Using enrollment management to influence student quality and retention

Many state supported schools face a conflict between maintaining a quality education while serving increasing enrollment numbers. At Texas Tech University, engineering degree programs draw students to attend the university; in 2013, the size of the entering engineering cohort grew by 4 percent. Unconstrained growth, particularly in popular engineering programs (mechanical engineering and petroleum engineering) results in high student to faculty numbers that negatively impact the availability to convey a quality education. To manage growth in the engineering college, an enrollment management system was implemented in 2012 and employs program admission requirements and student performance as performance metrics. The purpose of this paper is to document the enrollment management plan's impact on first year-retention data for the first year of implementation as well as review the impact on student quality as indicated by the review of the computer science program, which has experienced retention and quality issues in the past.