Initial Publication Date: April 4, 2016

Recruitment Strategies and Concerns

Prior to the October, 2007 workshop on Strategies for Successful Recruitment of Geoscience Majors: Conceptual Framework and Practical Suggestions we asked workshop participants to fill out an online questionnaire about their department's recruitment strategies and concerns. Of the 27 respondents, 12 were from PhD granting universities, 2 from Masters granting universities, 8 from public Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs), and 5 from private PUIs. The number of majors in their departments varied from fewer than 5 each year (some as low as 0) to ~80/year.

Where there were enough data to look for trends, some enrollments were growing, others were falling, and a few were holding steady. No common theme/problem/concern was obviously linked to a single institution type. In fact, the opposite seemed true - that common themes/problems/concerns spanned institution type. Here is a brief summary of participants' responses.

Jump down to strategies * concerns * reasons for recruiting


What are your current recruitment strategies and concerns?

Strategies:

While there were a lot of strategies mentioned, the most common strategy appears to be trying to recruit top students from intro courses. Most departments also use other approaches; none stands out as common. Anecdotal evidence suggests intro course recruitment works. There was no consistency in reported effectiveness of other strategies. Overall, reports of whether recruitment strategies are working include a wide range of variations on "yes," "no," "we don't know," or "we don't know why."

Here's a list of many of the strategies participants listed:

  • Intro courses
  • Course content + professor's enthusiasm
  • Field trips
  • Direct recruitment effort/activity
  • Outreach to HS + 2-yr colleges
  • State Science Fair
  • Participation in institution's events for prospective students
  • Working with Admissions staff & regional HS guidance counselors
  • Institutional job/career fair
  • Institutional publications
  • Brochure/direct marketing
  • Recruitment posters on campus
  • Articles in student newspaper
  • Geological displays in dept.
  • Museum & lab tours
  • Student research opportunities
  • Student social opportunities (geology club, etc.)
  • Speaker series (research + career)
  • Departmental website
  • Curricular flexibility
  • Societally-relevant course offerings
  • Scholarships
  • Word of mouth
  • Presence of upper-level & grad students in intro courses (TAs, research presentations)

Concerns:

The most common concerns, by far, were some variation of the top three listed below:

  • Long-term viability of program; low enrollments
  • Making the most effective, efficient use of limited time/energy devoted to recruiting: the right way to reach the right students
  • Finding a sufficiently large pool of academically capable students from which to recruit

Other concerns included:

  • No departmental strategy or concerted effort
  • Lack of departmental/institutional support for recruitment activities/efforts
  • Possible adverse effects of growth—decrease in strength of faculty-student mentoring relationships
  • Competition from nearby campuses with stronger geoscience programs
  • How to extend recruiting efforts beyond the boundaries of our own campus

Why do you want to recruit more students?


The most-often cited reasons for recruiting are related to the long-term sustainability of the department, which many of the participants saw as being threatened.

  • Sustainability of the department
  • Number of faculty lines depends on enrollments
  • Pressure from administration
  • Better/viable learning environment for majors—need a critical mass

Other reasons included:

  • Need for a (geo)science-literate public; opportunities abound
  • Faculty desire to include students in research
  • New program/department
  • For the satisfaction of working with motivated students
  • To improve the quality of our program