4 Tips to Improve the Enrolment Process at Your University

 

In mid-March, the public health crisis triggered an abrupt transition to distance learning for university students around the world. The pandemic disrupted not only the classroom experience but also suspended student life activities and disrupted access to campus mental health services. The continuous increase in new cases of coronavirus is forcing colleges and universities to make unexpected adjustments in their fall semester and to review all the ways their institution operates. One area most affected by the pandemic is the way universities handle the enrollment process.

A Davidson College study revealed that of the 3,000 U.S. colleges, community colleges, and universities analyzed, only 72 revealed plans for a fall 2020 semester entirely in person. The remainder plan to offer a mixed package of academic instruction; from 119 institutions programmed to offer a completely online curriculum, to 627 that organize a hybrid of online and in-person courses. While 44% of current students fear financial disruption incurred by COVID-19 will limit their ability to remain enrolled in the fall, the prospect of a closed campus is repelled students in the class of 2024 from enrolling altogether.

The pandemic has dealt such a devastating blow that 86% of college presidents list fall tuition as one of their most pressing issues. In fact, community college enrollment declined but has since rebounded with COVID-19. With the student population plummeting and income declining, the way universities handle the processes involved in the enrollment phase can make or break the future of your institution. Here are five ways to transform your systems to reduce doubts, remove workflow bottlenecks, and improve your enrollment processes to start a healthy and prosperous fall semester.

1. Improve Enrollment Processes by Strengthening Communication Between Departments

Many departments come together to facilitate the enrollment process, including financial aid, marketing, IT, and the registry office. When working remotely, it is more important than ever for the entire team to have a complete view of the workflows that drive your institution. When enrollment workflows are so critical to the fall success of your university or college, lack of vision can't mean inattention.

Is your marketing team waiting for the final approval of a new video campaign showing your school's response to the pandemic? The web team is unable to open the course registration because the registrar has not yet finalized the capacity for an online course? Perhaps a critical web content update is languishing in an IT member's inbox. Students are waiting longer than ever to find the hang points, are there apps stuck on your system that might need a push? With little visibility into activity from other departments, managers are left shrugging their shoulders to find out why a particular project or process is stalled.

Instead of digging through old emails, digging through an outdated spreadsheet, or using a time-consuming Zoom to get to the heart of the problem, your school can aggregate all of its internal processes using a platform like Process Maker. In a single dashboard, you can view the progress of a process chain to identify the precise bottleneck.

2. Use Agile Decision Making

Many areas of the enrollment process simply weren't prepared for the sudden shift to digital managers, who relied heavily on in-person meetings, paper registrations, and wet signatures to launch new initiatives. COVID-19 ended any remaining reliance on paper and in-person processes. The near-instantaneous closure of campuses canceled face-to-face interaction from the daily grind, but don't let this slow down the pace of productivity within your institution.

Process Maker refreshes the way your team requests approvals. Are there certain steps in your enrollment process that require superior approval? Don't let these required reviews add up to a dozen email follow-ups that hook into your overall workflow. Through automation, your system can send approval requests by email or text message. Within the message itself, senior staff members can quickly "accept" or "decline" the process step, automatically forwarding it to the next stage of the workflow.

3. Targeted Outreach Marketing

Their website now serves as their chief campus tour guide, extending a warm digital welcome to potential students. Students visit your site to learn more about distance learning, campus clubs, and plans for sports teams, but they also want to see what life could be like for students once campuses reopen. To reduce reluctance to sign up, your website should be a vibrant mix showcasing both learning styles, packed with up-to-date newsletters, engaging videos, and engaging 3D tours.

Empower your marketing team with insights that drive enrollment. Automated workflows can identify students interested in financial aid and automatically send them emails detailing their school's fall tuition breaks or team stipends. Using other tools like ... remarketing, you can launch banners featuring the top math teachers at your school to students who have visited three or more specialty web pages. Process Maker, You can add all the ways you connect with students to identify the workflows that drive the most enrollment. Rather than focus on mass mailings and couriers, enhance quarantine enrollment with a targeted marketing reach that targets specific audiences.

4. Enlist Campus Champions for The Registration Process

From health issues to increased financial anxiety, new freshmen will endure stressors not seen in previous classes. Students and families are clamoring for the latest information on how things will work out in the fall. How are the online classes developed? Will you offer orientation and other student life activities through video channels? Will you offer team stipends to lower-income students? Students and families are inundated with questions and concerns, and your school needs to have processes in place to approach them with compassion.

Enlist your best champions to help ease worries and increase the excitement for the upcoming semester. Think outside the box - Students, board members, and faculty can help support enrollment initiatives. Using Process Maker ... you can connect your main support line of student services with a team of the most enthusiastic champions at your school.

For example, many students worry that distance learning will negatively affect their immersion in their chosen specialty. With the correct processes in place, you can automatically create support tickets for incoming calls, and assign responsibility for the callback to a student with the same major. Students who had positive experiences during the virtual spring semester can set up a Zoom or GoToMeeting and provide valuable information to incoming scholars. ... you can quickly view and track the status of these applications to make sure freshmen are reached by the best fans at your school.

The current public health crisis has knocked down expectations for the Fall 2020 semester for students, families, and administrators alike. While many colleges and universities are experiencing an enrollment crisis, proper workflows and automated systems can help your school turn it into a flourishing opportunity. Pool resources from across your campus to increase enrollment and engage with students. With the right collaboration and process management tools, your school can exceed expectations and welcome a vibrant and enthusiastic class of 2024.

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