Tag: Experience

Unique Data About the Online Student Experience

The Priorities Survey for Online Learners (PSOL) is the instrument in the Satisfaction-Priorities Survey family that best reflects the unique experiences of students in online two-year and four-year programs, including at the graduate level. The Priorities Survey for Online Learners provides the perspectives of online students aside external national benchmarks to inform decision-making for 150 institutions across the country.

It is critical to understand the full experience of online students who may have limited interactions with the institution, and the Priorities Survey for Online Learners allows leadership to know what matters to their online students in both their academic and non-academic interactions. Students respond on items related to instructional, enrollment, academic and enrollment services along with their general perceptions of the institution. This broad view provides direction to campus leaders to be able to best serve what may be a growing population for the institution. Online students indicate a level of importance and satisfaction with just over two dozen items.

The combination of satisfaction and importance scores identifies strengths (areas of high importance and high satisfaction) to be celebrated and challenges (areas of high importance and low satisfaction) to be improved. Along with the external national comparison data specific to online students published annually, institutions can compare their students’ perceptions internally over time with annual or every-other-year administrations. In addition, the provided reporting gives institutions the opportunity to review their data for demographic subpopulations to focus initiatives appropriately.

All students enrolled in online programs, undergraduate and graduate alike, can be invited to complete the Priorities Survey for Online Learners. Like the Student Satisfaction Inventory and the Adult Student Priorities Survey (the other survey instruments in the Satisfaction-Priorities family), the data gathered by the survey can support multiple initiatives on campus including to inform student success efforts, to provide the student voice for strategic planning, to document priorities for accreditation purposes, and to highlight positive messaging for recruitment activities. Student satisfaction has been positively linked with higher individual student retention and higher institutional graduation rates, getting right to the heart of higher education student success.

“Having an independent organization with a well-known brand provide the student perspective is hugely important to us. The data is valued by our Board of directors and by our accrediting organizations. It shows how we are performing when it comes to institutions that are similar to us,” said Ada Uche, director of assessment and institutional effectiveness at Colorado Technical University (CO) about their regular administration of the Priorities Survey for Online Learners.

Learn more about best practices for administering the Priorities Survey for Online Learners at your institution, which can be done any time during the academic year on the institutions’ timeline.

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December 10, 2025
Ways to optimize college for real world experience
“Top Ways To Optimize College Education For

The Real World Work Environment”

There’s a tremendous amount of work—and sustained effort—that goes into guiding a high school student through graduation and into a great college or university. But once they arrive on campus at their dream school, students quickly learn that a whole new set of exciting (and often challenging) expectations awaits them.

One of the most important things we do as advisors is help families optimize their efforts—not just in high school, but throughout the college years as well. Preparing for a successful college experience and a rewarding career takes more than financial planning. It requires strategy, self-awareness, and an understanding of what truly matters over the next four years.

Because here’s the reality: getting into college is a big achievement, but it doesn’t mean much if a student becomes part of the roughly 32% of college freshmen who never complete their bachelor’s degree. And even among those who do graduate, many enter the workforce without the skills, direction, or experiences that make them competitive job candidates.

With this in mind, this month’s newsletter highlights several key steps students can take to make their college years meaningful preparation for life after graduation. Students who use these strategies early and intentionally can avoid the frustration far too many new graduates face—earning a diploma but struggling to find a rewarding job.

After reviewing this month’s newsletter, if you have questions about helping your student prepare for college—and everything that comes after—please reach out. We’re here to support both the academic and the financial pieces of the journey, and our guidance can strengthen your family’s planning for the exciting years ahead.

1) Begin With the End in Mind

Some students start college with a clear career path. Many do not. Both situations are perfectly normal—but students without a firm plan should use the early college years to explore interests, build strong academic habits, and open doors for future opportunities.

A smart first step is front-loading required courses. Knocking out general education classes early gives students more flexibility later—exactly when internships, major coursework, and professional opportunities start to emerge. It also helps them adjust to the academic rigor of college without the added pressure of advanced major-specific classes.

Students who enter college knowing their intended career path can benefit from the same approach. General education courses are unavoidable, but careful planning—often with the help of an advisor—can reveal classes that count toward both major and core requirements. This streamlines the path to graduation and keeps future options wide open.

2) Work With Good Academic Advisors

A good academic advisor is worth their weight in gold. Many colleges assign advisors simply by last name or department availability. While these advisors can help students understand which classes meet which requirements (and that’s important!), they aren’t always the best resource for career-specific guidance.

Most campuses also have specialty advising offices for competitive career tracks like medicine, law, engineering, or business. These advisors understand the nuances of graduate school applications, interviews, and prerequisite planning.

Outside of campus, professionals in a student’s field of interest can offer invaluable real-world insight. A strong advisor—whether found inside or outside the university—helps students understand not just what to study, but why it matters for their long-term goals.

The bottom line: students should actively seek accurate, timely, and career-aligned advice—not just settle for the first advisor they’re assigned.

3) Don’t Ignore the Value of a Minor

Majors get most of the attention, but minors can be incredibly useful. They require fewer courses, yet they still add depth and versatility to a student’s academic profile.

A minor can:
- highlight a secondary area of interest
- demonstrate broader skills
- add practical abilities (like a second language or computer programming)
- naturally emerge from completing certain prerequisites
For example, many pre-med students accidentally complete a chemistry minor simply by taking the courses required for medical school applications.

Minors also look great on résumés. They show commitment, intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to explore beyond the basics.

4) Diversify Your Options

We always encourage students to work hard toward their goals—but to stay open-minded, too. Success rarely follows a straight line. Career paths evolve, interests shift, and opportunities arise in unexpected places.

Students who diversify their plans—by exploring different fields, staying curious, and being open to new experiences—often discover opportunities they never knew existed. Flexibility, paired with ambition, is a powerful combination.

Encourage your student to aim high, stay engaged, and keep their eyes open. College is a time of tremendous discovery, and the students who embrace that mindset often enjoy the most rewarding outcomes.

Until next month,
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December 1, 2025
U-M Senior Learning Experience Designer

Are you searching for a learning designer, instructional designer or, as the University of Michigan calls the role, a learning experience designer? If so, your search is the perfect fit for Featured Gigs. Please reach out.

Today’s opportunity, senior learning experience designer, is with higher education’s premier academic innovation team, U-M’s Center for Academic Innovation. Evan Ogg Straub, CAI’s learning experience design lead, has the answers to my questions about the gig.

Q: What is the university’s mandate behind this role? How does it help align with and advance the university’s strategic priorities?

A: Imagine being the person who turns bold ideas into learning experiences that reach thousands of learners across the globe. The University of Michigan’s commitment to life-changing education, a key pillar of our Look to Michigan vision, drives this role’s focus on expanding access to high-quality, equitable learning experiences for a global audience.

The learning experience designer senior role advances the Center for Academic Innovation’s mission to collaborate across campus and around the world to create equitable, lifelong educational opportunities for learners everywhere. At CAI, we help translate Michigan’s academic excellence into scalable, learner-centered opportunities, both in our noncredit and for-credit portfolios. The learning experience designer senior role is at the forefront of our work.

Designers at CAI don’t just build courses; they co-create learning experiences that merge research-informed design and empathy with faculty expertise. We ensure every online or hybrid course reflects Michigan’s commitment to excellence while reimagining how learning reaches people across every stage of life, whether they are traditional students, working professionals or lifelong learners.

Q: Where does the role sit within the university structure? How will the person in this role engage with other units and leaders across campus?

A: Reporting to the learning experience design lead, the learning experience designer senior operates within a highly cross-functional team that brings together experts in design, technology, data and media. We have a highly collaborative environment, both within the center and with our faculty and academic partners.

As a learning experience designer senior, the ideal candidate will be collaborative and relationship-driven, working closely with faculty and academic unit leaders across the university’s schools and colleges to design meaningful online and hybrid learning experiences. We work in an environment that values experimentation, collaboration and continuous learning.

Q: What would success look like in one year? Three years? Beyond?

A: Our learning experience designers at CAI are connectors and translators. We turn teaching goals into actionable design strategies and align pedagogical vision with institutional priorities. In your first year, success looks like being a trusted connector who builds strong relationships across our team and with our academic partners. You’ll be shaping not only our courses but our culture, contributing your voice, curiosity and care to our thriving community.

In three years, this role may become a recognized mentor, leader and thought partner in learning experience design across U-M. A person in this role would be recognized for advancing best practices in digital pedagogy, mentoring colleagues and contributing to the university’s growing portfolio of online and hybrid programs.

Beyond that, success means lasting impact. The courses and programs you’ve helped build will keep reaching new learners, and the practices you’ve influenced will continue guiding our work long after any single project ends.

