2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10
#3: Smoothing the Student Journey

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A lot of effort goes into applying, enrolling, learning, and earning a credential at a higher education institution. Students must use many institutional services and have countless interactions with faculty, staff, and systems. The student journey is complicated, and students have very little idea of what it entails. Student services can help simplify and accelerate the journey, but they can also make it complicated and confusing. Students should be able to focus on their educational goals and experiences without having to worry about which documentation they need to submit to whom and at what time. They should be able to get the help and resources they need and know where to go when they need special resources or extra support. The academic work may be challenging, but the administrative work should be dead easy. Student services leaders are collaborating with IT and other functional stakeholders to rethink and modernize services so they contribute to, rather than impede, students' success.

The Promise

Helping more students succeed. Regardless of what the student's journey entails, technology can help to smooth it out and data and analytics can be leveraged to make interactions with students more personal and targeted. Over time, institutions can learn what works best and what to avoid. This might help reduce some of the inequality across student populations.

Modernizing students' experiences. Although the Amazon.com experience—where users can access almost anything they want through a single entry point—is still out of reach for most institutions, digital leaders can nonetheless use technology and data to update and improve students' interactions with the institution.

Appealing to prospective students. Student success professionals know which kinds of students the institution can best serve. Improved student services can not only benefit existing students, but they can also be featured during recruitment.

Simplifying transitions across institutions. Fully integrating technology applications within the institution and collaborating with educational systems and consortia to simplify data transfers could both simplify students' transitions—whether from secondary to postsecondary education or from two-year to four-year institutions, whether immediately or after a pause of several years—and help institutions better understand students' trajectory.

Better serving students at a distance. Great digital student services are especially important for institutions with a limited or no physical campus, or those that provide digital-only educational options.

More targeted and economical investments. Rather than designing and scaling services for a generalized use case to apply to everyone, institutions can identify who actually needs which services and scale their delivery accordingly.

The Key to Progress

Structure yourself for success. Find a good partner to help, whether it's another institution that's done this work well and can advise you, or a business partner that understands higher education. Identify a trusted person at the institution to lead the work to ensure ongoing accountability and responsibility. Support that leader with a strong attainable vision, an empowered governance structure, and the right cross-functional teams to collaboratively plan and execute the work.

QuickTakes

Understand the institutional commitments that are required before you begin. Will the institutional culture embrace or resist new services and service levels? Do units have sufficient staff with the needed skills? How much will the desired future disrupt the present? Leaders need to understand the maturity level of the institution and its capacity for transformation and may need to improve those first.

Involve students. Know where students are in their journey and what they need, and meet them there. Institutions that used the pandemic as an opportunity to implement new structures for understanding and adapting to students on an ongoing basis will have an advantage.

Don't oversimplify the work. Transforming student services requires a holistic view of the cross-organizational processes and the data flows throughout the institution, as well as an understanding of how the digital experience platform will bring them together.

Small is smooth. Demonstrate what is possible quickly by starting with a small, achievable project.

Beware of short-term economizing. Using technology and data to improve and personalize student services takes time and money. Leaders may not feel the institution can afford this work. But in the long-term, institutions that can't serve students seamlessly and effectively may find themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage.

Get your data act together. Data quality is a major challenge. Data needs to be accurate, single-source, and well managed. Institutions without data governance should begin working on it. Institutions that are more decentralized may struggle the most because their data is absolutely everywhere, and different units will have conflicting versions and definitions of the same kinds of data.

Find the right balance between security and privacy and service quality. Adding more systems and services that rely on students' data may improve services but increase institutional and individual risk. Institutions that are already struggling to adequately resource cybersecurity and privacy will have the most difficulty. Many of the existing digital experience platforms and solutions are in the cloud and managed externally, so prospective buyers should pay close attention to third-party solution providers' adherence to cybersecurity and privacy compliance frameworks and requirements.

Do no harm. Information is powerful. Avoid the temptation to use information gleaned from data in ways that benefit the institution but disadvantage the student. For example, admissions officers mustn't deprioritize applicants whom the data may suggest will have lower educational outcomes or require more institutional resources.

Ask Yourself

How do we use technology to make student services better and more personal, while keeping the human connections and serendipitous interactions that the higher education community values so highly?

The Bottom Line

The most successful institutions will shift from reactive, transactional student services to proactive, relational support systems. By leveraging technology to anticipate and address student needs before they become obstacles, institutions can transform student services from an administrative necessity into a key driver of student success.

Data Point

The top motivating factor for institutions' strategic efforts toward analytics is "improving student success and outcomes" (at 81 percent).^Footnote1

From Strategy to Practice

What You're Saying

"We're still working on making the 'Amazon' of experiences for students. We've made excellent progress on many fronts."

"We badly need to modernize (i.e., make everything accessible by phone) and systematize what we're doing."

"Reduce friction and live these moments of truth for yourself. If you find them frustrating, change them."

