At the President’s Town Hall meetings in February, President Mary Preece and VP Finance and Administration Wayne Steffler shared three priority areas of focus that will position Sheridan for its future success:
- Supporting the implementation of the Academic Plan
- Acting as stewards of Sheridan to ensure its long term operational sustainability; and
- Supporting our people through the People Plan.
A key pillor of priority two — operational sustainability — is Strategic Enrolment Management, or SEM.
SEM is an integrated and data-driven approach for attracting, retaining and building loyalty with students. Its goals are to attract and enroll high potential prospects and applicants in the right programs, to focus on quality instead of quantity, and to enhance the student experience both inside and outside the classroom.
Building and sustaining a mindset at Sheridan that puts recruitment, retention, and the student experience at the forefront requires the participation and collaboration of staff and faculty from across functions, Faculties and campuses.
To that end, Sheridan will be launching five, cross-divisional SEM Strategy Teams (each comprised of approximately 10 faculty, support staff and administrative staff members) this May. The Strategy Teams will work over seven weeks to develop recommendations and critical path action plans for five strategic areas of opportunity. These foci were identified by Sheridan’s SEM Steering Committee as part of the foundational work that has been underway since September, 2017:
- Optimizing the prospective student pipeline (to enhance admissions conversion and enrolment yield);
- Early Alert, Intervention and the Beginning-year Experience (to enhance integrated retention and success services);
- Multi-Channel, Targeted Student Communications (to foster coordinated and targeted communications messaging);
- Integrated Services and the Student Experience(to foster seamless, learner-centered services); and
- Program Development and Program Review (to help incorporate enrolment planning into program development and review processes).
The work of the Strategy Teams will inform our SEM framework and an actionable, three-year enrolment plan for Sheridan. Drawing on the knowledge, expertise and ideas of our Strategy Team members, Sheridan is committed to:
- Improving enrolment conversion rates and our yield of academically qualified, high potential prospects and applicants;
- Strategically managing our domestic and international enrolment with a focus on quality
- Improving student satisfaction with the “Sheridan experience” both inside and outside the classroom environment
- Improving student persistence rates in years 1-to-2, with our initial focus on high-risk student populations and programs/courses in the beginning (first) year
- Ensuring that the right — academically qualified — students are successfully enrolled in the right programs
The active engagement of leaders from across Sheridan will be key to our success. Thank you in advance for your support. If you have questions or concerns about SEM or our objectives, please contact s.e.m@sheridancollege.ca.