Q: What kinds of future roles would someone who took this position be prepared for?

A: This role offers the chance to develop strategic, creative and leadership skills that are highly transferable across higher education and beyond. Learning experience designers in this role gain experience with a diverse range of online and hybrid learning experiences, from degree programs, noncredit MOOCs and certificate-based stackable programs. This prepares our designers for roles that require both pedagogical expertise and operational agility.

People who grow in this role are well positioned to step into leadership positions, including leading design teams, shaping instructional design strategy within academic units or moving into broader academic innovation–focused roles within or outside of higher education.

Please get in touch if you are conducting a job search at the intersection of learning, technology and organizational change.

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November 20, 2025
AI is unlocking insights from PTES to drive enhancement of the PGT experience faster than ever before

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.

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November 20, 2025
Higher education must include valuable workforce experience and training that helps students secure meaningful jobs

by Bruno V. Manno, The Hechinger Report
November 10, 2025

This fall, some 19 million undergraduates returned to U.S. campuses with a long-held expectation: Graduate, land an entry-level job, climb the career ladder. That formula is breaking down.

Once reliable gateway jobs for college graduates in industries like finance, consulting and journalism have tightened requirements. Many entry-level job postings that previously provided initial working experience for college graduates now require two to three years of prior experience, while AI, a recent analysis concluded, “snaps up good entry-level tasks,” especially routine work like drafting memos, preparing spreadsheets and summarizing research.

Without these proving grounds, new hires lose chances to build skills by doing. And the demand for work experience that potential workers don’t have creates an experience gap for new job seekers. Once stepping-stones, entry-level positions increasingly resemble mid-career jobs.

No doubt AI is and will continue to reshape work in general and entry-level jobs in particular in expected and unexpected ways. But we are not doomed to what some call an “AI job apocalypse” or a “white-collar bloodbath” that leads to mass unemployment. There are practical solutions to the experience gap problem when it comes to education and training programs. These include earn-and-learn models and other innovative public and private employer partnerships that build into their approaches opportunities for young people to gain valuable work experience.

Related: Interested in innovations in higher education? Subscribe to our free biweekly higher education newsletter.

Before I describe these potential solutions, here is more information on how I see the problem.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that in March 2025, the unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 was 5.7 percent, compared to an overall unemployment rate of 4.0 percent. Other than the temporary pandemic-related spike in 2021, that was the highest unemployment rate for new grads since 2014. More recently, the Fed’s August 2025 unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 1 percentage point higher than its overall unemployment rate of 4.3 percent.

The experience gap phenomenon is not limited to the tech sector. In 2019, 61 percent of AI-related job postings were in the information technology and computer science sector, with 39 percent in non-tech sectors, labor analytics from Lightcast show. By 2024, the majority (51 percent versus 49 percent) of AI-related job postings were outside the tech sector.

The cumulative effect of all this is apparent. The hollowing out of entry-level work stalls mobility across the labor market, leaving many college graduates stranded before their careers can even begin. Moreover, these changes cut to the core of higher education’s promise.

If graduates can’t secure meaningful jobs, confidence in higher ed falters — one reason why it should come as no surprise that 56 percent of Americans think earning a four-year degree is not worth the cost, a March 2023 Wall Street Journal-NORC poll found, compared with 42 percent who think it is, a new low in a poll first administered in 2013. Skepticism was predominant among those ages 18 to 34, and college degree holders were among those most skeptical.

Related: As more question the value of a degree, colleges fight to prove their return on investment

The collapse of entry-level jobs isn’t just a cyclical downturn. It’s a structural shift. Left unchecked, this dynamic will deepen inequality, slow social mobility and further undermine faith in higher education.

As I’ve said, solutions exist. Here are five that I believe in:

Apprenticeships and other earn-and-learn models: Earn-and-learn apprenticeships are a promising, direct solution to the experience gap. They combine paid work with structured training and provide years of experience to college students in those jobs. Sectors from tech to health care are experimenting with this model, examples of which include registered apprenticeships, youth apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeship degrees that allow individuals to pursue a degree while they work in an apprenticeship.

Skills-based hiring and alternative credentials: Initiatives such as skills-first hiring by major employers like IBM, Google and Apple aim to evaluate candidates based on their competencies rather than their degrees. Microcredentials, industry certificates and portfolios can serve as verifiable signals of skills gained through alternative training routes.

