Many higher education marketing and enrollment management teams are on board with integrating AI into their everyday job functions, but timid leadership and a lack of resources are inhibiting widespread adoption and experimentation, a new report from UPCEA and EducationDynamics declares.
The organizations surveyed over 120 professionals, finding respondents were optimistic about integrating emerging technologies, with 80% citing it would improve the marketing-to-enrollment pipeline and 62% believing it would personalize the student learning experience.
Chatbots and personalized virtual assistants were seen as the main way AI will transform marketing and enrollment management teams in higher education. For example, South Carolina State University used AI this past fall to build a customer support system that handled nearly 12,000 inquiries from current and incoming students in eight months. By doing “more with less,” the HBCU welcomed its largest class of the past five years and scored a 32% enrollment uptick from the year prior.
“From pedagogical questions on AI’s impact on student learning to improving business processes, AI is at the center of many campus conversations,” the report reads. “Perhaps no area on campus is more impacted by AI than student marketing and the student recruitment process.”
While nine out of 10 are receptive to using the emerging technology, only 40% strongly agreed or agreed that they currently do so. Here were some of the top reasons identified for the hesitance in adoption:
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- Budget constraints. It’s seen as the greatest barrier to integrating AI into institutions’ marketing and enrollment functions. One-third of respondents cited resources and time constraints as barriers.
- Insufficient staff or technological readiness. More than half (53%) say their institution lacks the technology infrastructure.
- Privacy and data safety concerns. Less than a quarter (21%) said their institution intends to share data privacy policies with students who might interact with AI during the recruitment and enrollment process.
- Fear of/resistance to change among institutional leaders. 18% mentioned resistance to change/fear of AI, and 16% mentioned a lack of buy-in from senior leadership. Consequently, only 7% said their institution has a plan to upskill and support staff in adopting AI-driven technology.
Institutions across higher education will be left behind if their marketing and enrollment teams fail to adapt to the emerging technologies, the report suggests. Online college students are shortening both the time they take to research prospective schools and the number of schools considered. They now spend three or fewer weeks looking at three or fewer schools, the report advised.
“The new adult learner will come to expect many of the conveniences afforded to them through AI,” the report reads.
A lack of institutional support in adopting AI is being felt in other campus departments. In a recent report from EAB, 71% of student success staff said their institution never or rarely encourages teams to share what they are learning about AI with their peers. Only about 20% said their institution is collecting information about how they use the technology.
UPCEA and EducationDynamics believe institutional leaders can encourage adoption by offering staff development and training and establishing guidelines for integrating AI in higher education ethically.
