Enrollment Matters, But Retention Is Key

• Institutions often emphasize the importance of enrollment in their strategies, but retention is just as critical for long-term success.
• Strong relationships with faculty and peers contribute to a sense of belonging and enhance students' overall academic experience.
• AI-driven analytics can help educators provide tailored support for students dropping in engagement.

Transcript

Sam Giove [00:15] A lot of the time, we put a huge amount of effort into enrollments, but actually putting the same amount of effort into retention is really, really critical.

[00:27] There's something so important about the students that come to you feeling very passionate about all of those students thriving and succeeding. So, you know, retention is absolutely critical.

[00:41] Making sure that those students, when they start with you, when they come to the institution, they feel that they matter. It sounds like a really basic thing, but students have their own identity and start to evolve and develop as professionals, but realize that they're doing that in a really supportive environment and that the tutors, academics, and professors around them really care about them.

Practical things like block delivery and immersive experiences where students spend quite a lot of time together to build relationships can be really impactful.

[01:10] So, I think one of the really basic things is building those relationships with those students. That, in itself, can be the difference between those students thriving, succeeding, and actually staying with you and staying at your institution.

[01:28] There are a number of really good strategies that I've seen where students are put into kind of immersive experiences where they really start to build those relationships. So, I think very practical things like block delivery and immersive experiences where students spend quite a lot of time together to build those relationships can be really impactful.

[01:53] I've seen some really, really interesting approaches to enrollment quite recently, and one example would be personalization, so using artificial intelligence to produce a personalized prospectus for students.

[02:14] Absolutely tracking the way in which those students look at different options that are available to them and then sharing with them the types of choices that other students who were interested in similar things to them.

The challenge we face is that it's an incredibly competitive market.

[02:34] I think one of the other things around retention is around learner analytics. A lot of universities are using learner analytics really, really in powerful ways to put in very early interventions with students, which is really key.

[02:51] The minute that you see that a student has had a late submission or their attendance isn't so great, you can put in that intervention, which then, in turn, really helps with retention.

[03:02] What we know is there's an increasing number of potential applicants and increasing numbers of students and learners wanting to study business. So, I feel really positive in that respect.

[03:22] The challenge we face is that it's an incredibly competitive market, so it's tough—really tough. But I feel positive that there are significant numbers of people who want to study business, and I don't imagine that I'd change anytime soon.