5 Takeaways From the 2021 RNL National Conference

From July 7-8, greater than 1,100 larger ed professionals logged onto their computer systems and stepped into the world of digital Paris at our 2021 RNL Nationwide Convention. We had been thrilled that so many joined us for 2 days of strategic periods, inspiring keynote audio system, and Parisian enjoyable.

This was the 35^th annual RNL Nationwide Convention and our second in a row that was digital. We realized rather a lot since our 2020 digital convention (along with holding 4 different digital occasions previously yr). And we anticipate that we are going to return in individual for the 2022 RNL Nationwide Convention.

For the 1,100 attendees who caught our 65 periods—keynotes, breakouts, and our Innovation Periods from key practitioners and firms within the larger ed house—it was an info packed occasion. There have been too many matters mentioned checklist into all of them, however listed here are 5 key takeaways that caught with me as a I participated together with colleagues from faculties and universities.

1. Digital engagement is extra vital than ever in pupil recruitment

The world of pupil recruitment and advertising and marketing was already closely digital earlier than the pandemic struck in 2020. Now digital engagement is the bedrock of pupil recruitment. Lots of the presenters on recruitment and advertising and marketing mentioned how larger training has to match the experiences and expectations college students have with firms similar to Netflix and Amazon, the place their interactions are:

• Extremely personalised in order that content material feels tailor-made to the coed.
• Omnichannel: college students obtain texts, emails, movies, digital advertisements, and different content material by quite a lot of channels.
• Optimized for the cell gadgets college students carry with them in all places they go.

Moreover, there have been discussions concerning the digital experiences that grew in recognition through the pandemic and can doubtless stay key to pupil engagement going ahead, similar to webcasts, livestreaming, digital excursions, and chat (each dwell and thru AI chatbots). General, it’s clear that establishments must be on prime of their digital recreation in the event that they need to compete for college students.

2. Graduate and on-line enrollment will grow to be more and more essential to enrollment development

Quite a few presenters touched on demographic tendencies that present the pool of conventional college-bound highschool college students has flattened or is shrinking—the “demographic cliff” of enrollment. What meaning is that schools and universities might want to discover different sources of scholars for enrollment development.

Enter graduate college students and nontraditional college students—grownup learners and/or on-line learners who could also be enrolling for levels, certifications, or persevering with training. We had a selected monitor on graduate and on-line enrollment, from periods on lead technology to creating world-class on-line studying experiences. On-line studying is so key to graduate examine that graduate applications have to be equally adept at delivering a top quality on-line expertise as they’re at recruiting graduate college students.

3. “Information is the brand new oil”

Professor Americus Reed II of the Wharton College on the College of Pennsylvania delivered a rousing keynote handle on “identification loyalty” and institutional branding. Certainly one of his many insightful factors was, “Information is the brand new oil.” What he meant is that the flexibility for organizations to have plentiful, strong, significant information could be as more and more beneficial as an power supply.

Fairly a couple of periods touched on the worth of knowledge. As an example, with test-optional insurance policies now impacting the supply of potential pupil names, faculties and universities want methods to seek out various sources of strong leads. CRM administration can also be vital to personalization at scale—you’ll want to know the fitting details about a pupil to ship significant personalization. It was clear at these periods that your databases will energy your recruitment efforts an increasing number of within the coming years.

4. Mother and father are enrollment champions who have to be engaged

Mother or father engagement in 2021 is greater than sending a letter or packet to oldsters. They have to be engaged the way in which college students are: on-line, with content material that’s tailor-made for them.

A number of periods mentioned how dad and mom are the strongest enrollment influencers and that successful their help could make the distinction between a pupil enrolling or attending a competing establishment. And with dad and mom as plugged in as their children, establishments must have strong, digital, mobile-optimized dad or mum engagement applications.

5. After the yr we now have had, we’d like inspiration greater than ever

Dr. Bertice Berry opened the RNL Nationwide Convention and delivered probably the most inspiring opening keynotes within the 35-year historical past of this occasion. Dr. Berry is a sociologist and internationally acknowledged speaker, and she or he displayed why throughout her shifting keynote. She associated her personal difficult journey to varsity to the work that each one of us in larger training do to recruit and retain these college students for whom a school training can be life-changing. She even tied in a private anecdote to Paris that I’m positive touched everybody who watched her deeply.

We’re so grateful for all of our presenters and the 1,100 larger ed professionals who made this occasion a hit. And we’d additionally like to provide you an opportunity to be taught from and be impressed by these presenters. You may request a complimentary session with one in every of our specialists, and in return you’ll obtain entry to our on-demand content material from the convention: 65 periods from specialists, innovators, and campus professionals, in addition to Dr. Berry’s opening keynote and our keynote from RNL CEO Dr. Sumit Nijhawan. Click on right here to request your session and obtain your entry.

Right here’s only one instance of the on-demand periods you’ll entry, the keynote from RNL CEO Dr. Sumit Nijhawan.