| The Challenge Facing Colleges Today | | | | your school, throughout his/her academic career, |
| Targeting the right prospective student, getting | | | | graduation and the workplace. It goes without |
| that student enrolled and seeing that student | | | | saying that this data is critical and should be a |
| through to graduation is the lifeblood of your | | | | priority. It needs to be kept clean and up to date |
| career college educational system. However, that | | | | as it can drive your programs, accreditation and |
| initial step might not ever take place with dirty | | | | overall reputation. Lead data, when not properly |
| data, meaning data that is incomplete, outdated, | | | | maintained, can cause inefficiencies that result in |
| or just plain inaccurate. | | | | poor performance and ultimately, poor results. |
| Schools need to be proactive when it comes to | | | | Better Data, Better Results |
| maintaining lead data. People change contact and | | | | "Dirty data" as it is known in data management |
| biographical information constantly - so how often | | | | circles, can dramatically impact your school - it can |
| should schools scrub information, and at what | | | | make it harder to find the right students, more |
| point should unpromising records be deleted from | | | | difficult to measure marketing and recruiting |
| their systems? Schools that take steps to more | | | | efforts, and can eventually lead to lost enrollment |
| efficiently manage data will be able to maximize | | | | opportunities. Higher education isn't immune to |
| the productivity and results of their student | | | | data quality problems - in fact, a school that |
| services teams. Through their use of higher | | | | obtains and manages leads typically follows a |
| quality data, they will be able to deliver more | | | | standard business model, and therefore is just as |
| targeted marketing and recruiting efforts, increase | | | | likely to see a negative impact on its operations |
| enrollments, and ultimately, drive student success. | | | | from poor quality data. |
| With more people heading back to school than | | | | As schools compete for students, the fact that a |
| ever, how important is data when it comes to | | | | student chooses School A over School B can |
| recruitment and enrollment? The answer: it's | | | | sometimes be the result of bad data on School |
| crucial and having high quality, relevant, recent | | | | B's part. At the end of the day, targeting the right |
| information can determine how your school fares | | | | prospective student, getting that student enrolled |
| in meeting or exceeding your recruitment and | | | | and seeing that student through to graduation is |
| enrollment goals. | | | | the lifeblood of your educational system - |
| Lead Data vs. Student Data | | | | however, that initial step might not ever take |
| Let's start by talking about the type of data | | | | place with dirty data, meaning data that is |
| typically collected by an institution - lead data and | | | | incomplete, outdated, or just plain inaccurate. |
| student data. While both subsets serve an | | | | Schools need to know they are contacting the |
| important purpose, they often differ in quality. | | | | right prospect at the right time for the right |
| Lead records can come from a number of | | | | program. So, how do schools accomplish this so |
| sources, in various formats and may contain | | | | they don't meet the same fate as School B in the |
| inaccurate or incomplete information. In most | | | | example above? Data needs to be scrubbed and |
| institutions, the admissions team interacts with | | | | managed on a regular basis, whether internally or |
| lead data, where they have to take the time to | | | | externally. Deleting incomplete, inaccurate and |
| confirm and complete the information received, in | | | | out-dated data can help you avoid any negative |
| addition to actually recruiting and converting the | | | | impacts on your marketing, enrollment and |
| lead into a student. | | | | retention efforts. Consistently keeping up with |
| Student data is more often input by the institution | | | | your lead data will help your student services |
| itself, typically ensuring the integrity of it. When | | | | teams work smarter - they can be more |
| centrally managed, this data can include everything | | | | productive, achieve better results and strengthen |
| about a student from the time he/she enrolls in | | | | your bottom line. |