When considering student retention initiatives, higher education administrators often examine how a student is integrated into the campus community both academically and socially. Accordingly, retention strategies that focus on these two key areas, including academic interventions and a sense of belonging, are critical to a student’s success. Developing actionable plans to identify students in need and implement supportive programs greatly improves student retention rates by helping struggling students not only to get back on track, but integrate themselves as active, integral members in their campus communities.

Why is retention such a critical need? The consequences of dropping out before graduation cannot be understated. Students who don’t graduate often head down a path leading to lower-paying jobs, fewer professional opportunities and increased challenges and limitations to their future ability to contribute in their community.

It’s critical to consider the reasons why students sometimes choose to leave school. For some, academic difficulties can become overwhelming and seemingly insurmountable (without the right supports). More often, students leave due to other factors such as cost, social challenges, isolation, and unclear expectations. By understanding the challenges students face, campus leaders have the unique opportunity to develop innovative methods to boost retention rates overall and ensure individual students progress all the way from admission to graduation.

Here are 12 proven tactics to help improve student retention and keep college students engaged and supported in your community.

1. Define Student Success

Share your vision of Student Success. It’s much easier to identify with and work toward goals when students know what’s expected of them. Some students may become discouraged when they don’t understand steps to take to reach undefined goals, and on top of that, are unfamiliar with resources to help achieve them. Not establishing goals also makes it harder to measure success or optimize program effectiveness.

Clearly setting and communicating high academic expectations, combined with supportive programming and resources, is an effective strategy for increasing graduation rates and preparing students for their future careers. Teach students good habits and offer many different opportunities for success by setting and communicating expectations and breaking down goals into attainable steps to support achievement.

Use technology to guide students: Help students keep track of their progress by guiding them through intentional pathways via interactive tracks & checklists. This is a great way for students to see what they’ve accomplished and what they still need to do at a glance, and for administrators to identify students who are falling behind (and reach out to them with support and resources) as well as incentivize and reward students who complete mandatory tasks.

2. Connect and Engage, Early and Often

For incoming students, design orientation programming with virtual components that are accessible, engaging and sustainable over the entire onboarding process. Help students start connecting and building important relationships with peers, student leaders, staff, faculty, and advisors, well before they set foot on campus -- from admission, acceptance, orientation and beyond!

For at-risk and non-traditional students, this is a great opportunity to learn all about campus services and academic expectations and start developing a strong bond with members of the campus community. Create a targeted onboarding checklist of requirements students need to complete including asynchronous training, videos, and attending live events (while automatically tracking their participation data.)

3. Cultivate Relationships with Advisors, Staff and Faculty

Many students do not reach out to staff or faculty members for assistance with academic or social needs (or don’t know how to reach the right people), which can leave them feeling isolated, but receiving support and guidance from a professor or advisor can mean the difference between a student learning to navigate through obstacles or giving up and dropping out.

Connect students with a strong mentoring program in which they can learn important life skills and know how and where to ask questions so they can easily reach out for help when needed.

Utilize technology to increase resources for academic advising: Make it easy to connect and book a meeting with an advisor, faculty or other essential support staff for helping students learn about and access available resources. A meeting scheduler tool allows a student to find the right person and book an available time slot, right from their phone!

4. Use Data to Track Warning Signs

Collecting data on key indicators of students who may be struggling (such as poor attendance or not earning enough credits on time) is a good way to address low college student retention rates by gaining a deeper understanding of which students are most likely to drop out.

Pay attention to warning signs, configure automated alerts based on behavioral triggers that will inform you of a student’s persistence level, and assign tags or specific account types to target your retention efforts to specific students in your engagement platform (e.g., first generation, second year, transfer, academic probation).

Use communication tools to check in and follow up with students in need: utilize email marketing software with tracking metrics to see who is opening and clicking your email content, send out reminders and check-ins with push notifications, use a community feed for discussions and resource sharing, and assign checklists of tasks to guide students on a path to success with action items they must complete. Consider incentivizing task completion with prizes, giveaways or virtual badges.

5. Implement Intervention Processes

Early intervention is key in helping to retain students. Once you have identified at-risk students, teachers, staff and families may work together to help students turn things around. Developing an ongoing assessment and intervention plan to identify and equip these students with increased support and services is one of the most efficient ways to increase student retention.

Academic advisors and faculty can implement strategies utilizing engagement data analytics to provide a timely and proactive outreach, reaching out to students experiencing academic, personal, financial or social issues and informing them about school resources and available workshops that can help them address their specific needs. Through these early interventions, faculty and advisors also begin to build relationships and trust with their students, and sometimes, that relationship and connection can make all the difference in a student’s decision to stay or go.

6. Build Community & A Sense of Belonging

For many students, large school environments can mean getting lost rather than finding their path. Accordingly, it’s critically important to focus on personalizing learning, building campus community and cultivating a sense of belonging for all students, especially those at risk for dropping out, as part of your strategy to increase graduation rates. Establishing community both in and out of the classroom helps build a strong network for students and supports good study habits to improve academic performance.

