Supporting students and enabling their success goes beyond ensuring academic performance. If students are to thrive in a higher education environment, they need to do well academically but they also need support from other angles: mental, emotional, and physical health, career readiness and prep, financial aid and guidance, basic human needs, and more. To provide this all-encompassing support, institutions need technology that captures the entire student identity and journey.
A modern student information system (SIS) can give institutional staff and decision-makers the visibility and insights needed to realize and power student success.
Reading Between the Lines
Academic performance is a key indicator of student success, especially in the eyes of learners. According to a 2024 survey, 59 percent of students said they measure their own success in college by their GPA. It’s clear that institutions must still prioritize general learning and skills development to drive student success.
But academics is not cut and dry, as performance is influenced by more than just coursework. In fact, that same survey revealed that 60 percent of students said mental health was the biggest challenge facing their success in college. Struggling students will often emerge between departments, meaning potential risk indicators may show up in multiple areas on campus outside of the classroom.
Some of the most common barriers to student success, beyond academics, include:
- Registration and enrollment friction.
- Financial and administrative disruptions.
- Delayed or impersonal advising or interventions.
- Lack of basic needs like food, housing, transportation, childcare, etc.
When this type of information lives in only one location on campus, students can easily fall through the cracks. Institutions need a holistic student information system that enables departments to share information, identify root cause issues, coordinate efforts, and nurture student success from all angles.
Taking In the Big Picture
Studies have shown that institutions often lag the private sector when it comes to gathering, analyzing, and using information to drive strategic decisions and planning. Tight budgets and limited resources lead to technology ecosystems that are disconnected, enabling uncoordinated strategies, outcome misalignment, and delayed responses.
To improve student success, academic leaders, advisors, and faculty must be able to access and use the same data, including information on financial aid, academics, location, technical support, etc. When all student data is housed within a single, consolidated system, staff can work from a single source of truth to minimize variables, duplicate efforts, or ill-informed perspectives.
A SaaS SIS, delivered through the cloud, can give institutions this holistic view, providing detailed information on every step of the student journey, from when they first engage with an institution through enrollment and their life on campus.
Seeing the Signs
Students may stop out, or drop out, for many reasons. Due to personal or uncontrollable factors, students may miss classes, not get the required credits, miss payments or registration deadlines, become disengaged with campus activities, or more. If institutions aren’t keeping an eye on these signs, they may not be able to intervene in time to keep students engaged.
As the centralized platform for student data, student information systems provide insights into these documented challenges and empower staff to be more proactive. Rather than waiting until a student has stopped out, advisors may be able to proactively connect with a learner and provide more targeted and personalized support. With each of these interventions, institutions will gain insight into trends or shared occurrences and may be able to implement plans that could course-correct would-be at-risk students.
This proactive approach can also boost institutional confidence, reinvigorating staff with the knowledge that they have the resources and data to identify at-risk students before they fall through the cracks.
Enhancing Decision-Making
With a broader understanding of what student success means, having the ability to see the entire student identity and journey, and the tools to see the warning signs, institutions can use predictive modeling to identify at-risk students early. They can also view the real impact that attrition has on their campus, including its effect on financial and operational performance.
With this information from the SIS, leadership can make informed decisions about changes to campus culture, academic programming, financial requirements and support, advising, and more. In doing so, institutions can establish a student-centered culture built on delivering the experiences that today’s learners want.
The Power of the SIS
A truly student-centric SIS can improve how an institution approaches and drives student success by providing a holistic view of every aspect of the learner. As a centralized platform for academic, financial, mental and emotional health, and other details, faculty, advisors, and campus leadership can get the full, end-to-end picture of student challenges, enabling them to be proactive with informed and timely support. With a strong foundational student information system, institutions can advance student success and align student success goals across the institution.
