Enrolment planning underway at Memorial
Senior academic leaders, faculty, staff, students and administrators gathered on Jan. 23 to discuss undergraduate enrolment planning for the St. John’s campus as part of the implementation of Enrolment Plan 2020, a plan that will guide Memorial towards the achievement of enrolments targets while focusing on the quality of the student experience.
Discussions at the one-day retreat focused on global and local issues that will impact enrolment at Memorial in the future, the university’s strengths in the areas of recruitment and retention, as well as systemic issues related to enrolment and potential solutions to address them.
“Memorial’s enrolment planning process is in full swing with academic units and administration in student services working behind the scenes on initiatives that will contribute to the achievement of our enrolment targets,” said Dr. Noreen Golfman, provost and vice-president (academic) pro tempore. “We are developing a thorough, strategic and coordinated approach to enrolment planning for the university. Understanding the challenges we face, most notably the changing demographics of the student population in Newfoundland and Labrador, our goal is to achieve slight growth in enrolment with a focus on further diversification of our student body and on graduate enrolment growth, which will have a positive impact on research productivity and intensity, and on student academic success.”
Dr. Golfman is leading the overall undergraduate and graduate enrolment planning process for Memorial University with enrolment planning committees at the St. John’s campus, Marine Institute and Grenfell Campus leading the implementation of unique campus-specific processes to address the recommendations of Enrolment Plan 2020.
In fall 2014, Dr. Golfman appointed Dr. Doreen Neville, associate vice-president (academic), planning, priorities and programs, to lead the Enrolment Planning and Oversight Committee. The committee will assist the university community on the St. John’s campus to identify factors or issues that impede their capacity to recruit and/or retain undergraduate students; facilitate the identification of innovative activities, initiatives and programs that support the recruitment and retention of students on the St. John’s campus; monitor enrolment trends; and report on enrolment activities and trends on the St. John’s campus.
Committee members include Dr. Mark Abrahams, dean, Faculty of Science; Dr. Kirk Anderson, dean, Faculty of Education; Paul Chancey, director, Centre for Institutional Analysis and Planning, Susan Cleyle, director, Distance Education, Learning and Teaching Support; Ryan Murphy, executive director, external affairs, communications and research, MUNSU; Dr. Greg Naterer, dean, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science; Shona Perry-Maidment, director, Student Recruitment; Dr. Lynne Phillips, dean, Faculty of Arts; and Dr. Wilf Zerbe, dean, Faculty of Business Administration.
A report detailing the discussions and findings from the Enrolment Planning retreat will be distributed to the university community in the coming weeks.
Enrolment Plan 2020 can be viewed here: http://www.mun.ca/vpacademic/Enrolment_Plan_2020_final.pdf.