Challenges to Growing Managing Graduate Enrolments Jasbir S

Challenges to Growing & Managing Graduate Enrolments Jasbir S. Dhaliwal, Ph. D Papasan Professor of Information Systems Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs & Dean of Graduate School Director - Systems Testing Excellence Program University of Memphis 1

Observations of New Dean ¢ We have grown graduate enrolments to be close to one-fifth of our student population but our infrastructure and budget allocations have not caught up with this new reality. ¢ Impact of Tennessee Promise: Focus shifts to attracting strong undergraduate students – who tend to favor schools with strong graduate programs. ¢ There is a spillover effect of marketing graduate programs to the undergraduate level. ¢ Getting our community to appreciate and value graduate education. What if we inject 1000 Ph. D 2 students into your community?

Challenges as Opportunities ¢ Coping with the diffusion of graduate programs across campus - managing through others. Governance can stifle innovation & quality. ¢ Formal versus informal mechanisms of governance of graduate programs. ¢ Competencies of local “graduate program leaders” is key e. g. do they understand strategic enrolment management? Mandatory certification. ¢ Decentralization versus centralization of graduate school functions e. g. graduate student budgets. ¢ Changing the “Memphis State” mentality to focus on the “metropolitan research university” conceptualization. 3

Current Considerations ¢ Keeping graduate enrolments stable by replacing declining education enrolments with growth in business, social work, nursing and others. ¢ Week by week monitoring/ management of applications and readmits is critical given diversity of programs. ¢ Personalization and accountability in our graduate admissions unit – “we are not a back-end processing unit but a proactive strategic enrolment support system”. ¢ Strategic messaging at every level to emphasize graduate programs. ¢ Health insurance for graduate students and professional 4 development beyond academics for them.

The Graduate School University of Memphis jdhaliwl@memphis. edu/gradschool/ 5