Across higher education, student support systems are often built for institutions, not for students. As a result, many learners encounter a maze of disconnected services that feel reactive, impersonal, or inaccessible. For students already balancing work, caregiving, and financial pressures, this fragmentation can be the difference between staying enrolled and stopping out.
As Chief Academic Officer, I’ve seen how crucial it is to align support structures with academic goals and student realities. Institutions must move beyond piecemeal solutions and instead design holistic ecosystems that prioritize student experience, equity, and completion from the start. That means leveraging data, embracing design thinking, and fostering cross-campus collaboration.
Where fragmentation undermines student outcomes
Many institutions approach support through isolated units: advising, student success, IT, and academic departments each operating in silos. The result is a disjointed experience for students, where important information is delayed or missed altogether. Without a unified view of the student journey, opportunities for early intervention or personalized support fall through the cracks.
This fragmentation disproportionately affects students from historically underserved backgrounds. When support isn’t accessible or timely, those with less institutional knowledge or fewer resources are more likely to disengage.
Disconnected systems can lead to:
Missed early warning signs
Delayed or generic interventions
Frustration from navigating multiple systems
Lower retention and completion rates
It’s not enough to offer services. It’s crucial to ensure those services are connected, visible, and tailored to real student needs.
In my experience, when institutions treat student support as a set of tasks rather than a strategic function, it limits their ability to make meaningful progress on equity and completion. Students shouldn’t have to navigate a patchwork of websites, offices, and policies to get the help they need. They deserve a system that anticipates their challenges and responds in real time.
What a connected, learner-first ecosystem looks like
A modern support ecosystem begins with data. Institutions need to unify data from across the student lifecycle (from admissions to advising to classroom performance) to create a comprehensive view of each learner. With integrated platforms, faculty and staff can access timely insights to guide interventions and support decisions.
At Collegis, we’ve seen how data-powered ecosystems — supported by platforms like Connected Core® — drive measurable improvement in retention and equity. But technology alone isn’t enough. Data needs to be paired with personalization. That means using predictive analytics to identify students at risk and deliver outreach that is relevant, proactive, and human.
It’s not about automation replacing connection. It’s about enabling the right kind of connection at the right time.
I often ask, “Are support systems designed for students or around them?” A learner-first ecosystem doesn’t just meet students where they are academically. It considers their time constraints, personal responsibilities, and evolving goals. It removes barriers rather than creating new ones.
Key elements of a connected ecosystem include:
Unified, actionable student data
Proactive, personalized interventions
Support that reflects real student lives
24/7 digital services and hybrid options
Flexible course scheduling, hybrid advising models, and round-the-clock support aren’t just conveniences. They’re equity tools that recognize the unique needs of today’s student body.
Using design thinking to reimagine support systems
Design thinking offers a powerful framework for this work. It starts with empathy — understanding the lived experience of students and mapping the friction they encounter in navigating institutional systems. From there, you can co-create solutions that reflect students’ realities, prototype interventions, and iterate based on feedback and outcomes.
I’ve found this approach invaluable for aligning innovation with mission. It brings together diverse voices (students, faculty, advisors, technologists) to build support systems that are not just efficient, but equitable.
Design thinking allows us to move beyond assumptions. Instead of designing around legacy processes or internal structures, we start with real student stories. This helps us ask better questions and arrive at more inclusive answers.
It’s not just about solving problems—it’s about solving the right problems.
The role of academic leadership in cross-campus collaboration
No single office can transform student support in isolation. It requires a coalition of academic, technical, and operational leaders working in sync. Academic affairs plays a central role in this work, bridging the gap between pedagogy and operations.
In my experience, success begins with a shared vision and clear metrics:
What are we trying to improve?
How will we measure progress?
From there, we build alignment around roles, resources, and timelines. Regular communication and an openness to iteration keep the momentum going.
One of the most powerful things academic leaders can do is model cross-functional thinking. When we approach student success as a collective responsibility, we shift the culture from reactive to proactive. And when data is shared across departments, everyone can see the part they play in helping students succeed.
Turning strategy into action
At Collegis, we’ve partnered with institutions to bring student-centered strategies to life:
Our Connected Core data platform enables the kind of integration that underpins personalized support.
Our deep higher education experience ensures solutions align with academic priorities.
We believe in the power of aligning strategy with execution. We don’t just talk about transformation. We build the infrastructure, train the teams, and help institutions scale what works. From data strategy to digital learning design, we act as an extension of our partners’ teams.
This work is about more than improving services. It’s about advancing equity, accelerating completion, and fulfilling our mission to support every learner.
Designing for what matters most
If we want better outcomes, we have to start with better design. That means asking not just what services you offer, but how and why you deliver them. It means shifting from reactive support to intentional, data-informed ecosystems that center the student experience.
By embracing design thinking, unifying your systems, and working across traditional boundaries, you can build the kind of support that today’s learners deserve and tomorrow’s institutions require.
Student success shouldn’t depend on luck or persistence alone. The most impactful institutions are those that view support not as a service, but as a strategy — one that helps every student reach their full potential.
Let’s talk about how to design smarter student support together.
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If, like me, you grew up watching Looney Tunes cartoons, you may remember Yosemite Sam’s popular phrase, “There’s gold in them thar hills.”
In surveys, as in gold mining, the greatest riches are often hidden and difficult to extract. This principle is perhaps especially true when institutions are seeking to enhance the postgraduate taught (PGT) student experience.
PGT students are far more than an extension of the undergraduate community; they represent a crucial, diverse and financially significant segment of the student body. Yet, despite their growing numbers and increasing strategic importance, PGT students, as Kelly Edmunds and Kate Strudwick have recently pointed out on Wonkhe, remain largely invisible in both published research and core institutional strategy.
Advance HE’s Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is therefore one of the few critical insights we have about the PGT experience. But while the quantitative results offer a (usually fairly consistent) high-level view, the real intelligence required to drive meaningful enhancement inside higher education institutions is buried deep within the thousands of open-text comments collected. Faced with the sheer volume of data the choice is between eye-ball scanning and the inevitable introduction of human bias, or laborious and time-consuming manual coding. The challenge for the institutions participating in PTES this year isn’t the lack of data: it’s efficiently and reliably turning that dense, often contradictory, qualitative data into actionable, ethical, and equitable insights.
