PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 18, 2023

New Research From CUPA-HR Finds Low Retention Rates Among Admissions Employees in Higher Ed

Admissions employees play a key role in colleges and universities’ future sustainability, and even more so as the enrollment cliff approaches. However, a recent data analysis shows that colleges and universities are relying on admissions positions with high turnover and young employees to do a great deal of the legwork of building institutions’ next graduating class.

CUPA-HR’s new research report, The Higher Ed Admissions Workforce: Pay, Diversity, Equity, and Years in Position, contains analyses of data on 12,042 admissions employees in six admissions positions reported by 940 institutions. The positions analyzed are chief admissions officer; deputy head of student admissions; head of student admissions for a college or school; head of campus graduate admissions; graduate program admissions coordinator; and student admissions counselor.

Findings
The report provides a deep dive into the admissions workforce, including pay and size of admissions positions, diversity and equity in the admissions workforce, and age and years in position.

Admissions Workforce Pay and Size

• As expected, median salaries overall are highest for chief admissions officers, followed by heads of admissions, and then admissions coordinators and counselors.
• Median salaries differ somewhat by institution classification. Median salaries are highest at doctoral institutions with the exception of student admissions counselor, which is highest at associate’s institutions.
• Institutions have the greatest number of people in student admissions counselor positions (on median, five per institution).
• The median number of people per position for each institution classification varies little from the overall median number of people per position; however, there is one exception. On median, associate’s institutions have three student admissions counselors, baccalaureate institutions have four, master’s institutions have six, and doctoral institutions have nine.

Diversity and Equity in the Admissions Workforce

• At all admissions position levels, the representation of women is higher than the representation of men within each race/ethnicity.
• Asian employees and Hispanic or Latina/o employees are underrepresented at all levels of the admissions workforce compared to Asian and Hispanic or Latina/o U.S. bachelor’s degree holders. Black employees are well represented at each admissions position level in comparison to Black U.S. bachelor’s degree holders.
• The representation of people of color notably declines from coordinators and counselors (31 percent people of color) to heads of admissions (23 percent people of color). There is also a small decline in the representation of people of color from heads of admissions (23 percent people of color) to chief admissions officers (21 percent people of color).

Declines in the representation of people of color at each successive admissions position level translates to fewer people of color in higher-paying positions.

Age and Years in Position

• Admissions coordinators and counselors (median age 30) tend to be considerably younger than heads of admissions (median age 40), chief admissions officers (median age 45), or higher ed professionals in general (median age 43). Indeed, three-quarters (76 percent) of admissions coordinators and counselors are under the age of 40. For context, approximately half (49 percent) of heads of admissions are under the age of 40, approximately one-quarter (26 percent) of chief admissions officers are under the age of 40, and approximately four in 10 higher ed professionals are under the age of 40 (44 percent).
• As expected, chief admissions officers have more years in their position (median of four years) than heads of admissions (median of three years) or coordinators and counselors (median of two years). Most chief admissions officers (58 percent) have been in their position for five years or less.
• Turnover is high in admissions coordinator and counselor positions – 71 percent of admissions coordinators and counselors have been in their position for three years or less.

Read the full report and explore the interactive graphics.

About CUPA-HR
CUPA-HR is the recognized authority on compensation surveys for higher education, with its workforce surveys designed by higher ed HR professionals for higher ed HR professionals and other campus leaders. CUPA-HR has been collecting data on the higher ed workforce for more than 50 years, and we maintain one of the largest workforce databases in existence. CUPA-HR also publishes numerous research publications and interactive graphics highlighting trends and issues around higher ed workforce planning, pay equity, representation of women and racial/ethnic minorities and more. Learn more about CUPA-HR research.

CUPA-HR is higher ed HR. We serve higher education by providing the knowledge, resources, advocacy and connections to achieve organizational and workforce excellence. Serving more than 33,000 HR professionals and other campus leaders at nearly 2,000 member institutions and organizations around the country and abroad, the association offers learning and professional development programs, higher education salary and benefits data, extensive online resources and just-in-time regulatory and legislative information.

 

Contact Information
Missy Kline
Project Manager – Communications and Marketing
[email protected]