Proactive Student Support Strategies

Here are some more steps and strategies for supporting student success and encouraging retention early on that were developed for a report prepared by the Educational Research Institute of America for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education:

• Ease the transition to college with preparatory summer programs ahead of entry.
• Restructure developmental education programs so remediation is fast-tracked and more at-risk students enroll in credit-bearing courses sooner – reducing time to degree.
• Offer highly structured pathways to degree completion with course sequences clearly mapped and limited options and alternatives.
• Use technology to build a supplementary advising system that presents clear degree maps, allows for self-monitoring of progress and provides immediate warnings related to consequences of course selections, withdrawals, and credit transfers.
• Build a system of guaranteed credit transferability from affiliated institutions, and acceptance of prior learning credits to aid re-entry of returning and adult college students.
• Implement a strong learning community infrastructure as a required component.
• Proactively promote and provide in-person advising and counseling services, and make retention a primary focus of advising programs.

 
Check out how Victoria University identifies at-risk students and provides timely support to improve engagement and retention: