These schools re-tooled their enrollment playbook using data to drive growth

[Coach Andy Mac]

There’s an urban legend that Henry Ford, creator of the commercial automobile, said, “If I would have asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” As creatures of habit, a technological leap can be difficult to adjust to. The same can now be said for today’s increasingly data-driven world.

Determined to leverage these tools in higher education, the University of North Texas and Reynolds Community College (Va.) are building a culture of faculty and administrators equipped to leverage AI-powered predictive analytics and data visualization products to strategize more effective enrollment tactics.

“Prior to having the tools in their hands, there was a big question mark. ‘Why is this a game changer?’ We already had tons of reports. Staff was churning out literally thousands of static PDFs out of my unit,” says Melanie Boynton, director of institutional research and analytics at Reynolds. “The internal selling we had to do was difficult, but now people really love these tools. This is the most data-informed they’ve ever been in their entire lives.”

Before North Texas had any analytics software suite, the administration’s only way to assess future recruitment and enrollment trends was by backtracking minute details and analyzing the only results they had – the ones that had already happened. Now, North Texas has 1,200+ trained employees, from administrative assistants up to the president, using their predictive analytics software suit to forecast trends years from now to make more informed decisions, says Jason Simon, associate vice president of data, analytics and institutional research at North Texas.

Preparing for the storm

Simon thanks his university president, Neal Smatresk, for modernizing North Texas’ enrollment strategies. “It takes effort and support from the top to achieve a higher level of analytic maturity,” he said. “There are some foundational hurdles that most institutions haven’t figured out how to get over yet.”

However, Simon believes schools may be running out of time to adapt.

“As we approach the demographic cliff of the traditional 18-24-year-old market, I believe that institutions that mature their analytics and invest in their people who know the data are probably going to fare a little better than those who are a little late to the party,” says Jason Simon, associate vice president of data, analytics and institutional research at North Texas. “I’m concerned for students. We all want to see us produce graduates.”

Read more:  https://universitybusiness.com/these-schools-re-tooled-their-enrollment-playbook-using-data-to-drive-growth/

Edited April 19, 2023 by Coach Andy Mac