Public and land-grant universities have developed a series of strategies to transform scattered student success programs into coordinated, data-driven systems that treat graduation as a core institutional responsibility.
A new Association of Public and Land-grant Universities report identifies six promising approaches:
- Strengthening coordination across campus units
- Expanding data-informed advising
- Clarifying academic pathways
- Removing financial barriers near graduation
- Reengaging students who had stopped out
- Integrating academic and personal support services more holistically.
The “A Decade of Success” report analyzed 154 innovations implemented by 90 institutions in 41 states between 2015 and 2024. It traces three phases of evolution:
- A heavy focus on first-year retention started the shift toward summer bridge programs, peer mentoring, learning communities and early advising outreach.
- Institutions built degree pathways by mapping recommended course sequences and critical milestones. Analytics helped advisors identify students at risk of falling behind.
- Universities aligned advising, financial aid, mental health services and academic support. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this development, with institutions expanding mental health resources and reengagement strategies.
Removing the final obstacles
To fuel the transformation, institutions also began awarding financial aid to students whose short-term financial problems prevented them from earning the final credits needed to graduate. Many schools found that these “completion grants” helped students cross the finish line to a degree, the report notes.
Institutions also worked hard to reconnect with students who had stopped out. Wayne State University’s “Warrior Way Back” and Temple University’s data-driven outreach initiative streamlined pathways back to graduation for former students with substantial credits.
The University of North Dakota reduced residency requirements and made it easier for returning adult learners to transfer credit from other institutions.
Student success matures
The greatest progress occurred at institutions where leadership, budgeting decisions, advising and academic planning were unified around graduation goals, the report concludes. To propel this work, many schools formed cross-campus task forces that reported to provosts or presidents.
“Degree completion moved from the margins of programmatic experimentation toward the center of institutional design,” the report says, describing the decade as sparking “the emergence of a more mature architecture of student success within public higher education.”
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