How to Grow Enrollment for Humanities Programs: Strategies, Tactics and Best Practices

Humanities education is under siege. This is perhaps one of the grand challenges of the twenty first century. In our view, this is more a challenge of marketing imagination and faculty involvement, and less a challenge of enrollment.

Ironically, the perceived interest in humanities amongst students and families appears to be dwindling, while demand for humanities graduates from employers is on the rise. We call this the perception gap. While families doubt the value of humanities, employers are increasingly in search for integrative thinkers, fluent communicators, data-literati, customer-facing problem-solvers who’ll ultimately become leaders.

The big challenge is how to overcome this perception gap. Here is our advice borne out of increasing enrollment in more than 25 humanities programs and colleges.

Our Advice for Humanities Faculty and Program Chairs

1. Take charge. Don’t wait for university senior leadership especially in enrollment and marketing to save your program. They are being advised by a host of consultants who personify efficiency, not effectiveness. You become the story you choose to tell. Tell a better story of your own making.
2. Romance undecided majors. Undecided majors are on the rise. Influencing them is perhaps one of the most untapped opportunities. Make your case to them passionately and persuasively.
3. Spotlight successful alumni as proof points. Proactively pursue and persuade marketing and university magazine staff to capture and tell stories of your successful alumni. Feature alumni on your academic program pages and in all your marketing touch points.
4. Tell stories of second and third careers of alumni. At first blush, the argument for financial payback from first career may not seem as strong, but humanities alumni more than make up lost ground in their second and third careers. Tell their stories with verve and imagination.
5. Fortify academic program pages. Ensure your academic program pages are robust, persuasive, and relevant. Itemize transferrable and marketable skills. Showcase student projects and alumni stories.
6. Integrate digital and AI technologies into pedagogy. Students are digital natives and employers value young talent that is tech-fluent. Embrace digital and AI into your curriculum design.
7. Create interdisciplinary majors. Issues-based majors like digital humanities, environmental humanities, medical humanities, interreligious studies, intercultural relations, urban ecology, public health, data literacy and STEM+humanities are exciting and fresh. Students, families and employers value them. NEH and foundations will fund them.
8. Build relationships with high school counselors and teachers. They are major influencers in college choice. Accompany recruiters to high school visits and college fairs.
9. Create employer advisory boards. They offer your students internships, jobs and experiential learning opportunities. Invite them to the classroom as speakers and to curriculum committees to keep it relevant. Ask them to articulate the distinctive value humanities graduates bring to their talent pool. Ask them to become mentors for students. Ask them to become a panelist on important committees.
10. Create alliances with graduate programs. Half of your graduates will go on to pursue research, advanced studies and professional degrees in business, media, law, medicine and other professions. Cultivate deep ties with them.
11. Form relationships with foundations, major donors and NEH. Being the carriers of societal values, they value humanities more than any other group. They routinely fund important initiatives that are great training grounds and offer experiential learning opportunities for your students.
12. Host public lectures and humanities-themed events. Lecture series, literary festivals, film screenings, and cultural celebrations that engage the broader community will showcase the vibrancy of the humanities better than anything else. Tap into your college’s public programs office to create and manage these vital traditions.

You might say it is hard to simultaneously do all this and focus on teaching. In our experience, the champion department chairs gain an outsized share of a shrinking market by integrating academia, technology, communities and organizations.

Elliance Approach to Marketing of Humanities Programs

Elliance, as a marketing and strategy agency, addresses this challenge by employing an investigative mindset to uncover concrete evidence and proofs, combined with a creative mindset to infuse brand appeal and craft persuasive arguments.

We bring empathy, creativity and verve to our endeavors.

1. We begin our work by taking a close look at a school’s general education core and first year studies courses. How do these and other student experiences shape their mental muscle and instill certain habits of the mind. We make the case that humanities nurture the development of seven habits of long term success and fulfillment; learning, relating, organizing, creating, connecting, communicating and leading.
2. We focus on faculty imparting maturity, discipline, discernment, perspective and resilience — the things that lead young people to early success and traction. 
3. We connect the interdisciplinary classroom to various facets of experiential learning, including internships, study abroad, service learning, undergraduate research, and field experiences.
4. We look for and tell rich stories of interdisciplinary centers of excellence and symposia funded by major foundations and NEH.
5. We connect the success of humanities graduates with specific aspects of their education in ways sufficiently concrete that they make sense to prospects and their parents.
6. We make a compelling case for why a humanities education is unmatched in helping students to transition into the world of real work and the work of the future. 
7. We highlight how faculty and alumni open doors for students to gain experience, find job opportunities, and explore new career paths.
8. We underscore what employers prize in the graduates they have hired.
9. We punctuate the argument with placement details: top employers, starting salaries, acceptance rates into graduate and professional programs, and the institutions at which they are completing their advanced studies.
10. We create brand lines like “Light the Way”, “Be Central”, “Talent to Shape Tomorrow” and “Elevating Humanity” backed by high octane communications to give tailwinds to all marketing efforts.

It takes a village to nurture humanities programs and marketing imagination to bring vibrancy to the life of underdog majors.

We hope we get the chance to put our talent and experience in marketing of humanities programs together to advance the cause of humanities education at your institution. Please review our higher education marketing capabilities and consider partnering with us.