What is the Graduate Recruitment Canvas?

The Graduate Recruitment Canvas is a strategic framework that adapts the Business Model Canvas to the priorities and realities of graduate enrollment.

How can the Graduate Recruitment Canvas improve graduate enrollment?

It helps institutions align target audiences, program value, communication channels, student support, resources, partnerships, investments, and desired outcomes.

Who should use the Graduate Recruitment Canvas?

Graduate admission and enrollment leaders can use it to develop strategic plans, assess programs, and coordinate recruitment efforts across their institutions. The GRC can also be used to evaluate, develop and evolve graduate academic offerings.

Strategic Positioning in Graduate Enrollment: A Graduate Recruitment Canvas Workshop

August 27, 2026 3 min read Jack Klett

The model emphasizes looking at the organization as an integrated system.

Key Takeaways

The Graduate Recruitment Canvas helps institutions approach graduate enrollment as an integrated system rather than a collection of isolated activities.

It gives graduate enrollment teams a practical framework for aligning audiences, value propositions, outreach, support, resources, and outcomes.

Using the nine building blocks can help institutions identify gaps, prioritize investments, and strengthen recruitment and yield strategies.

The framework supports strategic planning and program assessment while helping graduate enrollment leaders innovate, use data effectively, and do more with limited resources.

Alexander Osterwalder, author of Business Model Generation, once said, “A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value.”

During the NAGAP 2026 GEM Summit Summary, Jack Klett, M.A., Liaison’s AVP for Graduate Enrollment Solutions, and Alyssa Orlando, Ph.D., Clark University’s Senior Director for Graduate and Professional Enrollment, led an engaging session focusing on how that model applies to graduate enrollment management.

Viewing the Organization as an Integrated System

As they noted, Osterwalder developed the Business Model Canvas as a structured, practical framework for individuals and organizations to understand, innovate, and implement successful business models. Whether organizations are launching a new venture or reinventing an existing one, the model emphasizes looking at the organization as an integrated system.

Driving Results in Graduate Enrollment Management

But wait, they asked, aren’t we in higher education, not corporate America?

Of course. Inspired by the Business Model Canvas, the Graduate Recruitment Canvas reflects and addresses the realities of graduate enrollment to help institutions innovate outreach, drive results in a competitive landscape, build relationships, leverage data, and do more with less.

The nine building blocks of the Business Model Canvas include: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, and cost structure. These building blocks are transformed when applied to graduate education and viewed as an integrated system on the Graduate Recruitment Canvas.

Applying these building blocks to higher education allows you to identify and support:

Target student populations | The specific groups of prospective students your recruitment plan is designed to attract.
Enrollment value propositions | The unique combination of benefits and outcomes your graduate program offers to attract prospective students.
Outreach & comms channels | The platforms and methods used to reach and engage prospective students throughout the recruitment funnel.
Engagement & support strategies | The ways your institution builds relationships with prospective students and supports them from inquiry to enrollment.
Enrollment outcomes & ROI | The expected results of your recruitment strategy, both financial and strategic.
Recruitment resources & assets | The tools, personnel and content used to execute and sustain recruitment efforts.
Recruitment & yield activities | The core tasks and operations that drive recruitment results and encourage students to enroll.
Strategic partners & stakeholders | The individuals or groups who contribute to the success of your recruitment plan.
Recruitment investment & costs | The financial and time resources allocated to support your recruitment strategy.

As a graduate admission professional, you can leverage the Graduate Recruitment Canvas to develop your next strategic plan, assess your programs, and more—all within a structured framework that supports a cohesive, systems-level perspective. To learn more about creating your own Graduate Recruitment Canvas, including helpful guiding questions to get you started, contact Jack Klett at jklett@liaisonedu.com.

Learn more about the Liaison-NAGAP partnership here.

FAQ

: The Graduate Recruitment Canvas is a strategic framework that adapts the Business Model Canvas to the priorities and realities of graduate enrollment.

: It helps institutions align target audiences, program value, communication channels, student support, resources, partnerships, investments, and desired outcomes.

: Graduate admission and enrollment leaders can use it to develop strategic plans, assess programs, and coordinate recruitment efforts across their institutions. The GRC can also be used to evaluate, develop and evolve graduate academic offerings.