Stronger college and employer partnerships: Colleges can (and should) embed work-based learning into curricula through co-op programs, project-based courses and partnerships with local industries. Northeastern University and Drexel have long pioneered this model. And others, such as Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University, are using online learning to advance this approach. Scaling this solution could help close the experience gap.

Policy innovations: Governments can play a role by giving incentives to companies to create early career opportunities. Workforce Pell, recently enacted in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, expands financial aid to use for short-term training programs, opening new pathways for students who may not be pursuing traditional degrees. Tax credits for apprenticeship sponsors and funding for regional workforce hubs could further expand opportunities.

Reimagining internships: Expanding access to paid internships — especially for first-generation and low-income students — could democratize the attainment of experience. Philanthropies and local governments could underwrite stipends to ensure that opportunity isn’t reserved for the affluent who can afford unpaid internships or have social networks that connect them to these opportunities.

The challenge presented by this troubling experience gap is urgent. Today’s students deserve a college experience and a labor market in which education and effort still translate into opportunity.

Bruno V. Manno is a senior advisor at the Progressive Policy Institute, leading its What Works Lab, and is a former U.S. assistant secretary of education for policy.

Contact the opinion editor at [email protected].

This story about workforce experience was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

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November 10, 2025
Innovation Project Experience Designer at Grand Valley

Are you leading a search for a role at the intersection of learning, technology and organizational change? Today, we hear from Eric Kunnen, senior director of IT innovation and research at Grand Valley State University, who is recruiting for an innovation project experience designer.

Q: What is the university’s mandate behind this role? How does it help align with and advance the university’s strategic priorities?

A: Put simply, the IT innovation and research team’s futurEDlab is on a mission to unite faculty, staff and students to spark innovation and help shape the future of education. At Grand Valley State University, our Reach Higher Strategic Plan highlights the value of innovation as well as the university’s commitment to empowering learners and enriching society. Specifically, this role contributes to enhancing education through incubating ideas and facilitating project management in our work to design, develop and deliver innovative immersive experiences leveraging emerging technologies.

Q: Where does the role sit within the university structure? How will the person in this role engage with other units and leaders across campus?

A: The innovation project experience designer at GVSU will serve on the information technology division’s innovation and research team, engaging across the university through partnerships and interdisciplinary partnerships.

Q: What would success look like in one year? Three years? Beyond?

A: In year one, success includes catalyzing our project intake and management operational procedures within the futurEDlab, building momentum, capacity, efficiency and effectiveness as we deliver high-impact innovation experiences at Grand Valley State University. In three years, this role will be pivotal as we increase the value of digital transformation in teaching and learning as part of the innovation pipeline with the Blue Dot Lab ecosystem.

Q: What kinds of future roles would someone who took this position be prepared for?

A: Future roles for this position include coordination, management, leadership and innovation pathways in higher education, such as innovation strategy, digital transformation and senior level innovation program and project management.

Please get in touch if you are conducting a job search at the intersection of learning, technology and organizational change. Featuring your gig on Featured Gigs is free.

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November 4, 2025
The Student Satisfaction Inventory: Data to Capture the Student Experience

Satisfaction data provides insights across the student experience.

The Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) is the original instrument in the family of Satisfaction-Priorities Survey instruments. With versions that are appropriate for four-year public/private institutions and two-year community colleges, the Student Satisfaction Inventory provides institutional insight and external national benchmarks to inform decision-making on more than 600 campuses across North America.

With its comprehensive approach, the Student Satisfaction Inventory gathers feedback from current students across all class levels to identify not only how satisfied they are, but also what is most important to them. Highly innovative when it first debuted in the mid-1990’s, the approach has now become the standard in understanding institutional strengths (areas of high importance and high satisfaction) and institutional challenges (areas of high importance and low satisfaction).

With these indicators, college leaders can celebrate what is working on their campus and target resources in areas that have the opportunity for improvement. By administering one survey, on an annual or every-other-year cycle, campuses can gather student feedback across the student experience, including instructional effectiveness, academic advising, registration, recruitment/financial aid, plus campus climate and support services, and track how satisfaction levels increase based on institutional efforts.

Along with tracking internal benchmarks, the Student Satisfaction Inventory results provide comparisons with a national external norm group of like-type institutions to identify where students are significantly more or less satisfied than students nationally (the national results are published annually). In addition, the provided institutional reporting offers the ability to slice the data by all of the standard and customizable demographic items to provide a clearer approach for targeted initiatives.

