An Update on Fall Enrollment

Dear Colleagues,

It has been a pleasure to get to know so many of you over the past few weeks as I have settled into my role as provost. Thank you for the kindness and courtesy you have shown me.

As you may know, enrollment is one of my priorities, especially as we enter the critical yield phase of the cycle. Fall 2022 brought a decline in enrollment at UNC Charlotte. While the dip was not extreme, any change in enrollment can have revenue impacts for the University, and we want to ensure we are aware of trends such that recruitment efforts can be targeted to the department and program level. We have good momentum and will need your support to meet our enrollment goals.

I have established a team that is meeting weekly to review enrollment data, and I am providing our latest reports here. There are separate reports for undergraduate students, which includes both first-time-in-college (FTIC) and transfer students, and for graduate students.

We will provide these reports to you bi-weekly, and I encourage you to review these data for your department and consider how you can help support enrollment for fall. For optimal grassroots effort, these reports can be sent to the program level.

Thank you in advance for taking a look at your department and programs.
Please reach out to us for guidance if desired. We are here to answer questions and help you achieve your goals.

Here are some tips to consider:

• Make timely decisions. If you are responsible for decisions in your department about graduate admissions or readmits, please ensure they are being made in a timely fashion. Additionally, if you can increase your enrollment capacity in graduate programs, say from 15 to 18 students, please consider doing so if you have qualified applicants. Reaching out to transfer students may establish a connection that will affect a student’s decision, particularly in light of the longer processing of these applications. If students are exploring multiple options, we want to be their first choice!

To support undergraduate students

• Participate in the upcoming Yield Summit. Enrollment Management will be hosting a virtual Yield Summit from 10-11:30 a.m. on Feb. 28. The Summit will cover important enrollment and admissions information targeted at first-year and transfer students, as well as provide time to collaborate with colleagues on these important efforts. Registration is required.
• Look at space to expand. Review class offerings and determine where there is space to expand capacity in high-demand courses – either by increasing enrolled credit hours or decreasing time to degree. I encourage you to look beyond high-enrollment major courses.
• Encourage students to take action. Share messages in your classes to encourage students to review their class schedules for the upcoming term, to visit their advisor for support and register for summer/fall classes as soon as they are able. You could do this outreach in person, via email or via Canvas.

To support graduate students

• Participate in a graduate enrollment event. Attend an upcoming event on recruitment, admissions and/or funding. The Graduate Enrollment Management team can provide feedback and answer any questions you may have during these recurring sessions.
• Know your graduate resources. Bookmark GPDNet for the latest news, data, reports, deadline information, events and helpful resources for graduate education at UNC Charlotte. Subscribe to the weekly New on GPDNet email by sending a note to grad-comm@uncc.edu.

This is our window of opportunity to make important progress in enrollment for fall of 2023.

Thank you for helping support success and growth at UNC Charlotte!

Sincerely,

Alicia L. Bertone
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs