Building Blocks for Student Success: A Comprehensive Guide

Higher education institutions are increasingly focused on maximizing a student’s chances of successfully completing their studies. One powerful tool in these efforts is the student success plan. A well-designed plan that includes measurable goals, is tailored to individual needs, and is referred to and updated periodically, will greatly increase student retention and the chances that each student will achieve their academic, career, and personal goals. This article delves into the definition, importance, components, and development of student success plans, offering a comprehensive guide for students and institutions alike.

What is a Student Success Plan? Defining the Framework

Let’s begin with a brief student success plan definition. A student success plan is a document that articulates a student’s academic, career, and personal goals and outlines a plan to achieve them. Though student success plans often follow a similar format, the content is highly personalized to the individual student. The document is usually the result of collaboration between a student and an academic advisor, career services staff member, or similar support person. Occasionally, parents or guardians may also be involved in drafting the plan.

Why Student Success Plans Matter

All students, even those well-prepared for independent learning, can benefit more from their college experience by thinking ahead and creating a plan. A student success plan provides structure, directing students’ attention to the key areas they should consider when envisioning their academic journey. The plan also creates clarity. In an easily digestible form, it captures where the student wants to go and the steps they’ll need to take to get there. Student success plans are a useful tool that enables students to establish and work toward academic, career, and personal goals in a structured and strategic way.

Student success plans also help develop habits that will serve the student long after graduation, like goal setting and strategic time management. Finally, when used effectively, they help students build confidence that they can identify the outcomes they desire and move toward them intentionally. This is smart for the university, since it’s easier and less expensive to retain students than to recruit them. It’s also in the best interests of students, helping them get the greatest return on the time and money they invest in their education.

Key Components of a Student Success Plan

Here are some of the key elements of how a student success plan is constructed.

Academic Goals: Setting the Course for Scholarly Achievement

Perhaps the most obvious part of a student success plan relates to academics. Students need to clearly identify what they hope to achieve through their studies. To be useful, goals should always be specific and measurable. Examples could include reaching a specific grade point average, completing a degree by a target date, or gaining competence in a particular area-such as a foreign language or advanced mathematics.

Career Exploration: Charting a Path to Professional Fulfillment

Student success plans are typically created in the first year of studies. At this point, many students aren’t sure about their career path. One of the key areas a success plan covers is the steps a student can take to gain career clarity. This begins with some self-knowledge. Students should identify their interests, skills, values, and other variables that may affect their career choices. Then, they can identify steps they will take to explore possible careers as they narrow their focus. These steps could include researching industries, shadowing professionals, and securing internships. Doing this sort of work as early as possible will help students be more strategic in their choice of major and courses. Today’s students expect a return on investment from higher education and they view job placement after graduation as a key value driver of that. The shift in students’ expectations to place more emphasis on career and life success is something student success leaders are increasingly focusing on helping students develop a broad set of tools to identify and achieve their career-and life-goals.

Personal Development: Cultivating Essential Life Skills

In addition to academics and career, a student success plan should also lay out goals for personal development. Here, students can consider the capacities and traits that are important for success in their studies, the workplace, and other life goals. Possibilities here include self-awareness, emotional intelligence, resilience, and interpersonal skills. These skills are not only sought by employers, they also contribute to managing stress, building successful relationships, and maintaining a healthy work/life balance. “Student success” in the context of the student experience means that students have been able to leverage all of the resources available to them outside of the classroom to affirm their identities, build resilience, and continue to develop their character and integrity.

The Role of Parental and Teacher Involvement

Though a student success plan is typically created by academic support staff and a student working together, input from others increases the chances of formulating a successful plan. Professors, for example, can provide useful insights and observations about a student’s strengths and weaknesses as well as guidance about setting realistic goals. Parents or other family members can also play a vital role. They are key sources of emotional support who can provide encouragement when students face setbacks and celebrate when they hit their goals. Collaboration between the student, support staff, parents, and professors ensures the success plan adequately addresses the student’s unique needs.

Steps to Develop an Effective Student Success Plan

The process for developing student success plans vary, but here is one way other institutions approach it.

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Assess the Student’s Needs: Building a Holistic Picture

Start with a holistic picture of the student. Their goals are obviously crucial, but also often the easiest thing to identify. What can be harder to see are the characteristics of the student that will color how the goals should be approached. For instance, do they struggle with notetaking, taking exams, or have other academic challenges? What about learning styles? Does the student do better with lectures or discussion-based courses? What kinds of emotional or personal needs will impact their studies? At this stage, it is particularly helpful to consult parents, professors, and guidance counselors to get an accurate idea of the student’s needs. It’s also important to continue to evaluate these areas going forward, as a student’s needs can change.

Set Measurable Goals: Applying the SMART Framework

We mentioned this above, but it’s worth reiterating here. To serve their purpose, goals need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (aka SMART goals). This removes all the guesswork for students about what it means to achieve their goals and how to track their progress over time. Compare, for instance, these two goals:

Do well in my calculus class.
Turn in all assignments on time and score above 90% on the final exam in my calculus class.

The first is hopelessly vague, while the second yields clear action steps and metrics to assess success. In addition to being measurable, it helps when goals are manageable. Students should be encouraged to break down major goals into smaller ones. Being able to cross items off the list more quickly helps students build momentum and confidence.

Design Personalized Strategies: Tailoring the Approach

Strategies are the particular tools and approaches students will use to achieve their goals. For example, if a goal is to complete all assignments on time, a corresponding strategy might be to use a calendar to schedule fixed blocks of time for assignment work each week. Strategies can include study techniques, time management tools, support systems, practices, and more. They should be tailored to the individual student’s goals, needs, personality, and circumstances. What works well for one person won’t necessarily work well for another. They should also be flexible, allowing adjustments based on the student’s experiences in using them as well as on evolving needs.

AI-enabled student success platforms are revolutionizing this aspect of plan design and implementation. These platforms centralize campus resources, which saves students time and removes barriers to task completion. Faculty and advisors can also see a student’s progress across several areas and intervene if a student begins to veer off-track.

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Monitor and Review Progress: Ensuring Continuous Improvement

All of these steps, important as they are, will lead nowhere unless there is an intentional process in place to return periodically to the plan. This can be incorporated, for instance, into a regular meeting with an academic advisor. How should the review work? It’s helpful to gather two types of data when reviewing a success plan. One kind is quantitative (for instance, grades, credits completed, etc.). It’s also important to include qualitative data. What feedback is the student getting from teachers? How does the student feel the plan is going? Consistent assessments will allow students to see and celebrate progress, notice and respond to missed targets, and, if necessary, make adjustments to goals or strategies.

Benefits of Student Success Plans

Student success plans are well worth the effort to implement. For students, they help them identify their academic, career, and personal goals and create a clear roadmap for achieving them. They also increase a sense of ownership and motivation, which improves their chances of success.

The plans benefit institutions, too. Student success plans help schools effectively achieve their primary mission of giving students the tools and preparation they need for success after graduation. They also improve retention, which contributes to an institution’s financial health and long-term sustainability.

Tips on How to Get Started with Student Success Plans

According to the most recent annual survey from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, retention rates in higher ed are the best they’ve been in a decade. This is evidence that greater investments in student success, including the use of student success plans, are paying off. If your institution doesn’t yet use student success plans, here are some tips on how you can get started.

Assess current practices: Begin by examining what you already do. What resources exist to help students identify goals and plan to achieve them? Build on what is already working.
Set clear objectives: Create your own success plan for your department. What are you hoping to accomplish by using student success plans? What measurable outcomes will you pursue?
Get input from stakeholders: Provide opportunities for all stakeholders (faculty, other departments, and especially leadership) to learn about what you’re doing and provide their insights. You’ll increase buy-in and uncover helpful perspectives that will make the end result stronger.
Design a template and process: You’ll want a standard form and process for completing a student success plan. Don’t reinvent the wheel on this step: learn from other institutions that already use student success plans.
Create a timeline for implementation: Set a realistic goal and detailed steps for how and when you’ll implement student success plans, including the necessary training so they can be used effectively.

Addressing Modern Challenges and Incorporating Key Elements

Student success is based on so much more than grades. Universities around the country recognize this need, and have established tutoring, careers services, wellness, and fitness centers in an effort to provide a comprehensive student experience. Student success is multifaceted, with academic performance serving as just one piece of a student’s story. Belonging, connection, wellbeing, financial stability, and meaningful support networks are critical factors as well.

Communication and Personalization

Keeping a steady stream of communication with students is essential to maximize student success. The need for increased personalization and up-to-date technology is apparent in student surveys. Send messages to students informing them of campus-wide events they could attend, institutional news, and reminders to register for classes. Conversational chatbots are another great way to give students the help they need 24/7. In addition to automated chatbots, a live chat with staff members during office hours can assist students who need support from anywhere.

Holistic Advising

Advising plays a pivotal role in student success. To make advising even more effective, incorporate a holistic approach that considers a student’s wellbeing and academic success. Advisors should look at many different pieces of a student’s journey instead of only their academic major or grades. Holistic advising should also include career planning. To help streamline the appointment process, offer an appointment scheduling solution that lets students book appointments in real-time with their advisors right from their phone.

Supporting First-Generation and Transfer Students

First-generation students might be commuting to school or juggling work or family care responsibilities on top of course work. First-year experience programs can also help first-generation students succeed early in their higher education journey. In addition to tailored programming, it’s important to check in with first-generation students regularly to gauge how they’re doing. Universities should partner with community colleges to create early academic pathways for students. Another way to ease the burden on transfer students is to make sure all the information they need to know is accessible. A mobile student portal is a great tool to offer transfer students.

