Enrollment Management Search
Excelon Associates conducts retained enrollment management searches for colleges and universities. We recruit the vice presidents and chief enrollment officers who own net tuition revenue and enrollment strategy, presenting confidential finalists in three to five weeks.
Start a Search Talk to Our Team Higher Education PracticeTell us about your enrollment goals, net tuition revenue targets, and structure, and we will scope a confidential retained search built around your president and cabinet.
Start a search For Candidates Ready to lead enrollment?Browse current senior enrollment openings, or submit your background to be considered for confidential vice president for enrollment searches as they open.
View open rolesWhat Is an Enrollment Management Search?
Excelon Associates is a higher education executive search firm founded in 2007, and we recruit the senior leaders who own enrollment. A vice president for enrollment management, or chief enrollment officer, oversees admissions and financial aid, often the registrar and retention, and is accountable for an institution's net tuition revenue. We run these cabinet-level searches for colleges and universities across the United States and internationally.
An enrollment management search is a retained executive search to recruit a college or university's senior enrollment leader, often titled vice president for enrollment management or chief enrollment officer. This leader oversees admissions, financial aid, and often the registrar and retention, and owns the institution's net tuition revenue and enrollment strategy.
For tuition-dependent institutions, enrollment management is existential. The senior enrollment officer sets strategy across recruitment, financial aid leveraging, and retention, and answers for the revenue that keeps the institution solvent. A search for this role is among the highest-stakes hires below the presidency.
Why Is an Enrollment Management Search Different?
This is a revenue role disguised as a student-services role. The senior enrollment leader owns net tuition revenue, builds the financial aid leveraging strategy, runs predictive modeling, and integrates admissions, aid, and retention into one strategy. It is a cabinet-level position, and the search has to find a strategist who can also be trusted with the institution's financial lifeblood.
How Does Excelon Run an Enrollment Management Search?
An enrollment management search follows our retained structure, scaled to a cabinet-level role that owns revenue and strategy.
- Define the role with the president and cabinet, including net tuition revenue goals and scope.
- Source confidentially across sitting VPs of enrollment, AVPs, and deans of enrollment or admissions.
- Screen candidates against enrollment strategy, financial aid leveraging, and revenue accountability.
- Present a finalist slate with written evaluations and facilitate cabinet and committee interviews.
- Support the offer, references, and the leadership transition.
Who Becomes a VP of Enrollment Management?
Senior enrollment leaders rise from associate vice president roles, deanships of enrollment or admissions, or directors ready to step into strategy and revenue ownership. We recruit across that pipeline with attention to financial aid and modeling experience.
What Can a President and Cabinet Expect?
We work as an extension of the president and cabinet. We deliver a confidential slate of leaders with proven enrollment and revenue results, a profile built around your net tuition targets and structure, candid market intelligence on a competitive talent pool, and thorough reference and background work. Every active search is promoted across our network and fully indexed.
Related Higher Education Searches
Enrollment management sits over admissions and works alongside the registrar. We run dedicated searches across the roles this leader oversees and partners with.
Sample Enrollment, Aid, and Records Job Descriptions
Explore sample job descriptions across the enrollment function, including the admissions, financial aid, and records roles a senior enrollment leader oversees.
Director of Enrollment
Director, Enrollment Management
Director of Financial Aid
Director of Admissions (Dallas)
University Registrar
Bursar
Enrollment Management Search Questions Answered
What is enrollment management?
Enrollment management is the strategic, often cabinet-level function that integrates admissions, financial aid, and frequently the registrar and retention to meet an institution's enrollment and net tuition revenue goals. It is usually led by a vice president for enrollment management or chief enrollment officer.
What does a VP of enrollment management do?
A vice president for enrollment management owns the institution's enrollment strategy and net tuition revenue. The role oversees admissions and financial aid, frequently the registrar and retention, and uses financial aid leveraging and predictive modeling to hit enrollment and revenue targets.
What is the difference between admissions and enrollment management?
Admissions handles recruitment and the application-to-enrollment funnel. Enrollment management is the broader strategy that sets net tuition revenue goals and oversees admissions, financial aid, and often the registrar and retention. Admissions usually reports up into enrollment management.
How long does an enrollment management search take?
Excelon Associates typically presents a finalist slate within three to five weeks of finalizing the role profile. The full search depends on the institution's cabinet process and the competitiveness of the talent pool.
Are enrollment management searches confidential?
Yes. Senior enrollment leaders are usually sitting executives elsewhere who cannot be seen applying publicly, so we source and vet candidates confidentially and protect their identities until the finalist stage.
Ready to Begin an Enrollment Management Search?
Excelon Associates runs confidential, retained enrollment management searches for colleges and universities. Tell us about your enrollment goals and we will scope the search.
Start a Search Higher Education PracticePrefer to talk? Call +1 (828) 417-7094