1. Core Concepts of SEM: University of Michigan - Flint
December 9, 2014
Tom Green, Ph.D.
Associate Executive Director, Consulting and SEM

2. Overview Definitions of SEM
Building and sustaining enrollments over time
Organizational and process frameworks
The strategic use of data in SEM

3. What is Strategic Enrolment Management (SEM)?
Enrollment management is an organizational concept and a systematic set of activities designed to enable educational institutions to exert more influence over their student enrollments.
Hossler, 1990

4. What is Strategic enrollment Management (SEM)?
Strategic enrollment management is a concept and process that enables the fulfillment of institutional mission and students’ educational goals.
Bontrager

5. The Purposes of SEM are Achieved by…
Establishing clear goals for the number and types of students needed to fulfill the institutional mission
Promoting students’ academic success by improving access, transition, persistence, and graduation
Promoting institutional success by enabling effective strategic and financial planning
Creating a data-rich environment to inform decisions and evaluate strategies
Bontrager

6. The Purposes of SEM are Achieved by…
Improving process, organizational and financial efficiency and outcomes
Strengthening communications and marketing with internal and external stakeholders
Increasing collaboration among departments across the campus to support the enrollment program
Bontrager

7. What is Strategic Enrolment Management (SEM)?
SEM is an organizational mindset that is focused on internal student success and experiences and the external environment as a means to more effectively relate its institutional mission and values to its key stakeholders and audiences.
Green, 2014

8. SEM Planning Framework
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Bontrager/Green

9. SEM Planning Framework
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan
Clarity of institutional mission, vision, goals
Core competencies
Strategic direction
Aggregate enrollment goals

10. SEM Planning Framework
Student categories: first year, transfer, dual enrollment, voc/tech, continuing ed, face-to- face/online, certificate, etc.
Desired student groups: racial/ethnic diversity, academic ability, 1st gen
Geographic origin: local, regional,
Recruitment, retention, completion
Institutional capacity
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan
This is the start of a definition of the enrollment mix and more informed by mission and overall plan and yet to be sharpened by data and scanning

11. SEM Planning Framework
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Internal benchmarks: KEI numbers over the past 3-5 years
Environmental scan
Demographics
Economics
Market opportunities
Competition
Institutional research plan: designated reports and production schedule
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan

12. SEM Planning Framework
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan
5-10 year KEI targets
Focus: the institution’s desired future
Based on: mission, data, and environmental scanning
This is a sharper definition of the KEI’s in the earlier slide, informed and shaped by data

13. SEM Planning Framework
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Staffing: skill sets, strategic deployment
Systems: policies, procedures, technology
Capacity for making effective enrollment decisions : positions, reporting lines, committees
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan

14. SEM Planning Framework
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Increase new students of specified types
Increase retention rates, specifically by student types
Utilize emerging technologies
Financial aid/scholarships
Academic programs: mix and delivery systems
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan

15. SEM Planning Framework
Marketing/branding initiatives
Academic program review
Multilingual recruitment materials
Targeted interventions for students in high risk courses
Enhanced academic advising
Streamlined admission procedures
Purchase a new CRM system
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan

16. SEM Planning Framework
Consistently meeting goals over the long term
Enabling more effective campus-wide planning
Revisions to the institutional strategic plan
Academic planning: curriculum, faculty needs
Facility planning
Financial planning
Achieving the institution’s desired future
Sustainable
Enrollment
Outcomes
Tactics
Strategies
Enrollment Infrastructure
Strategic Enrollment Goals
Data Collection and Analysis
Key Enrollment Indicators
Institutional Strategic Plan

17. Additional requests, clarifying questions Mid-course adjustments
SEM Process Framework
New or revised goals
Data gathering and assessment:
Internal culture/ environment, student enrollment
behaviors and scan of external environment
Process steps
Performed by
Smaller group of staff and faculty
adept at economics and data use
Use data results to establish
focused goals each for recruitment, retention,
service, etc., and enrollment projection models
Goals recommended by SEM Recruitment
and Retention Councils; models developed
by Data Team
Approve strategic goals and enrollment projection models
Executive Team
SEM Steering Committee
Develop action steps, accountability, and metrics
SEM councils and sub-committees
Implement action steps
Appropriate staff and
faculty departments
Monitor progress,
Report results to campus and executive leadership
Chief Enrollment Officer
Additional requests, clarifying questions
to goals
Changes
Mid-course adjustments
Align institutional strategic plan with
broad enrollment targets and desired mix of students
Executive Team
Green/Bontrager

