Traditionally, higher education student success initiatives lived in advising or retention offices, as those departments were primarily responsible for keeping students engaged on campus. Today, things have changed. An institution’s brand is now largely associated with student success outcomes, including overall persistence, graduation rates, career readiness, and job placement. As a result, student success programs need to be approached from more than just a single office; the entire institution needs to be involved.
Holistic Student Success in 2026
Ask 10 different people what student success means today and you’ll get 10 different answers. With that in mind, how can an institution define a unified approach to student success? To create a consolidated, campus-wide strategy, student success in higher education must be measured and monitored across multiple aspects, including:
- Overall persistence and retention
- Academic progress and matriculation
- Engagement in campus life activities
- Diversity and equity gaps
- Accessibility and inclusivity
- Mental health, well-being, and support
- Career alignment, job placement, and professional success
Because student success is multifaceted, institutions must be sure their approach is not hindered by silos. Traditionally disconnected technologies and departments must work together, staff need to be proactive with timely interventions, and technology needs to enable more speed and agility.
What Is Technology's Role in Student Success?
Technology has a significant part in nearly any higher education initiative, including student success. With a cloud-based student information system, colleges can maintain a data lakehouse with unified student records, ensuring that everyone has real-time access to a single source of truth, thereby limiting misinformation, misinterpretations, and knowledge gaps.
Additionally, a modern student information system can help departments automate previously manual tasks and leverage scalable communication platforms that enable real-time engagement between coworkers and students.
Technology alone will not promote student success outcomes, but legacy, disjointed systems will make achieving success more difficult than it needs to be. Institutions also need to put power where it will have the biggest impact: people.
It Takes a Village
An institution’s success is bound to the success of its students. For student success programs to be effective, they must start at the top and filter across the entire campus. But because every institution will have different measurement criteria depending on their goals or funding requirements, for example, there is no uniform approach. Building and fostering a campus-wide student success strategy may require a new way of thinking.
Higher education executives need to align on the definition of student success for their institution, as well as shared metrics and outcomes. This will ensure the ability to set and measure against unified goals while simultaneously encouraging accountability and ownership. When faculty and staff know how their college measures student success outcomes, they can better engage with students in an effort to meet their institution’s objectives.
In some cases, restructuring student success will upend traditional strategies. In these instances, institutions should invest in change management training, as workarounds or carrying over bad processes could spoil the entire exercise.
An Institutional, Not Individual, Strategy
Building a strong student success program today requires adopting a cross-campus operating model. It calls for collaboration, a unified approach, a strong student information system, a shared vision, and aligned objectives. Institutions that embrace student success with modernized cultures and technologies will likely be the ones with stronger brands and reputations going forward.
If technology, change management, or establishing uniform objectives sounds difficult, institutions should consider working with a trusted partner in higher education, like Jenzabar. We have more than 40 years of experience in higher education, and our cloud student information system eliminates silos across campus, providing greater access to mission-critical data and solutions. We also offer training and development programs that specialize in leadership and change management.
There’s no reason a college or university—of any size—should not be prioritizing student success in 2026. With a holistic approach, institutions will be able to refocus student success strategies, eliminate reactive interventions, and be better positioned to support students throughout their entire learning journey.
