to apply by 7.5%.

Another shining example was uncovering a way to target a healthcare provider’s employees who are eligible for a tuition discount. Because of healthcare regulations, the partner could not provide an audience list, so Collegis addressed this niche audience using in-platform targeting tools available on social media platforms. The return on ad spend (ROAS) is 2.2:1 overall in 2024 with plans to expand the program next year.

Our student support team provided essential services to help students thrive and continue to pursue their academic goals.

• At a public, four-year institution in Ohio, Collegis Student Success Coaches helped new students with the registration process, driving admit-to-enroll numbers and YOY growth of +66% in Fall 2024.
• At a private, four-year institution in Texas, Fall retention was 97%, with a 90% retention rate since the partnership launched.
• At a private, four-year institution in New York, term-over-term retention from Summer to Fall is 96%, with a 91% average retention rate since the partnership launched.
• At a public, two-year institution in the Pacific Northwest, Collegis helped drive the sixth consecutive term of enrollment growth, with Fall enrollment trending toward +8%.

Because we are ingrained in every step of the student lifecycle, partners often ask us to assist with forward-looking strategies. For example, our team helped a partner understand the pros and cons of expanding their full-time Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) with a part-time program. With our marketplace analysis, recommendations for how to offer courses, and a marketing launch plan, the institution is currently accepting applications for Summer 2025.

Another institution asked for Collegis’s assistance to develop a multi-year strategic approach to graduate enrollments. The partner’s team lead noted that, “[Collegis] led productive brainstorming and strategic planning sessions with the team. Their deep knowledge of graduate enrollment trends, market analysis for graduate programs and expertise in leading our team from conceptualization to the delivery of specific recommendations on our next steps were invaluable.”

Our strategy and solutions team helped colleges and universities unpack complex problems and find innovative, human-centered solutions. We architected and facilitated numerous design thinking workshops, guiding leadership teams through critical strategic discussions about the future of their institutions. I’ll let some of the participants of the workshops explain the value they got out of the sessions:

• “Collegis didn’t just help us evaluate our processes — they led us on a journey to uncover areas of improvement we hadn’t even considered. Their expert guidance illuminated the path forward, empowering us to create a more positive, streamlined, and truly enjoyable student experience.”
• “My team and I were thoroughly impressed with your ability to take what essentially was a speck of an idea and collaboratively ideate possibilities for [the university] to offer new academic programs and training to underserved high school populations.”
• “Collegis took the time to meet with leadership prior to the sessions and came prepared to tackle the challenges at the college. The activities were well thought-out and allowed individuals time to really think about the core issues. Thanks to Collegis, I am hopeful that our college can make key changes that will benefit our student experience and lighten our faculty/staff workload.”

As you can see, 2024 has been a year of growth, innovation, and collaboration. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with our partners and look forward to even greater achievements in the years to come.

I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to my Collegis colleagues, who amaze me with their creativity, expertise, and dedication to delivering exceptional results. I can’t wait to see what you do in 2025 to continue inspiring each other and driving growth for our partners.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a prosperous New Year!

— Kim Fahey, CEO Collegis Education