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Article Type

Professional Proficiency

Article Abstract

Related Issue:

Projecting higher education enrollments requires a thorough understanding of the phenomena that impact student enrollment. Popular theories that have been used to project enrollment include human capital theory and consumer choice theory; more than a dozen other theories have also been cited in the literature. This article situates selected theories within ecological systems theory and adds a review of generational theory to provide a broader context for selecting enrollment projection approaches.

Author(s)

perez-vegara--sm

Kelly Perez-Vergara is the Assistant Vice President of Institutional Research at Walsh College, an institution serving upper division undergraduates and graduate students focusing on business and adjacent fields, located in Troy, MI. Prior to Walsh, Kelly served as the Associate Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Oakland Community College. Kelly is a current Ph.D. student in Higher Education Leadership at Oakland University, and she is an alumni of the M.S. in Survey Methodology program at the University of Michigan. Kelly serves in the higher education community as an editor for the Community College Journal of Research and Practice, and she recently completed training as a Higher Learning Commission peer reviewer for accreditation.

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