Strategic Enrollment Management Plan: 2025-2026 - Focus 1
Focus Area: One
Ensure recruitment, admissions, and retention strategies reflect UH Hilo’s unique identity as a Native Hawaiian-serving institution and its role as a regional center for excellence in place-based education. Develop clear messaging that highlights UH Hilo’s strengths, values, and community connections to attract mission-aligned students.
Insights
- Declining Applications and Yield: Over recent years, applications from top feeder high schools have declined, while UH Mānoa’s overlap has increased. This signals a need for UH Hilo to differentiate itself more effectively.
- Yield Issues: Hawaii residents yield at a rate of approximately 25%, while out-of-state residents yield at under 10%. Yield rates are especially low in secondary markets such as California, Washington, and Texas.
- Native Hawaiian and Asian Students: These groups show higher yield rates, but applications from them in key states have also been declining.
Action Plan
- Clarify and Highlight UH Hilo’s Unique Identity: Develop marketing campaigns celebrating UH Hilo’s commitment to Native Hawaiian culture, sustainability, and community, highlighting these values through student stories, especially from Native Hawaiian, Asian, international, and first-generation students. (SP Goal 1 Actions 1-6; Goal 2 Action 2, 4, 7, 8; Goal 3 Action 1-3; Goal 4 Action 1, 3; Goal 5)
- Targeted Recruitment Campaigns: Direct efforts toward high-yield demographics such as Native Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Islander students. Focus on secondary markets like California, Washington, and Texas, where applications are declining, leveraging the university’s strengths in Hawaiian Studies, Environmental Sciences, and Hawaiian language. (SP Goal 2 Action 1, 2, 4, 7)
- Cross-Campus Collaboration: Facilitate workshops between academic affairs, student life, athletics, and faculty to ensure a unified approach in promoting UH Hilo’s identity and student success through community-focused, place-based learning. (SP Goal 1 Action 4-5; Goal 3 Action 1, 3, 4; Goal 4 Action 1)
- Engage Alumni and Community Leaders: Leverage alumni networks and community leaders to participate in outreach campaigns. Use their stories in recruitment efforts, especially in virtual and in-person recruitment events. (SP Goal 3 Action 1, 5; Goal 5 Action 7)
Measures
- Increased visibility and engagement from target demographics, particularly Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations.
- Improved yield rates from secondary markets such as CA, WA, and TX.
- Growth in alumni and community involvement in recruitment activities.