Centralizing Your Graduate Enrollment Strategy: Lessons from Rapid Growth

Please provide a one-paragraph overview of the session.‎ (200 words or less): After six years of steady declines in graduate enrollment, our university needed bold change. By centralizing graduate recruitment and admissions across a historically decentralized and resource-competitive institution, we reversed the trend and achieved two consecutive years of growth. In one of our largest colleges, enrollment grew by 40% in the first cycle, and another college saw a 38% increase in year two—all with a lean team of five.

This session, led by the Director of Graduate Admissions and the Senior Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Management, will share the strategies, processes, and practices that drove these results. We will highlight the critical policy, staffing, and operational changes that made growth possible, as well as the challenges we faced: securing stakeholder buy-in, overcoming skepticism from past failed centralization attempts, and building infrastructure with limited resources.

Attendees will leave with actionable insights and replicable strategies for centralizing graduate enrollment management, even in environments marked by decentralization and scarcity.

Session Agenda/Outline (200 words or less): Context & Challenges: Six years of declining enrollment and a decentralized system

Our Centralized Approach: Process, policy, and staffing changes that delivered results

Wins & Challenges: Overcoming resistance, resource scarcity, and past failures

Key Takeaways: Replicable strategies for centralizing graduate enrollment successfully

Q&A and Discussion