Boost enrolments with school admissions data
Imagine knowing why exactly students choose your school—or why they don't. What if you could predict enrolment trends with uncanny accuracy, or pinpoint the exact moment a potential student loses interest? Welcome to the world of data analytics in education, where these scenarios aren't science fiction, but achievable reality.
In this blog we explore how schools can leverage data analytics, with a particular focus on admissions data, to enhance your enrolment strategies, optimise recruitment efforts, tackle data management challenges and ultimately create a more responsive and effective learning environment.
Let’s dive right in!
Data analytics for schools & academies
Imagine data analytics as a powerful lens through which you can see the intricate workings of your school/academy. It helps you understand what students, parents, teachers, and staff really need and want - and even what they'd rather avoid.
With this insight, your school can tailor its approach to fit everyone's needs, whether it's a struggling student, an overworked teacher, or a concerned parent. It's about creating a school environment where everyone feels heard and supported.
In essence, you're using data to build a better, more responsive educational experience. It's not just about improving efficiency - it's about creating a place where learning thrives, and everyone can reach their full potential.
If you're wondering what data you can use, the possibilities are vast and varied. You can tap into a wealth of information, including:
Student demographics
Attendance records
Curriculum details
Grades and exam results
Survey responses
Behavioural data
Health and safety information
Online course and homework data
Admissions data for best-suited organisations
And this is just the beginning. The list of potential data sources is practically infinite. Each piece of information offers a unique insight into your school's operations and your students' experiences.
Utilising Admissions Data to Boost Enrolment
While educational institutions typically maintain basic reports on student enrolment, voluntary departures, and graduations, today's fast-paced environment demands more sophisticated reporting. Transparent, comprehensible, and insightful reports can significantly impact decision-making processes for all types of schools - independent, state, and international.
These data-driven reports enable school administrators to make critical decisions based on concrete facts and figures, rather than intuition alone.
Before we examine how to utilise admissions data to boost enrolment, it is key to understand the enrolment process. This process progresses through multiple stages, each of which is key to comprehending the journey of pupils through the admissions funnel. By understanding these stages, we can better analyse and leverage the data to improve recruitment and retention strategies.
Admissions Funnel for Schools & Academies
1.Lead: A lead is a potential student contact generated through various online or offline channels, such as the school's website admissions form, social media interactions, targeted campaigns, or advertisements. These are individuals the school hasn't yet directly communicated with. Upon receiving a lead, the school should immediately create a draft application with details like pupil postcode, parent occupation, siblings’ status, child’s medical history, SEN, feeder school info, military family link etc.
2. Qualified Lead: A qualified lead represents a significant step in the admissions funnel. These are potential students whose parents have engaged in direct communication with the school and expressed serious interest in applying or scheduling a school visit. To reach this stage, parents must provide essential information, like anticipated entry date and intended year group etc. Once these details are secured, the school typically offers a tour.
3. Application and Offer: After reviewing a child's application, the school decides whether to offer them a place. If approved, the school sends an enrolment offer to the family. is offer usually includes important details like when the child would start and any special conditions.
4. Confirmed Enrolment: When parents accept the school's offer, they confirm their child's enrolment by meeting specific requirements. This usually involves paying a joining fee or deposit, submitting identification documents, and completing necessary paperwork
5. Lost: This stage tracks applications that don't result in expected enrolment. It includes cases where the school declines the application and instances where parents choose not to proceed.
Struggling to make sense of your admissions data? We're here to help.
If you'd like to discuss how to better understand and utilise your school's admissions funnel, our team of experts are happy to chat. We offer a friendly, no-pressure conversation to explore your unique challenges and potential solutions. Get in touch today!
Types of school enrolments
School enrolments are of two types: 1. New Enrolments and 2. Re-Enrolments. These two elements combine to form the total enrolment figure, a critical indicator of a school's vitality and operational scope
New Enrolments: These are prospective students who have reached the 'confirmed enrolment' stage. They represent new additions to the school community, having completed the application process and committed to joining the institution.
Re Enrolments: This refers to existing students who will be continuing their education at the school in the upcoming year. This excludes pupils who have provided notice to leave in upcoming term and the pupils who are in their final year after which they will naturally leave.
An example of enrolment and retention numbers to calculate student headcount would look like the below image:
Intrigued by the power of data in education? This is just the beginning.
Check out our blog, How Big Data Can Revolutionise Education, to explore more ways data analytics is transforming schools and improving student outcomes. Don't miss out on the big picture – read our blog now and stay ahead of the curve in educational innovation.
4 ways to leverage analytics for school admissions data
Predictive Analysis for School Admissions Data:
Historical admissions data can be utilised in a positive, supportive, and constructive manner to predict outcomes for ongoing and future admissions cycles. This approach enables institutions to identify and capitalise on effective strategies.
For instance, if past data reveals that most applications were generated through specific campaigns, schools can focus on enhancing these successful initiatives. By recognising the most effective outreach methods, institutions can optimise their recruitment efforts, allocating resources to channels that have proven to be the most impactful in attracting qualified applicants.
This data-driven approach allows for continuous improvement in admissions strategies, ensuring that institutions remain adaptive and responsive to changing trends in the applicant pool.