AI to the rescue
The application of machine learning AI technology to analysis of qualitative student survey data presents us with a generational opportunity to amplify the student voice. The critical question is not whether AI should be used, but how to ensure its use meets robust and ethical standards. For that you need the right process – and the right partner – to prioritise analytical substance, comprehensiveness, and sector-specific nuance.
UK HE training is non-negotiable. AI models must be deeply trained on a vast corpus of UK HE student comments. Without this sector-specific training, analysis will fail to accurately interpret the nuances of student language, sector jargon, and UK-specific feedback patterns.
Analysis must rely on a categorisation structure that has been developed and refined against multiple years of PTES data. This continuity ensures that the thematic framework reflects the nuances of the PGT experience.
To drive targeted enhancement, the model must break down feedback into highly granular sub-themes – moving far beyond simplistic buckets – ensuring staff can pinpoint the exact issue, whether it falls under learning resources, assessment feedback, or thesis supervision.
The analysis must be more than a static report. It must be delivered through integrated dashboard solutions that allow institutions to filter, drill down, and cross-reference the qualitative findings with demographic and discipline data. Only this level of flexibility enables staff to take equitable and targeted enhancement actions across their diverse PGT cohorts.
When these principles are prioritised, the result is an analytical framework specifically designed to meet the rigour and complexity required by the sector.
The partnership between Advance HE, evasys, and Student Voice AI, which analysed this year’s PTES data, demonstrates what is possible when these rigorous standards are prioritised. We have offered participating institutions a comprehensive service that analyses open comments alongside the detailed benchmarking reports that Advance HE already provides. This collaboration has successfully built an analytical framework that exemplifies how sector-trained AI can deliver high-confidence, actionable intelligence.
Jonathan Neves, Head of Research and Surveys, Advance HE calls our solution “customised, transparent and genuinely focused on improving the student experience, “ and adds, “We’re particularly impressed by how they present the data visually and look forward to seeing results from using these specialised tools in tandem.”
Substance uber alles
The commitment to analytical substance is paramount; without it, the risk to institutional resources and equity is severe. If institutions are to derive value, the analysis must be comprehensive. When the analysis lacks this depth institutional resources are wasted acting on partial or misleading evidence.
Rigorous analysis requires minimising what we call data leakage: the systematic failure to capture or categorise substantive feedback. Consider the alternative: when large percentages of feedback are ignored or left uncategorised, institutions are effectively muting a significant portion of the student voice. Or when a third of the remaining data is lumped into meaningless buckets like “other,” staff are left without actionable insight, forced to manually review thousands of comments to find the true issues.
This is the point where the qualitative data, intended to unlock enhancement, becomes unusable for quality assurance. The result is not just a flawed report, but the failure to deliver equitable enhancement for the cohorts whose voices were lost in the analytical noise.
Reliable, comprehensive processing is just the first step. The ultimate goal of AI analysis should be to deliver intelligence in a format that seamlessly integrates into strategic workflows. While impressive interfaces are visually appealing, genuine substance comes from the capacity to produce accurate, sector-relevant outputs. Institutions must be wary of solutions that offer a polished facade but deliver compromised analysis. Generic generative AI platforms, for example, offer the illusion of thematic analysis but are not robust.
But robust validation of any output is still required. This is the danger of smoke and mirrors – attractive dashboards that simply mask a high degree of data leakage, where large volumes of valuable feedback are ignored, miscategorised or rendered unusable by failing to assign sentiment.
Dig deep, act fast
When institutions choose rigour, the outcomes are fundamentally different, built on a foundation of confidence. Analysis ensures that virtually every substantive PGT comment is allocated to one or more UK-derived categories, providing a clear thematic structure for enhancement planning.
Every comment with substance is assigned both positive and negative sentiment, providing staff with the full, nuanced picture needed to build strategies that leverage strengths while addressing weaknesses.
This shift from raw data to actionable intelligence allows institutions to move quickly from insight to action. As Parama Chaudhury, Pro-Vice Provost (Education – Student Academic Experience) at UCL noted, the speed and quality of this approach “really helped us to get the qualitative results alongside the quantitative ones and encourage departmental colleagues to use the two in conjunction to start their work on quality enhancement.”
The capacity to produce accurate, sector-relevant outputs, driven by rigorous processing, is what truly unlocks strategic value. Converting complex data tables into readable narrative summaries for each theme allows academic and professional services leaders alike to immediately grasp the findings and move to action. The ability to access categorised data via flexible dashboards and in exportable formats ensures the analysis is useful for every level of institutional planning, from the department to the executive team. And providing sector benchmark reports allows institutions to understand their performance relative to peers, turning internal data into external intelligence.
The postgraduate taught experience is a critical pillar of UK higher education. The PTES data confirms the challenge, but the true opportunity lies in how institutions choose to interpret the wealth of student feedback they receive. The sheer volume of PGT feedback combined with the ethical imperative to deliver equitable enhancement for all students demands analytical rigour that is complete, nuanced, and sector-specific.
This means shifting the focus from simply collecting data to intelligently translating the student voice into strategic priorities. When institutions insist on this level of analytical integrity, they move past the risk of smoke and mirrors and gain the confidence to act fast and decisively.
It turns out Yosemite Sam was right all along: there’s gold in them thar hills. But finding it requires more than just a map; it requires the right analytical tools and rigour to finally extract that valuable resource and forge it into meaningful institutional change.
This article is published in association with evasys. evasys and Student Voice AI are offering no-cost advanced analysis of NSS open comments delivering comprehensive categorisation and sentiment analysis, secure dashboard to view results and a sector benchmark report. Click here to find out more and request your free analysis.
In today’s fiercely competitive higher education landscape, enrollment leaders are being asked to do more with less. That means more inquiries, more conversions, and more starts, all while working with fewer resources and a shrinking pool of students actively seeking traditional degree paths.
What separates the institutions that are growing from those that are treading water? In my experience, it’s the willingness to question the status quo. The leaders seeing results are the ones taking a hard look at internal processes and policies and making bold decisions to remove what’s in the way of progress.
The urgency to remove enrollment barriers
Many institutions face enrollment plateaus not because they lack student interest, but because of self-imposed friction. Burdensome application requirements, slow review cycles, and legacy processes that haven’t evolved with changing student expectations can all stand in the way of progress.
