How to take a research-backed approach to understand your students’ experiences and support their success
We reflect on IHEP’s attainment conference and share some practical steps for centering college students’ experience
Last month, we were excited to attend the Institute of Higher Education Policy’s (IHEP) Celebrating and Accelerating Attainment 2025 & Beyond conference in Washington, D.C. The event brought together nearly 500 leaders from across the country to share how they are breaking down barriers, creating opportunities, and empowering more people to earn postsecondary degrees and workforce credentials. This conference was a chance for researchers, practitioners, philanthropists, and other change-makers in higher education to reflect on the last 15 years of work toward improving the national degree and credential attainment rate, as well as think together about how to continue to push this progress forward.
From formal presentations and discussion sessions to more informal connections and conversations, we appreciated the opportunity to share with and hear from others about what’s working and what isn’t, and we left with some important learnings and reflections that will continue to inform the work we do at the Equity Accelerator (EA) to support postsecondary success. Some themes that emerged include:
A student-centered lens is crucial. Attainment goals are institutional goals; however, they’re fundamentally about helping create valuable opportunities for students that have a huge impact on their career opportunities and success. Remembering this greater purpose of attainment goals—and institutions holding themselves accountable to this purpose—is key to supporting student success.
To best support their students, institutions must know them well. Institutions differ along so many dimensions, including the communities of students that they serve. Knowing what brings your students to your institutions, what they hope to get out of their time there, common challenges or barriers they experience, and what they have gained are crucial pieces of information that can shape the specific approaches that your institution takes to support attainment. This includes recognizing both common patterns among students, as well as ways that students’ paths and needs may differ.
Measuring early indicators toward success can accelerate progress toward attainment goals. By definition, attainment speaks to students’ experience at the end of their time at your institution. However, how can institutions know whether they’re setting their students up to get their degrees and credentials? One way is to prioritize monitoring of early—or leading—indicators of success. For example, some early momentum metrics focus on early course completion, particularly in gateway courses. Others focus on students’ well-being, engagement on campus, or other ways of capturing student experiences. Because these metrics are linked to degree and credential attainment, monitoring these in order to double-down on what’s working or course correct when needed can help support your college reaching their attainment goals.
With these learnings in mind, what are some first steps that institutions can take in centering student experience at their institutions? The reflection questions below can help you get started in taking a research-backed approach to assessing student experiences at your institution to support their success. We also recently released new research (based on data from over 15,000 students across 22 universities) examining how colleges can expand opportunities for student belonging on campus with additional advice for institutions.
Reflect on what experiences you want students to have. What is your institution’s vision for the ideal student experience? How do you want students to feel when they enter your campus or attend class?
Gather information about student experience. What do your students envision gaining from their time at your college? What key student experiences does your institution need to learn more about? How will you assess student experience: a campus-wide survey, or perhaps student focus groups? What strategies will you use to ensure you hear from a variety of different students on your campus?
Look for patterns in student experience, including gaps. What patterns do you see in student experience, and how does it compare to your vision for the ideal student experience? Do these patterns look similar or different when looking at various groups of students (e.g., minoritized students, older students, students with disabilities, transfer students)? Are there any groups reporting particularly negative or concerning experiences?
Dig deeper into the “why.” What additional information could you collect to gather insight into why students are reporting particular experiences? What institutional, classroom, extracurricular, or social messages, policies, practices, or interactions may be influencing students’ sense of belonging, or other experiences? How might you collect additional data to learn more directly from students?
Are you interested in assessing student experience in your classroom or institution? Our team of interdisciplinary experts have partnered with hundreds of colleges and universities to better understand their students’ experiences to create more supportive learning environments.
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