Higher education has always been about more than attending lectures and taking tests. There are many opportunities to make critical decisions between enrollment and graduation that ultimately determine a student’s ability to finish or disappear quietly from the scene. This information is nothing new to higher education administrators, as they’ve played a role in supporting students over the years. However, much has changed in recent years about how involved institutions get in providing help, and what tools they use to do so.
Getting Students On the Right Path
For many students, the first year of college represents the hardest transition. New environment, new standards, and newfound freedoms that don’t always translate into positive academic behavior. This is where supporting resources that promote structure start to take hold.
Effective student planning resources provide students with a better sense of what their degree requirements entail, not only by title, but by timing and sequencing with long-term goals, too. When students have the full picture projected for them, they are far less likely to get lost along the way, and fail to register when they do, to waste time and money during their programs.
It’s also good for advisors who either have to guess which courses are students’ favorites or work with only limited knowledge as students flag concerns. Advisors can see if someone falls behind or attempts to skip ahead before getting too deep into the program. Where once support was reactive, it’s now proactive, making all the difference.
Where Data Helped in the Past
Traditional advising only worked if students communicated with their advisors; however, at-risk students often failed to reach out to begin with. Whether out of lack of awareness, shame of falling behind or uncertainty who would be best to help, many students could do nothing but suffer until it was clear they would have to dropout or fail.
Data-driven systems change the game. When institutions follow academic performance patterns, attendance marks, and other data points across disciplines, it becomes easy to spot red flags before they turn into catastrophes. All an advisor has to do now is place a proactive phone call to see if there is any help to be had before it’s too late.
Retention rates for those who’ve been reached out to with a helpful message compared to standard, check-in-only efforts that occur when an advisor has available time show the success of this method over any other. This matters not only to universities with finances at stake, but with an investment in the people they welcomed into their folds.
The Importance of Personalised Support Systems
No two students experience school the same. Those carrying part-time jobs alongside their part-time classes have different concerns than those overwhelmed by their studies for personal issues, or students desperately in need of an elective but uncertain of the proper path forward at the moment.
No broad support system works well for this population. Therefore, personalisation has become a major goal. Advanced systems of support built with personal circumstances, learning patterns and goals in mind give students more than the average attempt to get through with basic capabilities. Degree audit tools, for example, allow students to map out exactly what they need to do and when, especially useful for students navigating credit transfers, electives or shifting majors.
Predictive analytics take it one step further and illustrate which students are statistically more likely to disengage based on patterns becoming more obvious over time. It’s not about treating students like numbers, it’s about ensuring the right support gets to the right person at the right time.
How Integrated Systems Boost Efficacy
One of the more accessible benefits in the modern age is the integration of systems to serve the support platforms. Financial aid, course registration, academic assistance and job placement efforts exist separately from one another; however, when there’s a single platform equipped to communicate vital information across disciplines, it can assist students better to help them make informed choices.
An interconnected platform means a student can check their academic progress, acknowledge a concern with an advisor and understand how a course affects their longevity to graduate without having to decipher multiple, disjointed platforms. This lowers friction and enables students to remain engaged in their progress.
To institutions operating thousands of students at once, this type of clarity is mandatory, if not comfortable; it allows staff to devote their time and energy where it belongs instead of getting bogged down in logistical details that technology could more adeptly manage.
What Actual Academic Support Provides
Ultimately, the benefits speak for themselves. Institutions that champion academic support consistently enjoy better retention rates, graduation rates and student satisfaction rates. Students feel more likely to remain enrolled, more likely to finish in a timely fashion and more likely to reflect fondly on the experience when they’ve received the support they need.
Furthermore, there’s something to be said for what good academic support actually means; it sends a message to students that the institution values them as more than numbers on spreadsheets. An investment in student wellbeing means something, and more than anything else, trust is what brings the finish line closer for so many.
Academic support tools have never been more pivotal in students’ success, and those institutions that rely on them see why.
Write and Win: Participate in Creative writing Contest & International Essay Contest and win fabulous prizes.
About the Author
