This School Tripled Enrollment by Breaking Higher Ed “Best Practices”

Описание: In this episode of the Education Marketing Leader podcast, I sat down with James Steen, Ph.D., VP for Enrollment Management & Marketing at @HoustonChristianUniversity, to unpack how HCU tripled freshman enrollment while many institutions are flat or declining.

This conversation matters if you lead marketing, enrollment, or strategy and feel boxed in by “best practices” that no longer move the needle.

What higher ed marketers should pay attention to:

Growth followed a clear value exchange.
A donor-funded, full-tuition engineering scholarship created a compelling, easy-to-understand offer. Marketing didn’t invent demand. It clarified and scaled it.

Barrier removal beats clever messaging.
No application fee. Direct admission at scale. Guaranteed admission through district partnerships. Acceptance letters that include scholarships upfront. Less friction. Faster decisions.

Brand change only worked because operations backed it up.
The move from Houston Baptist University to Houston Christian University was paired with sustained brand investment, capacity planning, and internal alignment. Messaging and experience stayed in sync.

Personalization still requires humans.
AI supports outreach and comm flows, but counselors own cost conversations and relationships. Financial clarity is handled person-to-person, not buried in award letters.

Innovation was treated as a capacity problem, not a culture problem.
New ideas were encouraged, but filtered through operational reality. Teams were empowered to say “no” when something wasn’t feasible.

The funnel was managed end to end.
Top-of-funnel growth mattered. Middle-of-funnel friction was aggressively removed. Bottom-of-funnel trust was built through consistent, relational engagement.

The big takeaway:
Enrollment growth didn’t come from one tactic. It came from aligning strategy, marketing, admissions, finance, and capacity around a clear promise. Best practice wasn’t abandoned. It was rebuilt for current conditions.

If you’re still relying on incremental optimizations, this episode will challenge you to rethink what “next practice” actually looks like in 2026.

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