Prioritizing Wellbeing

Higher education brings with it feelings of stress and anxiety for many students. Create a campus culture that encourages student, faculty, and staff wellbeing. Focus on promoting self-care activities like exercise, meditation, and taking time for oneself. Support wellbeing by providing a space for students to engage with each other, faculty, and staff virtually. It’s also important to build a work environment where faculty and staff can support one another.

Fostering Connection and Belonging

Higher education students can often feel overworked and isolated. Feeling connected on campus is important. To boost student connection, facilitate informational events every semester that show students what activities and clubs are available on campus. Notify students of upcoming campus activities through an updated calendar and messaging alerts. Set up buddy-systems that pair upperclassmen with newer students. This will help new students learn the ropes of the university and increase their sense of belonging. A successful student will have a strong sense of belonging on campus - they will have found a supportive and inclusive group of peers who accept them for who they are. Successful students will have found their footing and made meaningful connections with others in their community.

The Ursinus College Approach: A Shared Responsibility

“Every student” in the student experience context means all of the students on campus, willing and committed to contribute to their own success - in other words, students who are willing to ask themselves “what will I do?”. When a student enrolls, they and the College enter a compact where responsibility for each student’s ultimate success is shared. Students are active participants in their fate on campus - they must invest time, energy, and effort in partnership with faculty, staff, and peers. Similarly, the College must provide the resources and support for each student to be able to succeed on campus, such as mental health counseling, academic tutoring, and financial assistance.

The student experience at Ursinus encompasses all the elements of campus life that occur outside of the classroom and provide the backdrop to a student’s journey of self-discovery. Successful students take ownership of their experience on campus and have agency in their ability to adapt and pivot as needed. Experiential learning is a key contributor to success both inside and beyond the classroom, and such lessons learned through these experiences are as important as lessons learned in the classroom. The College will have been successful if it has provided the space and conditions for students to affirm their identities and find meaning and purpose outside the classroom. The college years are an important time for identity development - a time characterized by exploration and experimentation where young adults begin to better understand, accept and affirm their identities. Ursinus can provide a safe space for students to engage in extracurricular activities that help them learn who they are and develop other elements of their identities through Ursinus Quest and the Open Questions.

Redefining Student Success: Beyond Basic Skills

The report "A New Day for Learning," recently released by the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force, argues that we must redefine the school day if we are to improve student achievement in the United States. The first element states that we must "redefine what student success means beyond the acquisition of basic skills, support the time it takes to experience success, and develop sophisticated ways to measure it."

Most Americans, I believe, would define student success as the ability of a student to support himself or herself in this society after completing the educational process. It's difficult to argue with the fact that the ability to support oneself economically is a goal of the educational process, but it is not the only goal. If it were, we would not need schools; we could easily achieve success by matching students with professional mentors and letting them learn on the job. Student success, I believe, means the ability to:

Understand the rights and responsibilities that allow us to function as contributing members of our democracy.
Cooperate and collaborate with others in work, social, and family settings.
Make independent decisions based on reasoning supported by facts gathered and analyzed by students.
Relate in a positive and constructive manner with family members and other members of the world community.
Take responsibility for one's own actions and act supportively and compassionately toward others.

It is not a sign of student success to score highly on an arbitrarily chosen standardized test, help beat a rival football, basketball, or wrestling team into submission, have every student specialize in science, technology, engineering, or math in order to beat the Chinese in the economic realm, or efficiently perform repetitive tasks in a factory setting.

The Student Success District: A Holistic Approach

Through modernizing existing buildings, and constructing an entirely new one, this project transforms this cluster of buildings into a unified and cohesive District that provides a centralized point of support for the entire student body. Prior to this project, the University of Arizona had a number of successful and rapidly growing programs dedicated to providing student support. Based on research, the school found that retention and graduation rates were significantly higher for the students who participated in these programs compared to their peer groups. However, these programs were scattered across campus in various buildings and in siloed buildings that were difficult to find or felt dark and unwelcoming.

In order to continue to grow and support a larger percentage of the student body, the University saw the impact that consolidating these resources would bring to the campus community. Mental health would be destigmatized. Wellness, celebrated. First-generation students would be given a roadmap for success. This groundbreaking addition to the university’s urban fabric provides seamless connections and space for student engagement, ultimately creating a single, unified district that broadens the definition of student support by integrating themes of physical and mental wellness to truly address student success. New entries were thus cut into the existing buildings using thin steel plate portals to “slice” through the facades and establish a language for the new circulation patterns. The openness and new passages - articulated by regional plants and foliage - create the opportunity for the outdoor shaded spaces to become rooms, of sorts, inviting those passing through to convene and socialize, or sit quietly to reflect.

This project converted the spaces dense with shelving to student collaboration space through the renovation of two floors of the Main Library and three floors of the Science Library. While the upper floors of both buildings remain dedicated to quiet individual study and collections, the ground levels of these buildings are intended to expand the concept of the Library beyond study carrels and book stacks.

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