Are you frustrated by missed opportunities and administrative chaos in your college or university?
Are you unhappy with your current tools and struggling to track communication with students?
Do you find it difficult to make informed data-driven decisions because there is no way for you to effectively manage your data?
The pain of losing important prospective students due to a lack of personalisation, an inconsistent admission process and inefficient collaboration can be overwhelming.
This is the norm for every college or university who are either managing their operations manually or using a tool that is not meant for higher education.
Now, how do you solve these problems?
It’s simple, you just need to follow 2 steps:
But before you go on to double your growth with a CRM system, you need to know exactly;
A CRM for colleges and universities is a customer relationship management software specially designed for higher education institutions like colleges and universities.
With a CRM, you can effectively communicate with students over calls and messages, organise all student and prospect information in one central hub and manage inquiries and applications efficiently. It also provides insightful organisation and team performance reports for you to make data-driven decisions.
So in this article, we’ll outline how CRM software solves your problems. We’ll also tell you how to find the best CRM for education and universities so you won’t have to read another article on this topic again.
Colleges and universities are bustling hubs of activity. You have to do countless operations, manage a vast student body and handle finances, all this on a day-to-day basis.
Managing all these operations simultaneously can be exhausting and your admin staff tends to make mistakes because of this, especially without a proper tool. But with a CRM for higher education, you can bid farewell to all your worries.
A CRM is like a personal assistant that does all your work, interacts with all stakeholders, streamlines all processes, be it admission-related or otherwise and identifies loopholes for you to take corrective actions.
Let’s see how a CRM solves your most daunting problems:
Spreadsheets, paper files or multiple systems—it’s hard to manage student and staff information when it’s all over the place. You struggle to access the right data at the right time and there’s always a risk of loss or error.
How a CRM helps:
Your team needs to handle multiple conversations—reminders for payments, updates for students and follow-ups with prospects. But follow-ups get missed, the wrong message gets sent or conversations get forgotten.
How a CRM helps:
You can’t improve what you can’t measure. If you don’t know how many follow-ups were missed or which staff member is falling behind, you’ll keep repeating the same mistakes.
How a CRM helps:
You want to expand your institution, add more courses or attract more students. But without clarity on what’s working, growth becomes guesswork.
How a CRM helps:
By now, you should be clear about 2 things: You need a CRM to solve your problems and it needs to have a specific set of features. So, while wandering off to search for the perfect CRM for your institution, you need to keep in mind the following 6 factors:
Your admin team isn’t full of tech experts. Pick a CRM with a clean, intuitive interface so anyone can start using it without confusion or handholding. A complex system will only lead to resistance and underuse.
Pro tip: Always request a demo or try a free trial to test usability firsthand.
Don’t fall for shiny feature overload. Focus on tools that actually help, like data management, follow-up reminders, call tracking, reporting and integrations.
Skip extras that sound nice but won’t be used. They’ll just drive up the cost and complicate usage.
Your team won’t always be at their desk. A mobile CRM lets you handle follow-ups, review student data or track metrics on the go, whether you’re at a seminar or working from home.
Check app reviews on the Play Store or App Store to gauge usability before committing.
Cheaper isn’t always better. The real question is — does the CRM give you what you need at a fair price? Avoid bloated tools with features you won’t use and hidden costs.
Look for clear, honest pricing that matches your requirements and budget.
Your institution’s workflows aren’t generic. You need a CRM that adapts to your admission process, not the other way around.
A customisable CRM lets you define stages, terms and tasks the way your team works—plus grow and evolve the system as your college expands.
Even the best software needs support. If the CRM provider isn’t responsive, you’ll be stuck every time something goes wrong.
Look for providers who offer fast support via call, WhatsApp, chat or email and check their reputation on platforms like TechJockey or Software Advice.