Students today expect seamless, responsive experiences. They compare your enrollment process not only to peer institutions but also to the intuitive digital experiences they encounter every day. If your application process is full of red tape or requires too many steps, students will disengage and likely move on to a more accessible option.
Colleges and universities that want to stay competitive need to start clearing the path. By taking the time to understand how your enrollment process actually operates and identifying where students tend to get stuck, you can make meaningful changes that increase both efficiency and enrollment success.
Start with a map: Uncovering friction through process review
The first step to solving an enrollment slowdown is understanding where it’s happening. That’s where process mapping comes in.
At Collegis, we partner with institutions to conduct comprehensive process assessments. We document and analyze every step of the applicant journey, from inquiry through registration, to uncover inconsistencies, delays, and points of friction that may be limiting your enrollment funnel. We often find that a student’s experience varies widely depending on who they interact with or when they enter the process, revealing a need for greater consistency and coordination.
In many cases, we find students getting stuck at multiple points across the enrollment journey, starting with the application itself. Lengthy or confusing questions, lack of helpful guidance, and irrelevant fields can all create unnecessary complexity early on. Students may also encounter inconsistent or impersonal communication, making it unclear what to expect next or where they stand in the process.
Further down the funnel, delays often occur during application review, sometimes taking a week or more due to internal handoffs or manual processes. In some cases, applications sit idle because there’s no system in place to move files forward or flag them for outreach. These gaps add up, slowing momentum and causing potential students to disengage.
When you can see the entire process visualized, it becomes easier to ask the right questions:
Is the application process intuitive and easy to navigate, or are we introducing unnecessary complexity?
Are there clear next steps and calls to action for students at each stage?
Do students receive consistent, timely communication that reflects where they are in the journey?
Is the messaging and cadence of our marketing and operational emails aligned with what students hear from admissions counselors?
Are there opportunities to streamline handoffs, automate manual steps, or standardize the process to ensure every student receives a cohesive experience?
Process mapping isn’t just a troubleshooting exercise. It’s a strategic investment in institutional agility and student-centered design. Institutions that complete this type of review often uncover both quick wins and opportunities for deeper transformation.
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Rethink the rules: Policies that reduce friction and drive results
Some of the most impactful improvements we’ve seen don’t require major investments or cutting-edge technologies. More often, they come from rethinking the policies that shape your admissions process and how those policies either support or hinder the student experience.
When we conduct policy reviews with our partner institutions, we often find that some admissions requirements add more complexity than value. It’s crucial to determine whether each requirement is truly essential to making an informed admissions decision. By removing or refining requirements that no longer serve a clear purpose (such as excessive documentation or overly rigid review criteria) institutions can streamline internal workflows and reduce avoidable delays. These targeted adjustments not only improve operational efficiency but also create a more accessible and student-centered experience.
Impact in action: Practical examples of enrollment transformation
These are not just hypothetical improvements. We’ve worked directly with institutions to implement these strategies and have seen the tangible impact they can deliver. Here are a few real-world examples that show how practical adjustments have translated into measurable results:
Waiving letters of recommendation for applicants who meet a defined GPA threshold. This eliminates a common bottleneck while maintaining admissions rigor.
Simplifying transcript requirements by only requesting documentation that includes a conferred degree and any prerequisite coursework required for program entry. Additional transcripts are collected later if necessary, which speeds up the initial review process.
Automating workflows that trigger application reviews as soon as all checklist items are complete. This ensures students move through the process without unnecessary delays.
Setting up notifications to ensure timely engagement. For example, alerts can be set when a new inquiry or applicant hasn’t received contact from an admissions counselor within 24 hours, or when application reviews are taking longer than expected.
These types of changes create a more efficient, student-centered process that helps institutions convert interest into enrollment more effectively.
Don’t just tweak the process, transform it
If your institution is still relying on outdated processes and rigid policies, now is the time to reevaluate. The enrollment environment is only becoming more competitive. But with the right changes, your institution can become more efficient, more agile, and more appealing to today’s students.
This isn’t about cutting corners or lowering standards. It’s about rethinking how your process serves students. Process mapping helps uncover ways to simplify steps, ensure consistency, and build trust through clear communication and meaningful staff connections. The result is an experience that’s more efficient, more personal, and better aligned with your institution’s goals.
Let’s break the bottleneck together
A process mapping assessment is a powerful starting point. At Collegis, we go beyond identifying issues. We work side by side with our partners to solve them. Our approach is collaborative, our recommendations are practical, and our focus is always on impact.
If your institution is ready to accelerate enrollment growth, strengthen internal operations, and deliver a more consistent and personalized experience for your students, let’s talk.
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Jim Callinan leads enrollment strategy and operational excellence at Collegis Education, where he partners with higher education institutions to design and deploy data-informed admissions and student-journey models. With nearly 20 years of higher education experience, Jim brings deep expertise in aligning cross-functional teams across technology, marketing, analytics, enrollment, and student success to drive growth, streamline operations, and elevate the student and staff experience. His collaborative approach helps institutions align strategy, process, and performance to achieve sustainable success.
The Trump administration’s aggressive stance toward higher education institutions is contributing to a precipitous drop in support among college-educated voters, with new polling data revealing the president’s approval rating among graduates has fallen to historic lows.
President Donald J. TrumpAccording to Gallup polling, Trump’s approval rating among college graduates plummeted from 34% in June to just 28% by August, with disapproval climbing to 70%. This represents a concerning trend for Republicans as they look toward the 2026 midterm elections, particularly given the growing influence of college-educated voters in key suburban swing districts.
The administration’s education policies have taken aim at what Trump characterizes as liberal bias and antisemitism on college campuses. Harvard University has faced the most severe federal intervention, with the White House canceling approximately $100 million in federal contracts and freezing $3.2 billion in research funding. The administration has also moved to block international student enrollment and threatened to revoke the institution’s tax-exempt status while demanding sweeping reforms to admissions processes and curricular oversight.
Similar measures have been enacted against Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University over issues ranging from pro-Palestinian campus activism to policies regarding transgender athletes in women’s sports. Harvard officials have characterized these interventions as an unprecedented assault on academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
The crackdown has generated significant campus unrest and drawn comparisons to Cold War-era loyalty investigations, raising questions about the federal government’s appropriate role in higher education governance.