Like the Adult Student Priorities Survey and the Priorities Survey for Online Learners (the other survey instruments in the Satisfaction-Priorities Surveys family), the data gathered by the Student Satisfaction Inventory can support multiple initiatives on campus, including to inform student success efforts, to provide the student voice for strategic planning, to document priorities for accreditation purposes and to highlight positive messaging for recruitment activities. Student satisfaction has been positively linked with higher individual student retention and higher institutional graduation rates, getting right to the heart of higher education student success.

Sandra Hiebert, director of institutional assessment and academic compliance at McPherson College (KS) shares, “We have leveraged what we found in the SSI data to spark adaptive challenge conversations and to facilitate action decisions to directly address student concerns. The process has engaged key components of campus and is helping the student voice to be considered. The data and our subsequent actions were especially helpful for our accreditation process.”

See how you can strengthen student success with the Student Satisfaction Inventory

Learn more about best practices for administering the online Student Satisfaction Inventory at your institution, which can be done any time during the academic year on your institution’s timeline.

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October 31, 2025
President’s Role in the Enrollment Experience

Why Enrollment Should Be a Shared Institutional Priority

The future hangs in the balance as enrollment management at your institution spirals into chaos.

Siloed growth initiatives are relegated solely to marketing departments, which bear the full weight of institutional pressure yet lack the authority to grow enrollment throughout the entire funnel. Overburdened marketing teams bombard campus stakeholders with complex, opaque data and demand astronomical digital marketing budgets that few truly understand. It’s just easier to say no.

Meanwhile, admissions teams and faculty pursue divergent, often conflicting strategies to recruit students, each operating in isolation with little coordination.

Student success teams, critical to retaining and supporting new enrollees, are entirely excluded from strategic discussions, leaving vital continuity efforts out of the equation.

As these disconnected forces collide, the institution risks a catastrophic decline in enrollment, eroding its mission and future viability — an unfolding crisis in which collaboration is abandoned and the system teeters on the brink of collapse.

This isn’t the latest thriller from your favorite streaming platform but instead a worst-case scenario of what some higher education institutions face today. The only one who can save them? You, the university president.

The President as Chief Enrollment Champion

It would be easy to assume that enrollment success and growth are mandates of marketing, admissions, and student support teams, as they focus on enrollment key performance indicators (KPIs), customer relationship management (CRM) systems, return on investment (ROI), lead-to-enrollment (L2E), and other such tools and metrics. For many university presidents and leaders, the details of enrollment management success are often isolated from broader priorities, such as mission, strategy, and resource allocation, even if enrollment growth is mentioned in the strategic plan.

Enrollment success is the lifeblood of institutional stability. The president and provost set the tone, vision, and degree of urgency around enrollment success initiatives. Without executive involvement, schools and departments compete instead of collaborating, pitting enrollment management teams against each other in a crowded market. This approach can lead to silos, missed opportunities, and uneven accountability. At worst, this approach leads to finger-pointing and a cycle of frustration and disappointment across the president’s cabinet.

While marketing and enrollment management teams are the frontline drivers of enrollment strategies, the ultimate success of growth and student satisfaction hinges on the strategic leadership of university presidents and provosts. Effective leadership necessitates active engagement and oversight to ensure that these efforts are successfully integrated into the university’s priority initiatives.

Strong executive involvement signals holistic institutional commitment. This helps break down barriers that can impede enrollment success and diminish the student enrollment experience, such as disconnects between the operational teams supporting enrollment management and the academic teams safeguarding quality, reputation, and ranking.

Here, we discuss why the university president must champion ambitious and responsible enrollment. We explore how executive leadership can ensure that enrollment efforts are appropriately resourced; aligned under a single vision; and integrated across governance, academics, operations, and administration to achieve the most compelling metrics: exceptional student experiences and outcomes.

Ensuring Adequate Resources and Support

One of the key ways presidents and provosts can bolster enrollment success is by ensuring that marketing, recruitment, and student success teams are sufficiently resourced. No one expects executive leadership to be in the weeds of enrollment management operations.

However, having a working understanding of digital marketing and how it differs from event-driven marketing (for example, enrollment fairs or conferences) can be helpful during budget allocation conversations for marketing campaigns.

