Student-Centered Enrollment Management Principles
Throughout 2025, enrollment management leaders, financial aid administrators, admissions professionals, and student advocates from across higher education came together to develop shared Principles to rethink institutional enrollment management practices grounded in price transparency. The leaders’ work was motivated by how confusion surrounding the cost of college contributes to distrust in higher education, an idea explored in the Strada report Price Transparency Imperative: Rebuilding Confidence in Higher Education.
Strada convened the effort and supported the process, which was co-led by the American Council on Education, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, National Association for College Admission Counseling, and National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
An enrollment management advisory task group, a group of leaders and practitioners working in college enrollment management, supported the effort. Through listening sessions, working drafts, stakeholder engagement, and research with focus groups and surveys, this group developed these Principles, grounded in how institutions actually operate.
- Access and affordability: All students, especially those with limited financial background and resources, believe that the door to higher education is open and see expanded pathways of opportunity.
- Tuition and cost transparency: Students receive clear, upfront pricing information before they are asked to commit to an institution.
- Aid and scholarship lifecycle sustainability: Students experience affordability as an ongoing commitment, from recruitment through graduation.
- Value and strong return on investment: Students trust higher education institutions to help them pursue meaningful jobs and careers, supported by clear, straightforward communication about completion rates, post-graduation outcomes, and the broader societal and economic benefits of their education.
- Use of personal information: Students understand what personal information is collected, why it is collected, how it is used, and how long it is kept. Students are informed about whether and how they can review, correct, or remove their personal information.
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Partner organizations that endorse the Student-Centered Enrollment Management Principles
This report shows that a large part of the uneasiness students and families feel stems from an inability to determine whether postsecondary education is actually affordable. And while providing more clarity and greater transparency will help address some of the confusion, rebuilding trust may also require significant structural reforms around price modeling, financial aid packaging, and communications.
Large-scale systems-level change requires sustained attention and dedication, so when Strada looks back at progress made over the past year, we are inspired by moments that point toward a future in which every person — no matter where they start — can envision a way ahead that is filled with opportunity.
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