The polling data reflects broader dissatisfaction with the administration’s educational approach. Only 26% of college graduates approve of Trump’s handling of education policy, while 71% disapprove. A separate AP-NORC survey from May found that 56% of Americans nationwide disapprove of the president’s higher education agenda.
However, the policies resonate strongly within Trump’s Republican base, with roughly 80% of Republicans approving his higher education approach—a higher approval rate than his economic policies garner. About 60% of Republicans express significant concern about perceived liberal bias on college campuses, aligning with the administration’s framing of universities as ideologically compromised institutions.
The Republican coalition shows some internal division on enforcement mechanisms, with approximately half supporting federal funding cuts for non-compliant institutions while a quarter oppose such measures and another quarter remain undecided.
While political controversies dominate headlines, economic concerns remain the primary driver of public opinion on higher education. Sixty percent of Americans express deep concern about college costs, a bipartisan worry that transcends ideological divisions around campus politics.
Current data from the College Board and Bankrate show average annual costs of $29,910 for in-state public university students, $49,080 for out-of-state students, and approximately $61,990 for private nonprofit institutions when including room, board, and additional expenses. Financial aid reduces these figures to average net prices of $20,800 at public universities and $36,150 at private colleges.
These costs reflect decades of sustained increases. EducationData.org reports that public in-state college costs have risen from $2,489 in 1963 to $89,556 in 2022-23 (adjusted for inflation). Over the past decade alone, in-state public tuition has increased by nearly 58%, while out-of-state and private tuition have risen by 30% and 27% respectively.
The economic pressures extend beyond college costs to post-graduation employment prospects. While overall unemployment among adults with bachelor’s degrees remains low at 2.3%, recent graduates face significant challenges. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that only 69.6% of bachelor’s degree recipients aged 20-29 were employed in late 2024, with unemployment among 23-27-year-olds reaching nearly 6%—substantially above the 4.2% national average.
These employment difficulties contribute to broader economic anxiety, with 39% of college graduates describing national economic conditions as “poor” and 64% reporting job search struggles.
The confluence of political and economic pressures creates a challenging landscape for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterms. College-educated voters represent a growing and increasingly decisive demographic, particularly in suburban areas that often determine control of swing seats.
Today’s prospective students aren’t waiting for a glossy brochure to arrive in the mail. They’re researching schools on their phones between classes, watching campus tours on YouTube, and chatting with peers online to compare experiences. They’re digital-first and impatient, and expect the same seamless experience from a college as they would from Netflix or Amazon.
To stand out in this noisy, fast-moving environment, your enrollment marketing needs to work smarter. That means shifting away from static promotions and embracing data-driven, student-centric strategies that guide each prospect from curiosity to commitment.
Here’s how you can make that happen: 10 tactics that schools across North America (and beyond) are using to win the attention, trust, and enrollment of today’s students.
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1. Understand Your Audience (Better Than They Expect)
The best enrollment marketing strategies begin with deep audience insight. Not the surface-level kind (like age ranges or postal codes), but real, behavior-based understanding.
Instead of just collecting names at events or counting clicks on a landing page, take the time to analyze what your audience is doing. Are they spending five minutes reading your nursing program page but bouncing quickly from your homepage? Is there a spike in traffic after you post student testimonials on Instagram? These are the clues that shape smart decisions.
Tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Slate reveal exactly where prospects engage and where they drop off. Segmenting audiences based on their actions, rather than assumptions, lets you personalize outreach that feels meaningful. If a student explores your hospitality program at 11:00 p.m. from another time zone, your strategy should reflect that interest and context.
Personalization builds a connection. And connection drives conversion.
Example: Oregon State University implemented a modern CRM (Slate) to segment and personalize outreach. OSU filters prospective students by interests, major, and location to trigger automated, tailored communications (email, text, print) for each segment. With this approach, Oregon State University ensures that prospects receive information relevant to them. For example, engineering-minded students get content on OSU’s tech programs, improving engagement and application conversion.
2. Turn Your Website Into a Top-Performing Recruiter
Think of your website as your lead admissions counselor. It works 24/7 and never forgets a prospect’s name, if it’s built right.
A compelling site doesn’t just list programs. It creates an experience. Navigation should be intuitive, especially on mobile, where the majority of users browse. Application deadlines should never be more than one click away. Program benefits should be clear, outcomes measurable, and support services obvious.
Equally important is online visibility. Students won’t land on your site if it isn’t optimized for search. That means including the phrases they’re typing into Google: “Best business diploma in Vancouver” or “Top graphic design college Canada.” A steady stream of blog content around these themes builds your authority and search rankings over time.
Don’t underestimate local search either. Schools that claim their Google Business listing and keep it updated with reviews, photos, and FAQs tend to show up higher in local results, right when families are deciding which campuses to visit.
Example: ENSR partnered with HEM to revamp its website for better usability and search visibility. Targeted SEO optimizations (including multilingual content and Google Ads campaigns) were implemented to attract more qualified traffic. ENSR also improved site speed and navigation. As a result, the school saw a 10% year-over-year increase in admissions, clear evidence that an optimized, easy-to-find website translates into more student enrollments.
How can schools use SEO to reach more prospective students? Schools can use SEO by optimizing their website and content with keywords students search for, like program names or “colleges near me.” Creating informative blog posts, improving site speed, and using clear navigation help boost search rankings, making it easier for prospects to find and explore the school online.
3. Meet Students Where They Scroll
Social media is no longer just a promotional tool; it’s where brand trust is built. And guess what? Students don’t want picture-perfect posts. They want a glimpse into real student life: the awkward, the inspiring, and everything in between.
How do social media platforms help attract prospective students? Social media platforms help attract prospective students by showcasing authentic campus life, student stories, and academic highlights where students already spend time. Targeted ads and engaging content build awareness, answer questions, and create emotional connections that encourage students to explore programs and take the next step toward applying.
The most effective schools blend behind-the-scenes campus life, student takeovers, and authentic voices with strategic, paid campaigns. Engagement is key. Answer comments, reply to DMs, and ask questions. Your presence shouldn’t just be felt; it should be responsive.
