University launches Undergraduate Enrollment Strategy project

In preparation for the 2022-23 academic strategic planning process, President Susan R. Wente has launched a strategic review of the University’s undergraduate enrollment position, partnering with the higher education research firm, Art & Science Group.

“Next year, we will begin to craft a vision for Wake Forest’s future,” Wente said. “To be effective in that work, we need to understand how the landscape for undergraduate enrollment has changed during the pandemic and where Wake Forest’s exceptional undergraduate education is situated within that landscape.”

Wente noted that the enrollment project’s work will unfold purposefully alongside the strategic planning process: “Art & Science will gather the data we need to understand what drives undergraduates’ enrollment decisions in regard to Wake Forest. This in turn will help us better understand how we are perceived, our distinctiveness and areas of opportunity.”

Art & Science Group specializes in empirically based institutional planning for higher education institutions. In addition to its impressive resumé of results for peer and aspirant colleges and universities, Art & Science has twice partnered with Wake Forest in the past — most recently in a project that supported the creation of Wake Downtown.

The project will be guided by a steering committee of faculty, staff and administrators, co-chaired by Vice President for Enrollment Eric Maguire and Dean of the College Michele Gillespie. Four of the 10 members are faculty.

“Our work will provide an empirical perspective that will help us shape a forward-looking enrollment management strategy — one that not only advances Wake Forest’s mission and aspirations but also enables the University to improve its ability to attract and enroll the students we wish to serve,” Maguire said.

The project will involve three major stages: (1) discovery, (2) research with prospective undergraduates, and (3) analysis, implications and recommendations (link to steering committee page). The project’s anticipated conclusion is June 2023.