So, you’re ready to make the leap and invest in a CRM for your educational institution. But even when you know how to choose one, it’s too time-consuming to see which one suits you best. Here, we have curated the best 15 CRMs catering to the education industry.
telecrm is India’s top mobile and cloud-based Telecalling CRM, with fantastic sales automation features like 1-click-dialer, smart follow-ups, call recording and easy integration with WhatsApp and other tools.
It’s a user-friendly CRM for educational institutions — be it a college, a university, a school or even an educational consultancy and coaching institute.
Related read: Best CRM for schools
Salesforce is a robust CRM platform for universities and large educational bodies to manage the entire student lifecycle. It offers deep integrations, smart engagement tools and advanced reporting.
Best known for: Handling complex student journeys at scale with personalised communication across multiple channels.
Hubspot is a powerful inbound marketing CRM that helps institutions run and track personalised marketing campaigns. Ideal for teams focused on digital and content-based student recruitment.
Best known for: Running inbound campaigns to attract, nurture and convert prospective students online.
Zoho CRM is an affordable, flexible CRM that supports basic automation, lead tracking and contact management. Suitable for schools and smaller colleges.
Best known for: Budget-friendly CRM for managing admission leads with basic automation and reporting.
Leadsquared CRM focused on high-volume lead handling, communication automation and admissions tracking. Great for call-heavy and form-heavy admissions teams.
Best known for: Fast-paced admissions teams that rely heavily on email, SMS and sales automation.
Element 451 is a US-based CRM for higher education that uses AI to personalise campaigns and track student behaviour. It’s designed for colleges that run data-led admissions.
Best known for: AI-powered student engagement, behaviour-based segmentation and progress tracking.
Creatio is a no-code CRM platform that allows full customisation of student workflows. It supports automated communication and lead tracking with drag-and-drop tools.
Best known for: Customisable CRM with strong automation for managing student relationships.
Ellucian CRM is an enterprise-grade CRM built specifically for higher education institutions. It helps manage enrollment, student support and marketing performance.
Best known for: Integrating academic and administrative functions with advanced communication tracking.
Meritto is designed to manage relationships effectively within educational A CRM designed for Indian educational institutions to manage leads, automate workflows and improve admissions efficiency.
Best known for: End-to-end admissions CRM tailored to Indian universities and coaching institutes.
Bitrix24 is a hybrid CRM and team collaboration platform that offers contact management, lead tracking and internal task coordination.
Best known for (in education): Schools that want both CRM and project/task management in one tool.
OpenSIS is primarily a student information system (SIS) with CRM features added. It helps track student data, admissions and communication history.
Best known for (in education): Integrating SIS and CRM features for small to mid-sized institutions.
OpenEMIS is an open-source education management information system that supports contact management, data analysis and marketing activity tracking.
Best known for: A customisable open-source platform for managing education data and CRM tasks.
Edsby is a learning management system (LMS) that includes basic CRM tools for managing student relationships and parent-teacher communication.
Best known for: K–12 schools combining learning and student engagement tracking in one place.
Odoo, an all-in-one business suite with a CRM module that supports contact tracking, workflow automation and bulk messaging.
Best known for: Institutions looking for a modular CRM that integrates with finance, HR and project management.
CiviCRM is an open-source CRM built for non-profits and education. It supports communication, campaign management and relationship tracking.
Best known for: Low-cost, open-source CRM for schools and educational NGOs.
In short, you now have the tools to take your institution’s expansion to the next level. You need to act and you need to act now!
Research the market, compare different CRMs to see if they fit your needs and then decide on a CRM that’s cost-effective, easy to use, has amazing customer support, with the features and customisations you need.
Or, you can make it easier on yourself and consider Telecrm. It offers a comprehensive list of customisations, strong customer support, a mobile app for Android and iOS and handles all the essential CRM tasks.
It has all the features that a higher education institution needs in a CRM, all at an unbeatable price.
So, what are you waiting for? Book a demo with us and upgrade your CRM today!
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