And when a student visits your site but doesn’t apply? A retargeting ad reminding them about a scholarship deadline can bring them back with a purpose.
Example: Randolph-Macon Academy utilizes student-driven social media takeovers and campaigns to humanize its brand. For example, on “Takeover Tuesdays,” R-MA students run the school’s Instagram Stories, giving followers a genuine day-in-the-life look at campus life. These peer perspectives resonate with prospective students and parents. R-MA also shares posts on LinkedIn celebrating achievements (like its seniors earning $16 million+ in scholarships) to boost credibility. By strategically targeting content on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, R-MA expands its reach and builds trust with specific audiences.
Campus visits are powerful but not always possible. Virtual tours bridge that gap beautifully when done right.
Why are virtual tours important for school admissions marketing? Virtual tours are important because they let prospective students explore campus facilities, culture, and student life from anywhere. They provide a first-hand experience that builds familiarity and trust, especially for international or remote students who can’t visit in person, helping them feel more confident about applying.
The most compelling virtual experiences go beyond slideshows or still images. They immerse visitors in 360° visuals of your labs, residences, lounges, and dining halls. Add narration, clickable maps, and interactive hotspots to create a sense of discovery.
Want to make it even more engaging? Offer live tours hosted by current students. Answer questions in real-time. Make the conversation two-way. This kind of hybrid interaction not only informs, but it also builds comfort and connection.
Gamifying the experience with small touches like hidden easter eggs or quizzes can boost session time, making students stay longer and remember more.
Example: Eastern New Mexico University: In January 2025, ENMU launched an upgraded 360-degree interactive virtual tour of its campus, in partnership with a virtual tour platform. The tour lets prospective students anywhere in the world explore campus landmarks at their own pace with panoramic views and clickable info points. New interactive stops even feature current students sharing their experiences via video, and users can access photos and descriptions of traditions at each location. This immersive virtual experience makes viewers feel “like they are on campus,” even if they cannot visit in person.
Nothing conveys emotion, trust, and energy quite like video. That’s why it’s the top-performing format across all platforms.
Students use video to explore, compare, and decide. A 30-second clip showing campus energy can hook them, while a three-minute video of a student explaining why they chose your school can tip the scales.
The best videos aren’t always the most polished. Often, it’s the realness that lands, the quiet moment in a dorm room, a laugh during class, a genuine answer about overcoming a challenge. When current students tell their story on camera, it resonates far more than scripted promos ever could.
And don’t stop with publishing. Upload to YouTube (the second largest search engine in the world), share snippets on social media, and embed videos in your emails or on your site. It keeps your message moving, even when you’re not.
Example: The Academy of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences regularly produces short videos featuring student success stories and hands-on training highlights. These testimonials and “day in the life” videos are shared on AAPS’s website and social channels, providing an authentic glimpse into student outcomes. AAPS also posts video content of alumni in their new careers or students in lab classes, which personalizes the school’s message.
6. Be There Instantly with Smart Chatbots
Picture this: a student is exploring your program page at 10:45 p.m. They want to know if scholarships are still open, but your office is closed.
This is where chatbots shine. When used effectively, they answer FAQs, guide students to relevant pages, and even collect lead info for follow-up, all in real time.
Today’s best bots go beyond text. They can speak multiple languages, schedule tours, and connect students with human counselors. They’re not a replacement for your staff. They’re the frontline, making sure no interest goes cold.
Example: The University of Illinois Gies College of Business deployed an AI chatbot named “Alma” on its online MBA program website to handle common questions and nurture leads. The chatbot was built with a no-code AI platform and programmed to answer prospective students’ free-text questions about the program, provide key information (e.g., deadlines, curriculum), and even collect contact info for follow-up.
Your school can say it’s great. But it means more when others say it for you.
Prospective students read reviews before making decisions. That’s true whether they’re buying shoes or choosing a college. A few well-placed, authentic reviews from happy students or parents can tip the scale in your favor.
Example: Rosseau Lake College actively highlights student and parent testimonials on its official site to manage its online reputation. RLC’s admissions section features a dedicated “Student Testimonials” page with quotes, stories, and even videos from current students and recent graduates.
Make it easy for your community to share their voice. Follow up after tours or events with a simple request for feedback. Prompt graduating students to reflect on their journey. And most importantly, respond graciously to both praise and criticism.
Highlight these testimonials in your marketing materials, emails, and website. Some schools even have dedicated pages that feature alumni quotes, rankings, and outcomes all in one place.
Example: Discovery Community College leverages Google reviews and social media to boost its reputation. When the college receives a glowing review online, the marketing team amplifies it; for instance, Discovery CC shared a student’s 5-star Google review on Instagram with a thank-you message.
When you let your results speak for themselves, people listen.
8. Nurture With Purpose: Email and Text Messaging
Email isn’t outdated. It’s just misused.
Too often, schools blast the same generic message to every lead. But with marketing automation tools like HubSpot or Slate, you can do better. Much better.
Send personalized messages based on actual behavior. If someone downloaded a course calendar, send a follow-up series about faculty highlights, career paths, or student testimonials from that program. If a student clicked a scholarship link but didn’t apply, follow up with a helpful guide or checklist.
Text messages are the perfect complement: fast, direct, and effective. Use them for urgent nudges like deadline reminders or event RSVPs. But be respectful. Less is more when it comes to texting.
9. Host Webinars That Educate and Inspire
Done right, webinars are student recruitment gold. They let students interact with faculty, hear from alumni, and ask real questions, all from the comfort of home.
Think beyond the program overview. What are students anxious about? Admissions essays? Career prospects? Financial aid? Offer sessions that solve these problems, not just sell solutions.
Example: The University of North Texas runs themed Admissions Webinars for targeted audiences of students who haven’t yet applied. UNT invites high schoolers to sign up for sessions like “Why UNT? & How to Apply,” where recruiters walk through programs, campus life, and the application process via Zoom.
Live Q&As make these events feel dynamic. A student asking a question and getting an answer in the moment, that’s engagement. That’s trust.
Example: Randolph-Macon Academy hosts regular live webinars for prospective families as part of its recruitment strategy. During these virtual info sessions, R-MA’s admissions counselors present an overview of the school, share up-to-date facts, and then open the floor for Q&A. They often incorporate a live virtual campus tour within the webinar. This format has been effective in converting attendees to applicants – families get to interact directly with staff and students from home, addressing any doubts in real time.
