2019 HEUG Alliance Conference Recap – Admissions
It’s a wrap. We just finished our first event – the Higher Education User Group annual Alliance conference. As a new company, we had modest expectations in terms of exposure and feedback – and we were blown away by how far we exceeded them.
Over the course of the week, we had the opportunity to introduce our perspective on the admissions process and had dozens of conversations with the leading higher education institutions. Here is a synopsis of what we heard from these organizations.
Admissions Impact to the Organization
The admission process is part of a bigger process flow and affects many aspects of the institution.
"Aligning financial aid with the admissions process is a challenge. For example, last year our institution over-committed financial aid. We had to find budget to accommodate."
"As more students opt to start at 2-year institutions and transfer, the way we think about admissions has to change. Our admissions processes will need to look like that of a 4-year institution and being able to describe student success is critical."
Improving Student Success
Improving student success is often a critical initiative – and it begins with the admissions process.
“In our system, only 60% of our students graduate within 6 years, and improving student success begins at the admissions stage.”
“Our institution needs to be able to identify students needing support earlier in the process so we can put them in the appropriate programs from the start of their college career.”
Making Admissions Decisions
The decision-making process can be challenging for certain types of students or degree programs.
“Evaluating prospective students from outside our country is a significant challenge. We often don’t have the data and context by which to make informed decisions.”
“We have challenges with managing the decision process for our specialty programs, because they require involvement of staff across our admissions staff and faculty.”
IT Infrastructure to Support Admissions
Admissions processes can have a significant impact on IT systems and processes.
“We have a hodgepodge of systems to support our admissions process, which is expensive and affects our ability to meet our institutional goals.”
“Integration between PeopleSoft and our CRM is a challenge. A lot of thought needs to be given on deduping, defining the system of record for different data elements, and ensuring that security is applied consistently.”
Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be delving into more detail on each of these areas. Stay tuned!
