Our university just hired a "Vice President of Enrollment Management." (That makes about a dozen highly paid vice presidents, in all.) So far as I can tell, "enrollment management" means making sure that we get and keep as many students as possible (optimally good ones), which means identifying new areas of student interest and creating or expanding programs responding to them, as well as tapping new bodies of students (like students from China and India). Interestingly, his background is entirely in the wireless world of the online. Our president's memorandum announcing the appointment notes that
[His] most recent experience is as the Executive Vice President Operations and Enrollment Management of Cardean Learning Group. He managed call centers in Florida, Illinois, and Connecticut, and restructured the recruiting team while maintaining productivity. He reduced student “melt” by 50%. He has most recently been leading business development efforts for new acquisitions and alliances. [He] entered the education space in 1999 as Vice President of Admissions with UMUC OnLine, a partnership with University of Maryland University College (UMUC). Under his leadership UMUC OnLine reversed a decline in out-of-state enrollments, one of the university’s most profitable segments.
Notice the upfront business orientation! Welcome to "the education space," forget universities let alone academe. We exist to meet and answer student demand, where- and whatever it might be! It's not our job to supply anything in particular. The university of the future would be pleased to offer you a degree in (fill in the blank). I'll book my passage to Bangalore!