18. SEM Organizational Framework
Executive Team
Institutional strategic plan, approval and champions of strategic enrollment goals and initiatives
SEM Steering Committee
Long-term enrollment goals, securing the approval of strategies through appropriate institutional channels, communication with Executive Team
Recruitment Council
Develop 3-4 strategic goals for new student recruitment; review and approve sub-committee action plans; recommend to SEM Steering Committee
Retention Council
Develop 3-4 strategic goals for retention and graduation; review and approve sub-committee action plans; recommend to SEM Steering Committee
3-4 Sub-Committees
Action plans, time lines and metrics for each strategic goal
3-4 Sub-Committees
Action plans, time lines and metrics for each strategic goal
Data Team
Environment scanning, student enrollment behavior research, enrollment models, provide data to councils as needed
Green/Bontrager

19. SEM Organizational Framework
President’s Cabinet/SEM Committee
Long-term enrollment goals, securing the approval of strategies through appropriate institutional channels, communication with Executive Team
Recruitment Council
Develop 3-4 strategic goals for new student recruitment; review and approve sub-committee action plans; recommend to SEM Steering Committee
Retention Council
Develop 3-4 strategic goals for retention and graduation; review and approve sub-committee action plans; recommend to SEM Steering Committee
Data Team
Environment scanning, student enrollment behavior research, enrollment models, provide data to councils as needed
3-4 Sub-Committees
Action plans, time lines and metrics for each strategic goal
Green/Bontrager

20. UM – Flint SEM Plan timeline
December 2014
Start data collection
Data team starts work
Determine other SEM team structures and personnel
January 2015
Invite other team participants
Continue data collection, analysis and environmental scanning
Outsource retention data study?
February 2015
Finalize SEM data.
Plan SEM launch event.

21. UM – Flint SEM Plan timeline
March 2015
SEM plan launch
Review retention data with faculty
Charge SEM teams
Create SEM goals
April 2015
Validate SEM goals
SEM strategies and tactics workshop
May 2015
Continue/finish SEM strategies and tactics.

22. UM – Flint SEM Plan timeline
June 2015
Review and finalize SEM plan
Plan SEM Plan reveal event for UM – Flint community
July 2015
Reveal SEM plan to UM – Flint community
Plan implementation and next steps.

23. Using Data Strategically: Some Key Topics and Questions

24. Benchmarking
What are appropriate retention/graduation rates for my institution?
College Results Online
IPEDS/similar national data sources in Canada and other countries
Who are our enrollment peers and why?
Do we have enrollment aspirational institutions and how do these relate to our enrollment peers?
What institutions will probably always be in our peer set?
What is our application/ACT overlap?

25. College Results Online sample results for UMF

26. Environmental scanning
How are demographic trends impacting my institution today and for the next five to ten years?
The “Echo Boom” has passed traditional learning ages and will cycle toward adult learning and graduate, then exit the prime HE years.
Draining of the Great Plains; declines in the Northeast.
Aging of the population, generally, in Canada and many US States.
If our region is declining and we all plan to grow, who will “win and lose” in this competition for students?
Can my institution compete in today’s adult learning market?
What is our long-range plan for online education?
How does that fit into our institutional mission and vision?

27. Actual and projected high school graduates
Source: WICHE, Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates, 2012.

28. Changes in racial/ethnic mix of high school graduates
Source: WICHE, Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates, 2012.

29. Measuring and assessing enrollment at your institution
Are you tracking KEI beyond one-year retention of freshmen, entering student numbers or gross graduation rate?
How do you know if your enrollment/student success initiatives are working?
Do they have clear and measurable goals?
Have you identified the barriers to student success at your institution?
Multi-year, multivariate data analysis
Why do students leave after earning 90+ credits but without a degree?

30. Student Mix: Discussion

31. Guiding questions What is the optimal overall size of UM – Flint?
What are metrics and goals for students from Flint schools?
What proportion of total enrollment should be made up of graduate students?
What is the balance of new freshmen and new transfers in the composition of the undergraduate student body?
What percentage of students should be out-of-state, international?

32. Guiding questions
Should the percent of enrollment by college change? How?
What percent of undergraduates should be Pell eligible?
What are your retention rate goals:
For FTIAC?
For transfers?
What reports or data do you need to make better decisions on the mix of students in the next five years?
Other mix issues/goals?

33. Associate Executive Director, Consulting and SEM
Thank you,
Tom Green, Ph.D.
Associate Executive Director, Consulting and SEM
consulting.aacrao.org