Strategic Enrollment Planning for the Coming Demographic Change
A look at changes in high school graduation rates and their effect on college enrollment
Does your campus’ enrollment success depend on traditional-age students? Do you draw from one of the 39 states plus District of Columbia that will soon see significant changes in the numbers and make-up of direct-from-high-school students? Is your campus ready for these changes?
Campus administrators are regularly reminded to keep an eye on long-range demographic projections when planning for the future; that’s only prudent when making decisions about policies and facilities that may be developed over a period of several years, most would agree. But currently, institutions of higher education—most notably the large group of four-year private and public colleges and universities that rely on traditional-age students—are well-advised to drop the binoculars and take a close look at the next five-to-ten-year span.
What lies directly ahead is a demographic trough more pronounced than any experienced in recent decades—and one that urges strategic enrollment planning to position institutions for stability and success. This paper looks at those trends and outlines strategies for coping with these challenges.