And once the event ends, the content lives on. Recordings become lead magnets. Clips fuel your social strategy. Recaps can power blog posts. Every webinar is a long-term asset when you plan it right.
10. Showcase What Comes After: Alumni Success
Prospective students are investing time and money. What they want to know is simple: “Will it pay off?”
Highlighting alumni outcomes is one of the most persuasive things you can do. Share job placement rates, grad school acceptances, average salaries, whatever metrics tell the story of success.
Even more powerful are personal stories. The alum who launched a startup. The student who landed a dream internship. The graduate who returned to school to mentor others. These aren’t just achievements, they’re proof points.
Example: Randolph-Macon Academy publicizes its alumni and student success outcomes as a core part of marketing. R-MA’s communications showcase statistics like 100% college acceptance and millions in scholarships earned by each graduating class. In 2025, R-MA proudly shared that its 69 seniors collectively secured over $10.5 million in scholarships for college. Alumni success stories (military academy appointments, leadership roles, etc.) are featured on the school blog and newsletters.
Some schools use interactive alumni maps to show where grads are working across the globe. Others run weekly spotlight stories on social or newsletters. However you do it, make sure it’s easy for prospects to imagine their own future in the successes of those who came before.
When you say, “Here’s where our grads go, and here’s how we help them get there,” the value of your school becomes real.
Enrollment Marketing Is Not About Tactics. It’s About Trust.
Each of these enrollment strategies works on its own. But when you combine them into a cohesive enrollment plan, powered by data and driven by empathy, you don’t just generate interest. You build relationships.
From a student’s first Google search to their final enrollment decision, every interaction matters. So make them count. Use tools like CRMs to track engagement. Align marketing with admissions. And most importantly, keep the student experience at the center of it all.
Because in today’s world, enrollment isn’t about volume. It’s about value. Give your prospects content that answers questions, support that feels personal, and stories that inspire. Do that, and the results will follow.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How do social media platforms help attract prospective students?
Answer: Social media platforms help attract prospective students by showcasing authentic campus life, student stories, and academic highlights where students already spend time. Targeted ads and engaging content build awareness, answer questions, and create emotional connections that encourage students to explore programs and take the next step toward applying.
Question: Why are virtual tours important for school admissions marketing?
Answer: Virtual tours are important because they let prospective students explore campus facilities, culture, and student life from anywhere. They provide a first-hand experience that builds familiarity and trust, especially for international or remote students who can’t visit in person, helping them feel more confident about applying.
Question: How can schools use SEO to reach more prospective students?
Answer: Schools can use SEO by optimizing their website and content with keywords students search for, like program names or “colleges near me.” Creating informative blog posts, improving site speed, and using clear navigation help boost search rankings, making it easier for prospects to find and explore the school online.
By Dani Payne, Senior Researcher and Education Lead at the Social Market Foundation.
University remains the most effective pathway for disadvantaged individuals to achieve upward social mobility. Graduates earn more, are less likely to be unemployed, and report higher levels of health, happiness and civic engagement. Yet, despite this individual impact, higher education’s benefits often fail to translate into positive outcomes for local communities.
Recent research from the Sutton Trust ranked constituencies by social mobility. Most interesting is the bottom 20. More than half have at least one university within their immediate locality, and some have as many as 18 in their wider region. Essentially, having a university – or, indeed, many universities – in your region doesn’t guarantee improved local social mobility.
The need for a new social mobility framework
The government’s ‘opportunity mission’ is built on the principle that every child, in every community, should have a fair chance to succeed.
But rising costs, frozen maintenance support, demographic shifts and widening attainment gaps threaten progress made on access. Moreover, targets tend to be institution-specific, creating duplications and silos, and encouraging competition between providers. Selective universities continue to meet access targets by disproportionately recruiting disadvantaged pupils from high-attaining London boroughs, leaving local disadvantaged learners behind – even when world-class institutions are right on their doorstep.
We must broaden how we assess universities’ social mobility impact. To be able to understand when, why and how the benefits of an institution do or don’t reach into local communities, we must also consider their roles as major employers, civic actors and research hubs.
In our new report, Leave to Achieve?, we set out a new framework for how universities can conceptualise and measure their local social mobility contribution. The framework consists of four key pillars, underpinned by the need for regional collaboration and long-term planning.
1. Educational opportunities for local people
Access to higher education varies starkly by region: 27% of disadvantaged pupils in London hold an undergraduate degree by age 22, compared to just 10% in the South West.
Universities must work with local schools and colleges to raise attainment and create alternative entry pathways. They should be considering the extent to which they nurture and recruit talent locally, supporting pupils to progress and succeed. A place-based approach to widening participation, developed collaboratively with other regional providers, ensures local talent is not just nurtured but retained.
Some existing initiatives show promise. Durham Inspired North East Scholarships, Middlesex’s guaranteed offer scheme for local applicants, and the Warwick Scholar’s program providing financial, academic and practical support to local disadvantaged pupils, all show how targeted programs can work at a local level. However, articulation agreements with local further education providers are underutilised in England, and inconsistent contextual admissions policies limit impact.
2. Good jobs for local people
Universities are often the largest, or among the largest, employers in the local region. This is often cited to give the impression that they are ‘too big to fail’, particularly in the current financial context. But little has been done to look at the extent to which universities are providing good jobs to local people, and whether these are open to people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Academic roles provide an opportunity for social mobility – for those who can secure one. For someone from a lower socioeconomic background to become a lecturer, for example, they have almost certainly experienced upwards occupational social mobility, if not also absolute (income) social mobility, too. Similarly, professional service roles are often well paid and secure, with a reasonable pension, and working within a university comes with a certain amount of cultural and social prestige, too.
A university performing strongly in this area would be spearheading initiatives to support local people from disadvantaged backgrounds into some of these roles and supporting staff from lower socioeconomic backgrounds whilst they are there. Southampton’s staff social mobility network stands out here, specifically recognising and seeking to tackle barriers in recruitment, retention and career progress for those from working-class backgrounds.
3. Using research to address local needs
Research within institutions should address local needs and tackle inequalities, with outputs shared with local communities. Local residents should have opportunities to be involved in research and should understand why research carried out in their region is valuable.