Descriptive Analysis for School Admissions Data:
Descriptive analysis is crucial for identifying patterns in admissions data. This approach allows schools to pinpoint significant trends that may require further investigation and action.
For example, if a particular school observes that more than 50% of applications have not proceeded beyond initial stages for the past few years, this pattern warrants closer examination. Such a consistent trend could be indicative of underlying issues that need addressing.
The analysis could reveal potential reasons for low application progression like:
Hidden costs discovered during offer stage
Lack of essential services (e.g., hot lunches, transportation)
Mismatch between school offerings and family expectations
Diagnostic Analysis for School Admissions Data:
Application forms provide a wealth of information beyond basic demographic data, offering crucial insights for diagnostic analysis. Application forms typically include a 'notes' section where parents can provide reasons for: a) Enrolling their child in the school b) Discontinuing the application process
By employing AI-driven text analysis, schools can identify recurring keywords and themes in these comments. This approach allows for the assessment of both common and infrequent feedback.
For instance, many parents might cite excellent academic results as their primary reason for choosing a particular school, while affordability could emerge as a common reason for not proceeding with applications. This data-driven insight enables schools to enhance their strengths (e.g., emphasising academic achievements in marketing), address potential barriers (e.g., reviewing fee structures or offering financial aid), tailor their offerings to meet parental expectations, and improve communication about school features and benefits.
Prescriptive Analysis for School Admissions Data:
Prescriptive analysis focuses on how to achieve what has been identified in the previous analyses. The goal is to recommend specific courses of action based on the scenarios uncovered.
For example, AI-driven comment analysis can be used to identify and categorise feedback from applicants, determining the percentage of comments related to specific issues. This analysis informs a targeted improvement plan, focusing on areas responsible for the maximum loss of applications. By developing strategies to address these critical areas and continuously monitoring their impact on application rates, schools can implement an adaptive approach to enhancing their admissions process. Regular data analysis allows for ongoing strategy adjustments, ensuring the school remains responsive to applicant needs and concerns.
Want to explore how these analytics approaches could benefit your school?
We're always eager to discuss practical applications of data analysis in education. If you're curious about implementing these strategies or have questions about your school's unique data challenges, book a consultation with us- it’s free!
Challenges in Managing Admissions Data
Education marketers, officials and Admissions Insights management are often required to be monitoring and evidencing their student recruitment efforts, pulling data into reports to communicate enrolment numbers with key business stakeholders. During this journey, one can face challenges due to the below listed scenarios:
(i) Multiple sources of enrolment data
An organisation can have multiple academies / schools under its administration, who use various sales source system for application forms and admissions process. For example: HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, Drip etc. While creating a common insights platform for all such schools, the school leaders must be cautious of merging data from various sources. This process requires attention to data compatibility, consistency, and integration to ensure accurate and comprehensive insights across the organisation.
(ii) School migration from previous ownership
When educational institutions change parent companies, it requires a full transfer of school data. This isn't just about moving information from one system to another - it also involves updating how the school fits into the new organisation's structure. This process can be challenging because schools often rely on data collected over months or years to gain useful insights. It's important that reports continue to work smoothly after the change, for the academy/school to operate effectively and understand its performance over time, even after switching to a new parent company.
(iii) Tracking marketing data and admissions performance
Marketing and admissions data often comes from multiple sources and isn't always easily accessible. This fragmentation makes it challenging for staff members outside the board to compile and analyse the data effectively. As a result, it becomes difficult to generate comprehensive insights about the 'prospect to enrolment' conversion rate, which is crucial for evaluating the success of marketing and admissions efforts. Improving data integration and accessibility could significantly enhance the institution's ability to assess and optimise its recruitment strategies.
(iv) Synchronisation between multiple domains
Once a student's enrolment is confirmed, the next step is to initiate invoicing for upcoming or ongoing term fees. However, there's a possibility that a parent might pay the enrolment fee but later decide not to enrol their child. In such cases, the invoice for tuition fees isn't generated. This scenario can lead to discrepancies between the student headcount and the total credit amount recorded.
These misalignments can create challenges in financial reporting and resource planning. To address this issue, it's crucial to develop comprehensive summary reports for each vertical within the institution. These reports should track:
Confirmed enrolments
Paid enrolment fees
Actual student attendance
Generated invoices
Received payments
Facing similar challenges with your admissions data? You're not alone. We understand that managing and interpreting admissions data can be complex. With over 25 years of experience in educational data management, we've seen and solved a wide range of admissions data challenge. Let's have a conversation about your specific challenges and explore potential solutions together.
A final note
In nutshell, to handle increasing number of applicants educational institutions are leveraging online data and predictive analytics to gain an edge in enrolment management. Top schools use these tools to efficiently sort through increasing applicant numbers and combat low enrolment percentages. Colleges and universities face intense pressure to meet enrolment targets, retain students, and ensure graduation success, all while operating under strict budget constraints.
This balancing act is challenging, but sophisticated predictive analytics programs are proving invaluable. By providing data-driven insights, these tools help institutions make smarter decisions about recruitment, retention, and resource allocation, ultimately improving their ability to navigate the complex landscape of modern higher education.