How many higher ed professionals does it take to define student success?
It sounds like a joke. But it’s actually not that funny.
Have we ever done it? Have we come anywhere close to answering the question?
How would student success be defined? Is it an aspiration? An institutional value? An empty buzzword? A professional discipline? An outcome?
Search any college or campus website today, and it is almost guaranteed that the phrase “student success” will appear. But when we dig deeper, and when we look across higher education, we find little consensus and even less alignment between the work of student success, the appropriate organizational framework, or the key theoretical foundations.
A feel-good response to the question seeking to define student success has been that, “Student success is everyone’s job.” As much as that statement should be true, that kind of thinking runs counter to the entire history, culture, and organizational enterprise of higher education: a culture and structure defined by disciplinary boundaries, siloed structures, hierarchy, prerogatives. Universities are notoriously slow to change and the culture of continuity remains entrenched.
In higher education, another reliable way to understand the depth and endurance of an institution’s commitment (to anything) is to follow the resources - especially money. Standing committees, positions, buildings. On most campuses today, and for most of the last century, student health has been a priority, and so, on every campus there is space dedicated to student health.
Not so for student success. Student success may have been added to an existing title, or new position description, but the function of those roles could vary widely from one institution to another. If there is a physical space dedicated to student success, then not all of the student success functions or key personnel will operate from there. Even more importantly, the student success functions will vary from institution to institution.
Curiously, the student success money trail actually leads beyond campus boundaries - mostly to technology companies offering expensive platforms backed by large data sets and algorithms that promise to mitigate the risk of attrition and improve graduation rates. For all of the investment, the national graduation rates have not shifted markedly in the last two decades.
Student success has been the canary in the higher education coal mine. It’s no accident that the stirrings of student success, starting with the work of Vincent Tinto and others, coincided with a dramatic shift in the cost of higher education and increasingly more diverse student bodies.
Fifty years later, another canary has emerged from the higher education mine barely breathing. Student Success has an identity crisis that reflects higher education’s current identity crisis. The foundational assumptions on which the prevailing concept of student success were built have broken down and no longer apply. Public trust in higher education has eroded. Support and funding continue to diminish. Inside the university, leadership turnover continues to accelerate. Institutional assumptions and structures no longer match the current realities. Incentive and accountability structures are mismatched. Student success infrastructure remains thin, or non-existent. Ironically, the work of student success is more important than ever. Student success work lights the path to higher education’s redemption.
Higher education is in crisis. Student success work has come of age and now requires (re)definition, clarification, and deeper, shared understanding in order to advance the field and unify the professionals who work at the heart of the higher education mission.
Welcome to EQUISS Accelerator
EQUISS Accelerator is a dynamic and inclusive community of advocates in higher education.
We help institutions measurably move the needle on retention and graduation rates in ways that impact revenue, reputation, and rankings.
We unite professionals across silos to create shared purpose and become more effective leaders.
We spotlight the leaders, innovations, and insights that address higher educations’ greatest challenges.
Our goal is to celebrate courageous, actionable, solution-oriented innovation for equity-centered student success. In our community, champions, practitioners, and allies of equity-centered student success will encourage the conversations and advance the work in remarkable ways that transform the field.
Here, we have created a dynamic space for practitioners to exchange knowledge, build their network, and access cutting edge professional development. This community is more than just a virtual destination; it is a hub of inspiration and insights, a gathering place where practitioners find the tools they need to craft solutions that empower students. At EQUISS, change agents evolve into leaders and leaders become champions of student success.
Welcome to the space where passion meets purpose, and together, we shape the future of higher education.
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