Higher Ed Enrolment in the “New Normal”

60-180 min keynote presentation or workshop

The COVID-19 shutdown hit North American campuses at the worst possible time for student recruitment efforts, just days before scheduled March Break open houses and campus tours that would help most students make their choices for Fall. High school visits were halted abruptly by the closure of school systems across the country. International recruiters had to adjust their itineraries on the go, based on border closures.

Many campus recruiters are still putting a brave face on, continuing with their social media activities and promoting virtual campus tours, but the reality is that recruitment is nowhere near business as usual. Recruiters and marketing communications departments are going to be doubling down online, with virtual tours, online lectures, webinars, Facebook Live chats, and more in a desperate bid to shore up enrolment for the Fall term. But the reality is that no-one is sure just what that Fall student experience will be.

In this fast-paced session, Canada’s leading higher ed futurist Ken Steele will share an overview of the obvious and more subtle impacts of the COVID19 crisis on recruitment marketing and enrolment management, best practices and emerging trends for campus marketers, recruiters and enrolment management teams to consider.

Ken Steele is Canada’s leading higher education monitor and futurist. After an award-winning career as an ad agency executive, he co-founded market research firm Academica Group, created the Academica Top Ten, manages Eduvation Inc, co-authored Canada’s first book on enrolment management, publishes a daily email newsbrief the Eduvation Insider, and hosts a weekly webcast, Ten with Ken, that reaches thousands of subscribers on a dozen platforms. Ken brings his unique perspective and insight to a broad range of audiences, from faculty and instructors, boards and senior administration, to information technology staff, concerned parents, and Canada’s most powerful corporate CEOs.

Ken has been blogging extensively on the COVID19 pandemic. Here are some relevant examples, for a sense of Ken’s approach and as potential pre-reading for participants:

Here are some relevant episodes of 10K, for a sense of Ken’s approach and as potential examples to share with participants in advance: