Recruitment, Retention & Student Success

International students face complex journeys, academic, legal, and career-focused, and they often navigate disjointed systems to get the support they need. This session explores how institutions can better integrate immigration advising with registrarial and career services to offer coordinated, compliant, and compassionate support. We'll share strategies to align policies, communication, and workflows across departments, reducing confusion, improving service delivery, and enhancing the student experience. Learn how a systems-based approach can strengthen compliance while keeping student care at the core. Perfect for leaders in enrolment, advising, and student success looking to break down silos and better serve international learners.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify gaps and overlaps in institutional support for international students across immigration advising, registrarial services, and career development.
• Apply strategies to align policies, communication, and service delivery for a more coordinated, student-centered support model.
• Design or enhance cross-functional workflows that balance immigration compliance with proactive, holistic student care.

Post-secondary students invest a lot of time and money into their education, and many express concerns about how to turn their studies into meaningful careers once they graduate. We know that post-secondary degrees prepare students for multiple career paths (some that don’t even exist yet!,) but universities struggle to help students make the connection between their studies and the workforce. Meanwhile, students hear myths like “you can’t get a job with an Arts degree” or “you need a Master’s to be successful,” and despair of ever getting a “good” job.

This session will explore the relationship between academics and career development, and will then dive deeper into one point of connection: community-engaged learning (CEL), a powerful tool for fostering deeper connections between students, their education, local communities, and future career opportunities. We will draw from data on Saint Mary’s University student participation in community service learning, curricular micro-experiential learning, and co-curricular recognition opportunities to demonstrate that implementing diverse work-integrated learning strategies—beyond traditional co-op programs—effectively responds to student demand for learner-centered, inclusive, and career-relevant active learning methods.

Career exploration - supported by professionals - combined with CEL programs, helps Atlantic Canadian students bridge the gap between academic learning and the labour market, thereby contributing to student retention.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize and challenge common myths that impact student self-awareness and academic decisions.
• Analyze student demand for experiential education, fostering skill development, civic engagement, and academic growth.
• Suggest inclusive and non-traditional academic strategies to improve student success, retention and involvement.

What drives the education and career decisions of today’s students? What are the immediate and future needs of the employers who will hire them?

This session will begin with a look at the most recent insights into Canadian students’ education preferences, career aspirations, and employment decision-making processes.

Next, we’ll flip to the other side of the equation and look at the most recent information regarding the needs of Canada’s employers when it comes to recruiting students. We’ll explore the key challenges employers are facing to meet their talent needs; discuss the skills they are seeking; review the most recent hiring trends; and gain an understanding of what drives their decisions when choosing the schools from which they hire.

With a deeper and more current understanding of students’ interests and employers’ needs, the final portion of this workshop will be an interactive discussion of the implications for post-secondary education. Participants will discuss how PSIs are and can respond to students' greatest interests, particularly with regard to career opportunities and outcomes.

This plenary session provides an opportunity for open, facilitated discussions among peers from the Atlantic region on current hot topics of common interest.

Delegates will drive which “Hot Topics” are top of mind through submitting topics they’d like to discuss in the session before the conference.

Join in the discussion, learn from your peers, and make new connections in this highly interactive session.

Current Hot Topic Submissions Include:

• IRCC
• Domestic Recruitment
• Atlantic Funding Model
• Atlantic Brand
• Military PLAR
• Accommodations
• Mental Health

This presentation will provide key insights into how students' views and attitudes have evolved in recent years and how students in Atlantic Canada differ from those elsewhere in the country. We'll explore how students choose their school and major; what they value in their student experience; how schools can ensure they persist in their studies; and their plans after graduation.

Attendees will gain actionable data and fresh perspectives to inform institutional strategy, enhance student services, and better align with the shifting priorities of today’s learners.

• Do you find enough opportunities to hear from peers with similar challenges?
• Could you benefit from voicing your issues and finding common ground with others?
• Is it possible that others have already solved the problems you're dealing with?

In this special plenary session, participants will join groups of like-minded professionals to share their challenges, gain fresh perspectives, and learn from one another. Participants will discuss "what keeps them up at night" and share ideas of overcoming hurdles.

We'll also work collectively on generating ideas, and possibly even starting initiatives, to create new resources, activities, and opportunities for sharing in the future.

In an ever-evolving educational landscape, institutions are facing new challenges in student recruitment. Recent IRCC changes have significantly impacted international student numbers, compelling many to refocus on domestic recruitment. This session will delve into the critical question: Should we rely solely on existing domestic recruitment strategies, or is it time for academic departments to actively engage in the process?

Join us as we share what the Applied Commerce and Management Education department at Red River College Polytechnic is doing to pivot, collaborate, renew and create both internal and external partnerships to work towards embracing this change. We look forward to an engaging session of information sharing and brainstorming as we navigate these new waters and come out stronger in the end.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify partnerships that your academic area can leverage in the pursuit of recruitment initiatives.
• Use resources within your department to support departmental activities.
• Evaluate the results of your activities to support future initiatives.

Topic Areas

• Marketing
• Admissions
• Recruitment
• Undergraduate Programs
• Data
• Adult Learners
• Partnerships & Community Engagement
• Pathways / Articulation Agreements

MELT—the students who commit but don’t show up—can be a silent but significant challenge for universities. How can enrollment services teams proactively combat MELT and ensure a smooth transition from admission to arrival? This session will dive into how MSVU addressed their MELT issues post-pandemic, and provide strategies on how other institutions could tackle the issue.

Learning Outcomes

• Approaches in strengthening conversion rates at various levels of statuses
• Communication and automation strategies for effective communication planning
• Analyzing conversion activities and measuring data to inform real time adjustments to conversion planning

Topic Areas

• Enrolment
• Marketing
• Admissions
• Recruitment
• International
• Graduate Programs
• Undergraduate Programs
• Indigenous
• IDEAA (Indigenization, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Accessibility & Anti-racism)
• Data
• Communications
• Student Engagement/Persistence
• Student Services
• Retention
• Orientation
• Advising & Academic Support
• Pathways / Articulation Agreements

At Saint Mary’s University, we have recently transitioned the responsibility for recruitment marketing from the Recruitment and Enrollment team to External Affairs (central marketing and communications). In this new arrangement, both teams collaborate on this work in an effort to share workload and expertise. We have adopted a model resembling that of an agency-client relationship: Recruitment retains control of the budget, while External Affairs takes the lead on executing the work. In partnership with our external marketing agencies, External Affairs develops and deploys a comprehensive marketing and communications approach that aligns with Recruitment and Enrolment’s recruitment strategy.

The past year of this new relationship has been incredibly successful. Not only did we launch a bold, unprecedented recruitment marketing campaign under this new model, but we also spent the year refining how our two teams—Recruitment and External Affairs—collaborate. Additionally, we worked to better engage the wider campus community in recruitment and marketing efforts. Through cross-campus engagement sessions in the planning phases, two four-day photo shoots involving every faculty, and regular touchpoints with leadership, we successfully strengthened these collaborations.

Through the case study of the development and launch of our new recruitment campaign, this session will outline applicable strategies for breaking down silos that you can then apply to improve collaboration within your post-secondary institution or organization.

In this session, we will investigate senior administrators’ (Vice-Presidents Academic and Services) awareness, engagement, and perception of their institution’s efforts to retain undergraduate students to graduation and credential completion. The relationships between institutional organizational structures and cultures are considered for supporting student success and students’ year-to-year persistence and graduation. There is limited literature in Canadian post-secondary education exploring the roles and responsibilities of senior administrators, especially across academic and student services divides. This research advances our understanding of senior administrators’ intentions, rationales, decisions, and partnerships and collaborations.

Learning Outcomes

• Deliberate Vincent Tinto’s post-COVID reflection in response to his foundational Student Integration Model (1975)
• Review case studies based on senior administrators’ survey responses
• Consider and reflect on the research themes presented from a personal and professional institutional perspective

In this session, we will give an overview of the research agenda and outputs that have been produced by faculty and staff at Saint Mary's University (SMU). This work has included research in the following areas: the development of SMU's First Year Experience (FYE) program, student engagement, student retention, and faculty participation in student success-related activities. This research has been pivotal in driving student-focused changes to the university experience at SMU.

Learning Outcomes

• Research design for student-focused research
• Understanding factors driving student success
• First Year Experience in Canadian Context

Program Co-Authors

• Steven Smith (SMU)
• Tom Brophy (SMU)
• Katelynn Carter-Rogers (SMU, St Francis Xavier)
• Amy McAvoy (SMU)

In 2025, the institution’s reputation is even more important in decision making. Not just for future students, but with current students, staff, potential donors, government partners, etc. As institutions re-envision who they are, or attempt to strengthen their position in the Canadian marketplace, now is the time to commit even more time, energy and resources on defining “why us?” and “what makes us different?”. That dirty little word – brand – needs to be welcomed and embraced across the institution. It’s hard for some to appreciate the power of brand, often since they don’t know the impact it has across areas such as Recruitment, Student Success, Alumni Affairs and Donor Relations. With all that is happening in #Highed today, now is the time to ensure institution’s stand for something unique and ownable, and provide a clear reason for someone to choose their brand.

Learning Outcomes

• Gain a deeper understanding of what ‘brand’ means in 2025
• Understand potential ways to engage others on campus to talk about brand
• How to proceed with the development or refinement of a brand strategy

As post-secondary institutions strive for inclusive excellence, the rising number of students receiving accommodations should be seen as a sign of progress and a call for systemic change—not merely a metric of success or challenge to manage. Yet, many Strategic Enrolment Management (SEM) practices remain grounded in ableist models that often privilege neurotypical ways of learning and being, that may create barriers to access and not fully support neurodiverse learners. This session will explore how institutions can reshape their recruitment, transition and retention strategies to foster belonging, persistence, and success for this growing student population.

Drawing on Canadian data and best practices from peers, this interactive session will guide participants in developing an action checklist to inform institution-specific approaches. Through scenario-based discussions and student voice profiles, attendees will rethink recruitment messaging, proactive transition planning, and retention strategies that emphasize student strengths.

Learning Outcomes

• Discover the impact of neurodiversity on recruitment, transition, and retention in post-secondary institutions.
• Explore innovative Canadian approaches which support enrolment management that move beyond accommodations toward structural redesign and foster belonging and retention for neurodiverse students; and
• Co-develop a checklist that embeds accountability measures to enhance recruitment, transition, and retention strategies for neurodiverse learners.