Hanover's nine enrollment tips

Hanover Research just turned a messy higher education problem into a nine-point checklist: younger students are still interested in college, but they are more price-sensitive, more skeptical about debt, and more likely to judge a school by whether its message feels current. (hanoverresearch.com) That lands in a market that has been shrinking for years. The National Center for Education Statistics says undergraduate enrollment fell from 18.1 million in fall 2010 to 15.4 million in fall 2021, a 15 percent drop before a projected rebound later this decade. (nces.ed.gov) Hanover’s March 18, 2026 brief says Generation Z now spans both traditional-age students and adult learners, while the oldest members of Generation Alpha have already reached high school. Colleges are not recruiting one neat age band anymore; they are recruiting a moving line of teenagers and twenty-somethings with different needs. (hanoverresearch.com) The first shift is tone. Hanover says schools need messaging built around students’ social, cultural, financial, and technological priorities, which is a polite way of saying a glossy campus brochure is no longer enough if the price tag, support services, and career outcomes are hard to find. (hanoverresearch.com) The second shift is trust. Hanover describes Generation Z as tech-savvy and optimistic about their personal futures, but also cost-sensitive, debt-averse, and skeptical about the value of a degree, so institutions have to explain return on investment in plain numbers instead of prestige language. (hanoverresearch.com; hanoverresearch.com) That same Hanover guidance ties recruitment to academics. Its 2025 outlook says colleges are leaning harder into career-aligned programs, three-year bachelor’s degrees, and short credentials because families now ask what job a program leads to before they ask what the quad looks like. (hanoverresearch.com) The checklist also treats support services as an enrollment tool, not just a retention tool. Hanover’s earlier guidance for reaching Generation Z tells schools to publicize mental health counseling, disability services, peer groups, and resources for first-generation and low-income students because students read those signals as proof that a campus is safe and usable. (hanoverresearch.com) Another piece is representation. Hanover notes that more than 45 percent of Generation Z belongs to a non-white racial or ethnic group and more than 22 percent identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and or queer, so outreach that ignores identity, belonging, and student voice is likely to feel outdated on arrival. (hanoverresearch.com) Generation Alpha changes the timing. Hanover says the oldest of that cohort is already in high school, which means institutions that wait until senior year to explain affordability, flexibility, and outcomes will be talking to students after habits and expectations are already set. (hanoverresearch.com) So the practical read on Hanover’s nine tips is simple: make the value proposition clearer, make the support system visible, make the academic path look connected to work, and start earlier with students who have grown up online. In 2026, that is less a branding exercise than a survival routine for colleges still trying to climb out of a decade-long enrollment slump. (hanoverresearch.com; nces.ed.gov)