A recent article by The Atlantic provides an excellent perspective on a potential student’s reaction to “typical” online student recruitment (aka online enrollment management. Overall, the article highlights various, well-analyzed issues related to online program administration as a whole. The author – herself someone who was considering an online degree as a working adult – describes her journey of considering online programs. In doing so, she shares 3 problematic aspects of online student recruitment that are particularly worth noting.
3 Problematic Aspects of Online Enrollment Management
- Annoying and relentless phone calls. The author highlights how the phone calls (mostly from OPMs or other vendors) were too frequent and felt intrusive. She also highlights Eduventures research that says, “By and large, [prospective students] are really reluctant to get on the phone with enrollment advisers,” he told me. “What [they] tend to rely upon are the publication websites, recommendations from co-workers or employers, and word of mouth.”
- Flooding of emails and information. The author mentions how she received 8 promotional emails in 7 days. Behind the scenes, what I’m sure is a well-crafted CRM funnel ended up being too aggressive, too pushy, and otherwise annoying.
- Floating and disconnected online recruiters. She critiques how they are too sales-oriented (which is even reflected in their titles). But more importantly, she really blasts universities for allowing outsourced agents who know nothing about their schools, faculty, etc. to represent these university’s programs.
In regards to the problematic aspects of online student recruitment, all points are very well said.
Overall, the author (and prospective online student) praises institution’s online recruitment strategies that were not too aggressive and had staff that actually knew the institution and programs in a vital way. She also challenges universities to think about both what and how online student recruitment says about the university’s brand.
In pointing to a remedy through praise, all points are also well said.
