The 2025 UPCEA Enrollment Process Review: Secret Shopper Analysis reveals a critical breakdown at the top of the enrollment funnel. Nearly half of all prospective student inquiries (44 percent) received no response. At a time when digital advertising costs are rising, search is changing, and prospective students expect rapid, personalized engagement, this level of unresponsiveness represents a direct loss of marketing investment and institutional credibility.
Even as institutions adopt more advanced CRMs, automation tools, and communication platforms, overall responsiveness is declining. The median response time has increased since 2023, and personalized follow-up remains the exception rather than the norm. Too often, institutions treat inquiry management as an operational afterthought instead of a strategic function.
In today’s competitive marketplace, responsiveness is a signal of institutional value and student support. As prospective students increasingly rely on AI-powered tools and conversational search to evaluate options, the first human interaction with an institution carries more weight than ever. Marketing and enrollment leaders must close the gap between lead generation and lead conversion. Every unanswered inquiry is not just a lost enrollment. It is a lost relationship. This report offers clear evidence of where the system is breaking down and where improvement is not only possible, but urgent. Download your copy of UPCEA's newest research study today.
Key Findings
- Overall, 44% percent of inquiries that were sent did not receive a response, slightly higher than 2023 (40%) and 2021 (42%) benchmark years.
- The average response time to inquiries placed was 14 hours and 23 minutes, with a median of 3 hours and 18 minutes. The average response time in 2025 was significantly slower compared to 2023 (7 hours and 22 minutes) and 2021 (11 hours and 47 minutes). Median response times were more comparable.
- Inquiries that were sent through RFI forms had the fastest average response time (9 hours and 33 minutes), followed by those sent to an individual email address (20 hours and 8 minutes), and those sent to a centralized email address (20 hours and 32 minutes).
- Sixty-two percent of inquiries placed through an individual email did not receive a response, followed by 40% of centralized email inquiries, and 37% of RFI forms.
- Three quarters (75%) of RFI forms did not offer the opportunity to ask a question within the form, while one quarter (25%) did.
- For RFI forms without a question box, median response time was slightly slower (2 hours and 59 minutes), compared to RFI forms with a question box (2 hours and 27 minutes).
- RFI forms without a question box had a higher percentage of inquiries that did not receive a response (39%) compared to RFI forms that had a question box (32%).
- All RFI forms required the inquirer’s name, and nearly all (99%) required an email address. Sixty-one percent asked for a program of interest, followed by phone number (49%), start term (43%), and date of birth (24%).
- Among all inquiries, 78% of those placed via an RFI form received promotional materials from the institution, while only 2% of email inquiries received those materials.