KPIs to Drive Success Across the Student Lifecycle

Board identifies these key performance indicators as critical in shaping successful student and institutional performance at institutions of higher education.

TopSchool is a provider of Student Lifecycle Management solutions for higher education, and they recently held a Product Advisory Board meeting where education experts and college leaders discussed which key performance indicators (KPIs) are critical in shaping success along the student lifecycle.

The group discussed the various stages of the student lifecycle from prospect to placement, and identified these measures that they felt were important for schools to track and report on in order to measure where they are today, understand where they can improve and forecast where they want to be. 

Marketing:

• Time to convert
• Campus visitation rate by lead source
• Leads that convert by program by source
• Effectiveness of content (collateral & messages)

Enrollment Management:

• Length of admissions process
• Activity by admissions representative by start
• Percent of students who change programs

Academics:

• Average absentee rates by program
• Drop-out rate by course, instructor and length in program
• Instructor effectiveness in driving attendance rates

Student Services:

• Activity by student services representative
• Highest risk students

Student Finance:

• At-risk students by debt load
• Aging receivables
• Payment source percentages

Career Services: 

• Placement rate by career services representative
• Number of employer contacts made
• Average number of days between graduation and placement
• Number of students who are self employed

As a well run institution that is constantly looking to improve, The College of Westchester (where I occupy the role of CIO) utilizes KPIs to help measure, monitor, and improve performance organization wide, so this listing of KPIs caught my eye. Some of them are pretty straightforward, but some look like they might be a bit challenging to measure.

Do you use some of these measures? Do you use others? Do some stand out unexpectedly as particularly informative and useful measures? We'd love to hear from readers who use KPIs in their institutions and wish to share some observations, so don't hesitate to comment. Thanks!

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Steven Laster’s 8 Factors for Successful IT Management