Infographic
Student Success Priorities 2022
How 240 leaders are prioritizing 21 key elements of student success work this year
What issues are capturing success leaders’ attention right now? To answer that, each year EAB surveys success leaders at our partner colleges and universities about their priorities and challenges, and the results guide our student success research. This year, 240 leaders across the public, private, 2-year, and 4-year sectors responded to the survey. Explore the data below to understand how your challenges and priorities fit with industry trends, or download the infographic as a PDF. You can also find resources related to the major student success themes we uncovered and see how priorities differed by institution type.
Student success priorities
While all of these topics are important, respondents rated each topic based on their level of interest and the needs of their institutions.
LOWER PRIORITIES
- Ripple effects of the pandemic on K-12
- College access
- Cross-institutional transfer pathways
- Student data security and ethical use
HIGH PRIORITIES
- Student community and belonging
- Student mental health
- Academic planning, pathways, and meta majors
- Student success organizational structure
- Virtual advising and support services
- Student social (dis)engagement
- College readiness/student readiness
- Financial aid advising and support
- Adult and working learners
- Career and post-graduate success
TOP PRIORITIES
- Success metrics and accountability
- Quick-win retention tactics
- Alerts, interventions, and support for different groups of students
- Disaggregated data to support equity
- Faculty's role in student success
- Cross-campus coordination for student success
- Dashboards and data visualization
Notable themes in student success priorities
Given the severity of pandemic-related enrollment declines, it’s unsurprising that quick-win retention tactics scored highly. But lower scores for topics related to early pandemic concerns like virtual advising and support services and student social (dis)engagement indicate we’re getting past the crisis mode of the last two years.
Explore the ripple effects of the pandemic on enrollment and success.
Leaders’ focus on using data to inform student support also shone through, with success metrics and accountability receiving the highest interest and disaggregated data to support equity and dashboards and visualization also scoring highly.
See profiles of institutions leading the way in next-gen success analytics.
The last two years amplified much-needed dialog about mental health, equity, and identity in higher ed. These topics remain top-of-mind for success leaders, who prioritized alerts, interventions, and support for different groups of students highly, and also indicated interest in student community and belonging, and student mental health.
Learn how to improve the success of early alerts through equity-based communication.
Top student success priorities by institution type
Click through the tabs below to explore how responses differed by institution type.
Public vs. Private
The bold text in the lists indicates the topics that differ between sectors.
Public
Success metrics and accountability
Quick-win retention tactics
Disaggregated data to support equity
Alerts, interventions, and support for different groups of students
Faculty's role in student success
Private
Success metrics and accountability
Cross-campus coordination for student success
Quick-win retention tactics
Dashboards and data visualization
Alerts, interventions, and support for different groups of students
Over 20,000 students vs. Under 3,000
The bold text in the lists indicates the topics that differ between sectors.
Over 20,000 students
Disaggregated data to support equity
Success metrics and accountability
Dashboards and data visualization
Alerts, interventions, and support for different groups of students
Cross-campus coordination for student success
Under 3,000 students
Success metrics and accountability
Faculty's role in student success
Alerts, interventions, and support for different groups of students
Quick-win retention tactics
Dashboards and data visualization
4-year vs. 2-year
The bold text in the lists indicates the topics that differ between sectors.
4-year
Success metrics and accountability
Cross-campus coordination for student success
Quick-win retention tactics
Alerts, interventions, and support for different groups of students
Faculty's role in student success
2-year
Quick-win retention tactics
Disaggregated data to support equity
Success metrics and accountability
Dashboards and data visualization
Academic planning, pathways, and meta majors
Interested in learning more?
Talk to an expert about making progress on your top student success priorities.
