Leaders in Online and Professional Continuing Education

Managing New Enrollments - From Prospective Student to Matriculant - September 2026

Faculty Member 

Vickie Cook, Senior Fellow UPCEA 

Cost 

UPCEA Members: $459

Non-Members: $599

Course Description

Enrollment management begins when a prospective student inquires and continues to when they are successfully enrolled. It includes all that we do, or should do, as institutions to help prospective students along this journey and to achieve our enrollment goals. This course reviews the steps in the student enrollment journey and analyzes the important activities necessary at each stage including responding to inquiries, admitting new students, staying in touch before the program begins, and onboarding new students to help them anticipate and adjust to their new program. This course will delve into the professional opportunity and responsibility we have to generate new enrollments for our institutions including building the human and technology infrastructure to support the student journey; communication strategies; and the measurement, oversight, and accountability necessary to ensure a seamless and successful process. We will examine enrollment management in both credit-bearing and noncredit programs and across the spectrum of online and continuing professional education strategies, structures, and practices.

*This course picks up the enrollment management process after initial inquiry.

Course Objectives

  • Students will understand the stages of the enrollment funnel 
  • Students can identify key enrollment metrics, understand how to interpret them, and consider strategies to address them
  • Students will understand the role of technology in managing the funnel and the various systems employed in the process.
  • Students will have an understanding the roles related to enrollment management and of the pros and cons of various organizational models and resource options

Topics Covered

  • The student enrollment journey from first inquiry to enrollment or registration
  • The infrastructure and the human and technology resources necessary to support enrollment management
  • Communications and contact strategies to keep prospective students engaged during the enrollment process
  • Enrollment management key success metrics and data analysis and reporting

Course Schedule and Format

This is a five week course consisting of about five hours of weekly course work made up of readings, asynchronous activities, and a weekly one hour live class meeting via Zoom. Live sessions will take place on Tuesdays at 4:00 ET 

Vickie Cook

Vickie Cook

Senior Fellow

UPCEA

Vickie S. Cook, Ph.D., is a nationally recognized higher educationleader specializing in enrollment strategy, online and digital learning,organizational transformation, and leadership development. She currently servesas Senior Fellow for AI Leadership and Strategic Consulting atUPCEA.  Dr. Cook is Research Professor of EducationEmerita.  She most recently served as Vice Chancellor for Enrollmentand Retention Management at the Universityof Illinois Springfield, retiring in 2026. Dr. Cook hasreceived national recognition for leadership and scholarship, including the2024 Mildred B. and Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for OutstandingWriter/Scholar in Distance Education and the 2020 UPCEA CentralRegion Outstanding Leadership Award. Her scholarship and professional workfocus on expanding access to higher education, multi-modal teaching andlearning, leadership including leading institutional strategy related toartificial intelligence, and digital transformation in higher education. She isactive on the LinkedIn community and can be found at linkedin.com/in/vickiescook.

Components visible upon registration.
See what past participants have to say about this course: 
 

"This course is highly recommended to higher education practitioners seeking to improve their understanding of the higher education enrolment funnel!"


I'm Egyptian and through this course I have gained a vast knowledge about the top notch processes and technicalities in enrollment in the US. This will assist me in improving and restructuring the processes at my school in a way to be more effective and efficient.