Our annual top trends webinar helps you make sense of it all. I was joined by Alex Brown, incoming AHEPPP President and Senior Director of Student Alumni Programs & Family Engagement at UCLA. 

In a solid 30 minutes we dug into family engagement research from the past year, including demographic changes, survey results from more than 28,000 families, and data points from Eduventures, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, and more. Keep watching for an Ask Me Anything session where we shared our suggestions on how you can pave the way for your 2023 family engagement strategy.

Prefer reading over watching? Take a look below for our top highlights...

Parents want to hear from colleges more than ever.

Today’s parents expect regular communication from their student’s college or university. 85% of current families want weekly communication. Oddly enough, 85% of prospective families also prefer weekly communication. The preference for constant communication has steadily increased year over year for both prospective and current families. 

The families who need the most support (Black, Hispanic, First-gen, and lower income families) prefer communication through email and SMS/text messages.

Students are stressed. Parents can help.

Student mental health is in crisis. The scale of the problem is jarring. I asked my kids (16-year-old twins) to validate this slide. They said, "Yep. this is accurate." Scary stuff.

Student retention is low. As Alex mentioned during the webinar, it might not be because of low grades – difficult life circumstances and other stressors are also factors that prevent students from continuing. But when parents receive updates on academic and financial information such as financial aid, holds, and student status changes, we see student retention 8% higher on average. And the impact is highest for students of color. Parents can help their students – if they are kept properly informed.

Enrollment declines continue. Parent engagement can make a difference.

97% of parents are involved with their students’ college search. 97 percent! Communicating with parents as early as possible can help those families guide their student through the admissions process and help you improve yield – a must with continuing enrollment declines. 

With enrollment down in 27 states, parent engagement becomes even more important for institutions. Students with a parent using CampusESP have yield rates 5% higher than average.

Hispanic enrollment continues to rise.

Hispanic enrollment at four-year institutions has increased by 287% between 2000 and 2020. With that high level of demographic growth also comes rapid growth in HSIs and emerging HSIs. The trends make it clear that institutions should be thinking more about native-language resources and peer-to-peer programming to better support and serve more Hispanic/Latinx families.

Plus, Hispanic/Latinx families engage at a very high level. We analyzed engagement data from 16 HSIs using CampusESP. The average email open rate for Hispanic/Latinx families is 70%, which is 12% higher than the overall average.

You are forced to do more with less. Staff retention is increasingly critical.

Maybe the most chilling stat from the webinar: 57% of higher education employees are at least somewhat likely to leave their role in the next year. You’re tackling an expanding area where parents are more involved and expecting more, but potentially doing it with less. And that can be really hard. Institutions need to invest in staff retention programs, tools, and programs to help their teams thrive.

These stats are worth saving — and sharing.
Dig deeper into the data to help pave the way for your family engagement strategy.