There are excellent examples in this area, such as UWE Bristol’s ‘Engagement with Education‘ programme and London Metropolitan’s participatory knowledge exchange projects. But these remain examples of best – not yet standard – practice.
4. Civic actors: Lead locally, collaborate regionally
As civic institutions, universities must be more deeply integrated within their localities. Despite growing attention to civic engagement, activity is often fragmented and lacking an overarching strategy. Participation in local skills planning is inconsistent, and incentives to foster collaboration across providers are weak.
Great Manchester’s Civic Agreement is a great example of universities coming together with local leaders to work towards shared goals, recognising that collaboration is far more effective than competition, duplication, or silos. The South West Social Mobility Commission takes this a step further, bringing together all education providers (not just higher education), businesses, local leaders and third-sector organisations to promote better social mobility in the region.
A call to action
This framework is not a checklist, but a tool for reflection. We do not expect every institution to be a star performer in every pillar, but we do see value in measuring impact more holistically, across the full range of university activity.
Universities should ask themselves:
Are we reaching local disadvantaged students?
Are we getting local people into good jobs, and are these jobs available to those from all social class backgrounds?
Is our research making a tangible difference to local challenges?
Are we truly embedded as civic leaders in our region?
Only by addressing these questions can we begin to understand how – and when – the presence of a university does improve social mobility in its immediate communities. And only then can we ensure that local people no longer feel that they must leave in order to achieve.
During my first foray into marcomm leadership, every project seemed on fire. If the project was due at 3 p.m., the first draft was ready at 2 p.m., giving little time for adjustments. I noticed this happened with almost every project. As I did some research into the production calendar, I realized there were more projects than time. That meant if one project got behind, there was a ripple effect that continued to impact more and more projects the team was working on.
An initial strategy to address this involved offloading projects that were not the best use of marcomm’s time. The second strategy looked at increasing capacity through student workers and approved freelance partners. Despite implementing both, the team still struggled to accomplish all the tasks, finding many delays in the back-and-forth process with the campus partner. As I started exploring what would help the team, the idea of cross-functional teams emerged as a viable strategy to yield better alignment with key constituents, increase efficiency and create better products.
Cross-functional teams are groups of people from various areas in an organization who work together to achieve a common goal. I have used these teams with key university partners including enrollment, advancement and athletics. Each cross-functional team has several members from the marcomm team (usually a representative from communications, marketing, creative and web) and two or three members from the other unit. Together, these groups meet regularly and work as strategic partners to meet institutional goals.
Cross-functional teams are time-consuming but can have significant impact on outcomes, culture and organizational success when done well. Below are a few benefits of utilizing cross-functional teams when working with strategic campus partners.
Moving From Service Provider to Strategic Partner
One benefit of cross-functional teams is positioning marcomm teams as a strategic partner, not just an order taker. This shift allows marcomm to more meaningfully support institutional goals. Instead of executing someone else’s strategy, these teams can apply their individual expertise while collaborating on integrated strategies that support the partner and ultimately the organization. For example, the web team member can begin approaching the project thinking about the entire digital strategy, instead of just making a website pretty. This role’s shift helps improve relationships between the teams but ultimately drives results.
Operational Efficiency Creates Wins Faster
Familiar teams work faster. Less time is required to navigate procedural and relational decisions, such as who needs to review something or what the feedback process entails. In cross-functional teams, the members become comfortable with these aspects, allowing them to begin working faster. The speed comes not only from familiarity but also from intentionality. Shared institutional knowledge of the goals and the internal processes to complete tasks results in more thoughtful responses when adjustments are needed because of changes like enrollment shifts, market changes or budget adjustments.
Consistency Builds Brand Equity
Aligned teams also create consistent work. Regular collaboration leads to consistency in voice, tone and look on projects. For example, when cross-functional teams are collaborating on the goals for a piece, there is more likely to be synergy in the tactical execution of the piece or at a least a shared understanding of the approach. When there is no alignment, the teams may agree on the goal but are less likely to agree on the strategies and tactics, resulting in disjointed messaging and less effective outcomes.
Cohesive messages also build trust and recognition with external audiences, which is critical to support for university objectives. Ultimately, consistency across teams strengthens the university’s voice in the market and amplifies the impact of every communication.
Internal Alignment Supports Goals
One of the biggest benefits of cross-functional teams is how they strengthen internal alignment within marcomm. By collaborating closely with colleagues across disciplines, the marcomm team is better equipped to align its work with the goals and priorities of campus partners. For example, telling our story takes on an enhanced meaning when it is viewed through the lens of growing enrollment or raising private institutional support. In addition, this cross-functional collaboration fosters greater accountability and trust within the marcomm unit itself. From my experience, the team often internally aligns on the approach and presents a strategic (and united) front when pitching concepts or suggesting strategy shifts.
Empowered Teams Create Elevated Outcomes
Cross-functional teams facilitate learning from all members. Hearing new perspectives from other divisions creates new understandings, both within marcomm and outside of it. For example, web team members learn about graphic design and enrollment best practices. This occurs because cross-functional teams are collaboration-based, so all team members are empowered to contribute ideas instead of only giving feedback on their traditional roles. More broadly, the entire marcomm team benefits from cross-functional teams if there’s a way to share these learnings with the full group instead of just those in a specific meeting.
Working Toward Success
When I first stepped into marcomm leadership, the team was running full speed just to keep up, racing from one fire drill to the next with little time to pause, reflect or align. What initially seemed like a time-management problem turned out to be a deeper issue of structure, communication and partnership. Through the intentional creation of cross-functional teams, we began to shift from reactive executors to proactive strategic partners.
Cross-functional teams require time investment to create shared mission, collaboration frameworks and understanding of the work at hand. However, these teams generate shared ownership and strong trust, central to ongoing collaboration, partnerships and organizational innovation. Most importantly, the outcomes are usually a more agile, aligned and high-performing organization—better equipped to meet both immediate goals and long-term strategic priorities of the institution.
Carrie Phillips, Ed.D., is chief communications and marketing officer at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
European governments have sought to bolster their universities’ efforts to recruit international researchers, amid signs that an expected exodus in U.S.-based scholars is beginning.
