The author questions the high cost of innovation in higher education. He states that much of the literature and other communications convey the sense that improvements in university functioning are more a capital-intensive, than a thought- or labor-intensive enterprise, especially for small public institutions, which educate a substantial…

Latinx community college students have lower persistence and completion rates than White and Asian students (Causey et al., 2022). Results of a systematic literature review found the following root causes for these low retention rates: financial barriers, lack of institutional support, educational preparation, psychosocial considerations, and…

In this article, Staci Phelan interviews the following enrollment management team members from Idaho State University: James Martin, Director of Financial; Debbie Green, Director of Scholarships; Nicole Joseph, Director of Admissions; and Brooke Barber, Director of New Student Orientation. The following questions are addressed in this interview:…

As the world changes, institutions of higher education are constantly adopting new business practices in order to ensure future success of their institutions. While enrollment managers are focused on their marketing and recruitment tactics, high school students are being inundated with recruitment materials including invitations to visit campus, a…

At Zane State, guided pathways has served as a framework for bringing multiple changes together to support student success. The college has placed particular emphasis on helping students enter and stay on a program path by connecting them to faculty and advisors called success coaches from the start. A focus on early engagement and onboarding is…

In 2020, staff at Griffith University, Australia used a best practice and evidence-informed orientation event framework to create the University's first series of fully online, university-wide orientation sessions. The PECS design framework was created to ensure that orientation events at Griffith focused on developing students' sense of belonging…

Preparing students to be successful in their high school begins with their freshmen orientation program. Incoming Charter School of Wilmington (CSW) freshmen struggle to adjust to the demands of the curricula, learn the various technologies, establish new social relationships and navigate around their new school building. The CSW Freshmen…

This article highlights a two-year institution's efforts to deliver personalized guidance and direction to students, providing essential support resources in hope of facilitating meaningful connections that will lead to increased enrollment, persistence, retention, and three-year graduation rates. The project includes efforts by student services…

This paper presents the results of participatory action research survey responses from doctoral students regarding strategic onboarding activities. Twelve first-year doctoral students in an inaugural doctoral program cohort responded to Likert Scale and open-ended questions during the first week of a two-week on-campus residency. Resulting student…

Purpose: The transition from school to higher education is a complex process. Peer mentoring is often used by institutions to facilitate this process. The purpose of this research, which was conducted at a South African university, was to determine whether a peer mentoring programme, which involved a large number of students and a limited number…

Sense of belonging is a critical aspect of human development that has been identified as an important ingredient for school success. Yet the construct has not been explored in relation to the experiences of Muslim students in full-time Islamic schools. To fill this gap, the authors conducted a qualitative study using phenomenology to understand…

Successful student transition into higher education is fundamental for student retention and future success. We have previously adapted a freely available online induction course to meet the needs of incoming Medicine (MBChB) students. This case study outlines the process of further developing this course in response to student feedback and…

In 2019, [Sunny] (City, State) was awarded a federal College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) grant designed to provide necessary support for the first-year success of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their direct families. This article describes programming of the CAMP grant, focusing on how it functions as a learning community through its…

While international students face many similar challenges, regardless of their location of study, the unique aspects of learning institutions may lead to different outcomes. Cognizant of this situation, we conducted a study designed to analyze the experiences of 28 students attending an undergraduate liberal arts college. The comments expressed by…

Estimote Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons deployed throughout a university campus enabled the creation of interactive tours for prospective and accepted students at Fall and Spring open house events. By configuring their mobile devices with an app to detect the beacons' signals, participants could view webpages containing information based on…