AOTC EP 33 - How To Build The Best Quality-Driven Admissions Departments

Nearly 20 million American students were registered in college or university in the fall of 2020. All of them went through some sort of process to get there, meaning that the schools they applied to, guided each one through an admissions procedure. The admission process is a school’s chance to make a good first impression. After all, students represent revenue. So, the business case for having an efficient admissions department revolves around how students judge their admissions experience. Admissions departments need to take a page out of the manufacturing playbook where companies strive to make the best products possible by spending a lot of time and attention on quality: quality control and quality assurance. They evaluate their processes, pinpoint the weaknesses, and create methods to strengthen those weaknesses. Our Guests April Bollwage – April is an education veteran. She spent nearly 20 years at ELS Educational Services, an English language training organization, with 10 of those years as the Senior Director of Admissions, including university admissions services. She is now the Education Practice Lead at Gerent. Lance Johnson – Lance is the expert’s expert when it comes to quality management. He began his career in 2000 as a software quality assurance engineer for Coresoft, did a stint at Nelson Laboratories as a Quality Control Engineer before spending more than 15 years with MasterControl, finishing as the Director of Services Technology Solutions. Lance is now Gerent’s Senior Director of EQMS and EHS. Key Ideas 0224 – Why focus on Admissions issues rather than Enrollment issues? 0730 – Manufacturing uses quality principles to improve product. But admissions is not a product, so can quality principles be at all useful? 0950 – Are admissions issues the age-old problem of data silos plugging up processes? Yes! 2135 – ELS learned about their own data silos and compromised processes through the guidance of an objective outside agency 2308 – ELS now uses Salesforce technology in their Admissions department. Why Salesforce?