Every week, EduNav rounds up three must-read articles about student success. The trends that they highlight, challenges they explore, and innovative thinking that they spotlight inspire us every day as we work to help our college and university partners meet their student success goals. On our must-read list this week: extending student success accountability, boosting transfer enrollment, and funding digital learning.
Trustees’ accountability should extend beyond institutional fiscal health, says Chancellor Emeritus of North Carolina Central University
“Whatever the myriad definitions of success, we must admit that student access without success is hollow. We can and must do better for those who will shape our world, in generations to come,” ends Dr. Charlie Nelms’ call for trustees to be held accountable for student success, which was published by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education early last month. Dr. Nelms calls on his long career as a university chancellor at multiple institutions to pose ten key questions that he sees as integral to keeping institutional leadership focused on what matters when it comes to truly making a difference for their students.
Transfer enrollment is down across all institutions and types of students. Could this help?
“Independent colleges represent an area of promise in improving transfer and helping more students earn the bachelor’s degree that is key to lifelong success,” shares Eric Spina, President of the University of Dayton, in a recent opinion piece published by University Business. The higher ed leader, who is also an American Talent Initiative steering committee member and National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Vice Chair, calls for college administrators, lawmakers, thought leaders — all stakeholders who are looking for solutions to close the widening affordability and enrollment gap — to recommit to community college transfer as a foundational strategy for achieving all-important student success goals.
Have California community colleges fully recovered from the pandemic? No, says this past president of the California Community Colleges Board of Governors
Tom Epstein thinks community colleges in his home state still have a long way to go, especially comparing the significant progress that these two-year institutions were making toward boosting completion rates and closing equity gaps before COVID struck. There’s hope, though, according to Epstein in his EdSource commentary — California community colleges may have been ill equipped to transfer courses completely online at the start of the pandemic, but two years later have seen great improvements in this modality. To continue to take advantage of the many opportunities brought about by the shakeup of the last two years, Epstein suggests the state focus on funding broadband access and internet services to ensure no student is left behind as we lean into digital learning.