Equally important is ensuring that faculty and enrollment management staff have access to training and development opportunities to stay current in a rapidly evolving field, which is full of new tools and approaches, as well as a diverse ecosystem of third-party support opportunities. Faculty and staff are on the front line of student engagement. Presidents and provosts can cultivate an environment of continuous professional development focused on inclusive teaching, technology integration, and student engagement strategies. Well-supported faculty and staff are more effective in creating positive learning environments that attract and retain students.

Finally, presidents and provosts should invest in a process for new academic program development that assesses whether programs meet market demand and provide graduates with specific professional outcomes.

When components such as the above are underfunded, efforts to increase enrollment and enhance the student experience are likely to falter over time.

Leveraging Modern Data and Analytics

Are enrollment management staff using outdated and siloed technology systems that require significant manual work to develop basic reporting and analysis? This is a critical area for institutional-level investment and support.

Data-driven decision-making is essential in today’s competitive enrollment environment. Presidents and provosts should champion investments in analytics platforms that provide insights into prospective students’ behaviors and indicate their likelihood of enrollment, academic performance, and postgraduation outcomes.

Using this data, enrollment management and academic leadership can tailor recruitment strategies, optimize academic pathways, and identify at-risk students early, enabling targeted interventions that improve retention and graduation rates.

Championing a Student-Centric Institutional Culture

At the heart of enrollment and student success is a culture that prioritizes the student journey, from initial inquiry through graduation and beyond. While the traditional student journey may be well understood, that of the adult and online learner may require special analysis and support.

Presidents and provosts must champion this student-first culture by fostering collaboration across academic units, student services, and administrative departments, ensuring that every touchpoint enhances the student experience for all types of learners.

Establish Intentional Governance for Enrollment Success With Shared Performance Metrics

Enrollment growth and student success are inherently cross-functional. Presidents and provosts can foster collaboration by establishing formal structures with the authority to act, such as integrated enrollment planning committees or task forces that bring together academic leadership, student affairs, admissions, marketing, and technology teams. This helps align cabinet-level leaders around a unified enrollment vision.

These cross-functional collaborations ensure that strategies are coordinated, data-driven, and responsive to emerging trends. For example, aligning ambitious enrollment growth plans with course section scheduling and staffing planning ensures responsible outcomes, rather than having faculty leaders scramble at the last minute to find instructors to cover overfull admitted-student course sections.

To ensure sustained focus, presidents and provosts should embed enrollment growth and student experience metrics into the university’s performance evaluations. This reinforces their importance across the institution and encourages all units to align their priorities accordingly. Shared accountability metrics should measure success from inquiry through graduation and be accessible to all teams through executive dashboards and regular reviews.

Promoting Innovation and Building External Partnerships

Staying competitive requires ongoing innovation and connection to the broader marketplace. Presidential and provost leadership should support the development of flexible academic pathways, such as online or hybrid programs, competency-based education, and microcredentials that appeal to diverse student populations.

Partnerships with industry, community organizations, and alumni can keep academic programs and curricula relevant, expand opportunities for students, and enhance the institution’s reputation. Presidents and provosts can lead efforts to establish these collaborations, opening pathways for internships, research projects, and employment while keeping a finger on the pulse of evolving industry and workforce skills needs and gaps.

Demonstrating Visible Leadership and Accountability

Finally, effective presidents and provosts demonstrate visible leadership by regularly communicating progress, celebrating successes, and holding units accountable for results. Transparent reporting on enrollment trends, student satisfaction, and graduation rates fosters a culture of continuous improvement. Training everyone to understand the basic KPIs that connect marketing, admissions, academics, and retention ensures that all are speaking the same language and working in partnership.

Key Takeaways

The strategic leadership of university presidents and provosts is essential for sustainable enrollment growth and a high-quality student enrollment experience. By actively championing student-centric culture, ensuring appropriate resourcing, fostering aligned governance and collaboration, leveraging data, and embedding metrics into institutional goals, executive leaders can create an environment where enrollment strategies are not only initiatives but also integral components of the university’s shared mission, leading to higher retention; better outcomes; and a stronger, more competitive institution.

Increase Leadership’s Role in Your Enrollment Experience

Archer Education partners with institutional leaders and admissions, marketing, and strategy teams to help them overcome enrollment challenges. Using tech-enabled, personalized enrollment marketing and management solutions, we can help your institution align its teams and create a strategic roadmap to sustainable growth.

Click here to request more information about Archer’s full-funnel engagement strategies and digital student experience technology.

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October 20, 2025
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