In the COVID landscape, where students are navigating a mix of online learning and virtual events, some may struggle to find and build community. Many colleges, community colleges and universities know that disconnected students may leave school because they feel alone and isolated, and are working on supportive programs and marketing campaigns specifically focused on increasing a sense of belonging.

Think Small: Developing deeper connections in small group and learning communities such as Residence Life, student organizations, Greek Life, volunteer programs, or by creating a network of peer mentors to engage with students at their level in first year seminar classes, truly helps offer a student a strong sense of being an integral part of the campus community.

7. Engage and Partner with Parents

Parents can be one of the most important parts of a student’s support network. Developing regular communication to keep parents engaged and informed about their child’s progress is critical to students’ success.

Offer guidance on how to support students in virtual and blended settings, and share information about mental health counseling, tutoring, academic advising and other services offered by your institution. Host webinars to help parents identify and intervene when a student shows signs of struggling academically, mentally or socially.

8. Gather Feedback Regularly

Measure student happiness and program effectiveness. One of the best ways to keep students from leaving school (and prevent issues before they arise) is collecting direct feedback regularly. Student engagement polls and surveys help you to get to know your students, how they really feel, what their needs and struggles are, what they’re happy with and excited about and more. These crucial insights help empower you to act quickly and address issues right away as well as to optimize ongoing programming efforts.

9. Encourage Autonomy

Encouraging autonomy is important in a student’s development and overall retention, but can be very challenging at times. Students need intrinsic motivation, and campus administrators are in a unique position to help encourage individual autonomy in many different ways.

Guided Pathways - Create “Success Tracks” including action items for students to become more engaged and successful both inside and outside of the classroom. This can include goal-setting tracks that walk students through how to set SMART goals, track their progress and celebrate successes. These pathways could also feature complementary (and even mandatory) events and workshops to provide further information and support.
Connection Programs - Students are often afraid to ask for help or just don’t know who to ask. Administrators can enhance their marketing and promotion of a Connection or Mentoring Program as a way to raise awareness of support resources. (Developing autonomous students also means normalizing the idea of asking for help when you need it!) Highlighting and boosting visibility of a Connection Program can be a great way to empower students to seek assistance on their own.
Community Feed - Administrators can also partner with students to generate some motivational content to post on their community feed. It can be very powerful for a student to hear directly from peers who overcame similar challenges during their time in college. The feed can highlight student-driven content about academic or personal challenges (especially during COVID), and help to inspire students to accomplish their goals and ask for help.

10. Help Students Discover Enriching Experiences, Outside the Classroom

Connecting students with opportunities for involvement and leadership roles outside of the classroom helps make learning relevant and enriches the student experience overall. Boredom and a lack of engagement are two common reasons for a student to disengage, stop attending class or even drop out of school.

Help at-risk students browse student organizations and check out activities happening around them on your campus-wide calendar, directly from their phone or laptop. Encourage them to get involved in campus life as an important part of their educational and professional journey.

A great way to help students learn about and join groups, even remotely, is hosting a virtual involvement fair. Student groups and campus departments set up customizable booths for students to visit, ask questions and learn more about their organization.

11. Offer Flexible Scheduling

For some students, workplace demands and family responsibilities present major obstacles to attending classes during typical hours or getting involved on campus in other enriching ways. Offer flexible schedules such as weekend and evening classes to accommodate work schedules as well as affordable child care options for students who are parents to continue their education, to help them better manage conflicting responsibilities.

Implement accessible and virtual student life programming and groups that accommodate non-traditional students to allow them the opportunity to get involved and unlock their potential in the same way their counterparts in morning classes get to do.

A commuting student who drives back and forth to class with no other interactions may not think campus life is relevant or accessible to them, but by connecting them to opportunities in which they are able to participate, they are also empowered to enhance their co-curricular transcript with transferable skills developed through involvements and leadership roles on campus.

12. Connect Students with Financial Resources

Finances can be a top concern for students at risk from dropping out of college, especially for those who may be trying to balance their education with the need to support family members. Higher education costs have been on the rise for decades, and some students do not have access to financial aid or family assistance to help manage the burden.

Keep students informed about jobs, scholarships and grant opportunities in your communication outreach and community news feed, and help connect students with professional opportunities on campus and in the community. A centralized job board offers students an easily accessible way to browse open positions, submit applications online and schedule interviews, all in one place.

While there are many reasons that may lead a student to fall behind or become at risk of leaving college, taking the time to plan and implement key student retention strategies will help prepare students to navigate obstacles, take advantage of campus resources, and feel fully supported, knowing where and how to ask questions and reach out for help when needed.

Are you interested in learning more about using CampusGroups to support your student retention goals? Contact us for more information or to set up a demo and tell us about your campus. We’d love to hear from you!

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