On April 23, Norway’s education ministry announced the creation of a $9.6 million initiative, designed by the Research Council of Norway, to “make it easier to recruit experienced researchers from other countries.”
While the program will be open to researchers worldwide, the ministry said, research and higher education minister Sigrun Aasland suggested in a statement that the recruitment of U.S.-based scholars was of particular interest.
“Academic freedom is under pressure in the U.S., and it is an unpredictable position for many researchers in what has been the world’s leading knowledge nation for many decades,” Aasland said. “We have had close dialogue with the Norwegian knowledge communities and my Nordic colleagues about developments.
“It has been important for me to find good measures that we can put in place quickly, and therefore I have tasked the Research Council with prioritizing schemes that we can implement within a short time.”
The first call for proposals will open in May, Research Council chief executive Mari Sundli Tveit stated, with “climate, health, energy and artificial intelligence” among the fields of interest.
Last week, the French ministry of higher education and research launched the Choose France for Science platform, operated by the French National Research Agency. The platform will enable universities and research institutes to submit “projects for hosting international researchers ready to come and settle in Europe” and apply for state co-funding.
Research projects on themes including health, climate and artificial intelligence may receive state funding of “up to 50 percent of the total amount of the project,” the ministry said.
“Around the world, science and research are facing unprecedented threats. In the face of these challenges, France must uphold its position by reaching out to researchers and offering them refuge,” Education Minister Élisabeth Borne said.
The initiative follows efforts from individual French universities to recruit from the U.S.: The University of Toulouse hopes to attract scholars working in the fields of “living organisms and health, climate change [or] transport and energy,” while Paris-Saclay University intends to “launch Ph.D. contracts and fund stays of various durations for American researchers.”
Aix-Marseille University plans to host around 15 American academics through a Safe Place for Science program, announcing last week that almost 300 had applied. “The majority are ‘experienced’ profiles from various universities/institutions of origin: Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Yale, Stanford,” the university said.
In Spain, meanwhile, Science Minister Diana Morant announced the third round of the ATRAE international recruitment program, with a budget of $153 million, which will run from 2025 to 2027.
The plan, designed to “attract leading scientists to Spain in areas of research with a high social impact, such as climate change, AI and space technologies,” offers scholars an average of $1.13 million to conduct research at a Spanish institution. Successful applicants currently based in the U.S., meanwhile, will receive an additional $226,000 per project.
“We are not only a better country for science, for those researchers who currently reside in our country, but we are also a better country for elite researchers who seek out the productive scientific ecosystem we have in Spain,” Morant said.
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A new White House executive order calling for “common sense” in school discipline policies by removing practices based on “discriminatory equity ideology” will drive even wider racial disparities in discipline than currently exist, critics say.
Rather than being common sense, the directive would “permit school discipline practices that target and punish students of color and students with disabilities at disproportionate rates,” said Denise Forte, president and CEO of EdTrust, in a statement Thursday, a day after President Donald Trump signed the order. EdTrust, a nonprofit, works with school systems to close opportunity gaps for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds.
Additionally, EdTrust in a separate Thursday statement to K-12 Dive said, “When the dust settles from the education chaos being created by Trump administration, students — especially students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, students with disabilities, English learners, and students in rural areas — will be worse off, and the Trump administration wants to make sure we don’t have the data and research to prove it.”
Dan Losen, senior director of education at the National Center for Youth Law, said the Trump administration is creating a false dichotomy that schools either need harsh discipline practices or they deal with out-of-control and unsafe student behaviors.
The reality, Losen said, is that well-trained educators and administrators have many approaches to reducing student misconduct that are evidence-based. “Many schools and superintendents are aware that the best antidote to violence, to drug involvement, to gang involvement, is to try to find ways to keep more kids in school,” Losen said.
Closing racial gaps in school discipline has been a priority at the local, state and national levels for many years. Schools have also shunned strict zero-tolerance discipline policies in favor of responsive and restorative practices and other approaches that help students examine their behavior and make amends to those harmed.
Supporters of alternatives to suspending or expelling students — or what’s called “exclusionary discipline” — say those different approaches help keep students connected to school and reduce the school-to-prison pipeline. They also note that alternative strategies help reduce racial disparities in school discipline.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection found that even though Black students represented 15% of K-12 student enrollment in the 2021-22 school year, they accounted for 19% of students who were secluded and 26% who were physically restrained. And while Black children accounted for 18% of preschool enrollment, 38% received one or more out-of-school suspensions, and 33% were expelled.
In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have reported an uptick in mental health and disruptive behaviors in students. In fact, 68% of respondents said behavioral disruptions have increased since the 2019-20 school year in an EAB survey of school employees published in 2023.
At the same time, schools said they lack the funding and staffing to adequately address students’ mental health needs. Furthermore a 2024 Rand Corp. report found that challenging student behaviors contribute to teacher burnout.
On Thursday, the departments of Education, Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services issued a resource for K-12 threat assessment practices to help prevent school violence and create a safe school environment.
The order’s expectations
Student discipline policies are set at the school or district level. However, the federal government can issue guidance and hold schools accountable for discriminatory practices.
The executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday lays out a timeline of expectations for U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon. In one month, McMahon, along with the U.S. attorney general, is to issue school discipline guidance that reminds districts and states of their obligations under Title VI to protect students against racial discrimination. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin in federally funded programs.
In two months, McMahon and the U.S. attorney general are required to begin working with states to prevent racial discrimination in school discipline. By late July, the U.S. Department of Defense is to issue a revised school discipline code to guide the school experiences of children from military-service families.
Lastly, by late August, McMahon, along with leaders from various federal agencies, is to submit a report on the “status of discriminatory-equity-ideology-based school discipline and behavior modification techniques in American public education.”
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, praised the executive order in a statement on Wednesday, “The Left’s fixation on ‘disparate impact’ has led to a profound failure in many schools to address disruptions or behavioral problems in the classroom, negatively impacting all students as a result.”
Walberg added, “The Trump administration is restoring common sense in schools by working to remove racialized notions of DEI and saying unequivocally: All students must be treated equally.”
Trump also signed a broader executive order on Wednesday, not restricted to education programs, that calls for the elimination of “disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible.” The order says that the U.S. should be a “colorblind society” without “race- or sex-based favoritism.”