"Our students are coming to campus more technically savvy than ever, having grown up on Google Classroom in K–12. But their experience with disjointed systems in higher education is causing angst. We need to make sure the experience is consistent and secure."

"Students in this decade expect personalized services. We are a bit hamstrung by the fact that major ERP SIS vendors are still stuck in the last century in terms of the usefulness of their products in this regard. This leads to a lot of localized 'boutique' development efforts, which are not sustainable."

"This area maps to the demands of the students. To maintain and expand enrollment, we must meet the challenges of a diverse environment."

"Still lagging here. Degree audit and Navigate don't seem to cut it, and we make the journey too hard with too many requirements and too few electives. Need to implement build your own degrees."

"Students have enough trouble with classes and learning; they don't need to be annoyed with bureaucracies and IT rules and regulations. Make the journey as clear and simple as possible, letting them focuses on their classes."

Solution Spotlights

"We mapped out the student journeys about four years ago, establishing seven key journeys that have since become the foundational use cases for all our implementations. From integrating Slate for enrollment to generating reports in Argos, these journeys continue to guide our processes and ensure consistency."

George Claffey, Central Connecticut State University

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"Thomas More University of Applied Sciences developed the "study compass." This AI tool is utilized to assess the risk of first-year students dropping out by comparing their patterns with historical data of past first-year dropouts. We provide study coaches with prediction models and student profiles for a clearer understanding of their students. The study coaches then reach out to students through the Study Compass, out of concern and a desire to ensure their well-being; there is no aim to challenge them about any potential negative results reflected in the Study Compass. The results from the Study Compass are the starting point for conversations, guidance, and support for study coaches to guide their students toward study success."

Mia De Wilde, Thomas More University College, Belgium

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"We aim to leverage Salesforce to streamline and enhance the student journey by defining personalized pathways and utilizing Marketing Cloud triggers to deliver timely, relevant information across preferred channels. This initiative requires cross-departmental collaboration to refine and develop new processes and guidelines."

 Elizabeth Rugg, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

What You're Working On

Comments provided by Top 10 survey respondents who rated this issue as important

AI

• Investing in AI technologies to support student services and student health.
• Enhanced SIS with AI capabilities to help monitor student progress and well-being.

Analytics

• Research the use of data-lake-house to support data mining and provide greater insight and targeted service provision.

Automation

• We have created the first major AI process-improvement project. We have automated the entire transcript process between the Ellucian Banner system and Salesforce using artificial intelligence. This allowed us to reduce the average time of a transcript from eleven days to twenty-eight seconds. More importantly, this major process improvement allows us to do other process improvements across the campus with confidence. This is a breakthrough in so many ways and helps the forty-five-year-old student information system appear more valid in the 21st century.
• Implementing online system for forms submissions.

Comprehensive approach

• The institution is taking varied steps along these lines. We're making a strong investment in predictive analytics and student retention CRM technology to help the student by providing targeted services to their situation. It also includes a modern student portal implemented in 2024 to replace the original portal that went live in 2013. This is coupled with a modernized smart classroom experience, better academic wireless capacity, a growing laptop loaner program, and easier-to-use virtual face-to-face helpdesk support.
• The university is developing a student experience modernization initiative that uses technology and data to improve and personalize student services. This initiative aims to create a seamless and integrated experience for students from admission to graduation and beyond. By leveraging data analytics, artificial intelligence, and automation, the university will be able to provide more timely and relevant support, guidance, and feedback to students, empowering them to make informed decisions and achieve their goals. The student experience modernization initiative will also enhance the engagement and collaboration among students, faculty, and staff, and foster a sense of belonging and community within the university.

Enrollment

• Developing custom in-house software to support our recruitment process as well as managing transfer credit applications.
• A tiger team is reviewing and changing our student enrollment process.

Housing management

• Purchasing a new housing management replacement application so that customers will have a more effective interface.

Improved communications

• Enhanced communication through various methods, including more personalized messages and better access to data.

Mobile experience improvement

• Campus app developed on the Rokwire open-source platform.
• Implementing Salesforce Education Cloud and integrating systems to provide a mobile first experience.

Portal

• Implemented a new portal for students on campus from Pathify for a new portal for students.
• We are implementing a new university portal to improve student services and the student experience.
• Further improvement and use of the university portal.
• We will be focusing on continuous improvement to roll out new features for our portal that just went live to push more relevant information into students' hands. We're also implementing Banner SaaS, which will be more user-friendly and support better processes.

Service integrations

• Utilizing EAB Navigate SSO to integrate several services for students through our campus portal. Also implemented Telus Mental Health app for students to access personalized counselors (multiple languages, specialized services) online at just-in-time need.

Social media platform

• Piloting an internal social media platform for incoming students to engage with each other before they arrive.

Student journeys

• Student digital pathway strategy program.
• Large investment in CRM to build student journeys to increase student engagement and keep them on track for success.
• Ellucian's Ethos architecture will support the student journey with analytics.
• Continuously focusing on improving the student journey. Consolidating technology systems and providing a central solution for students to leverage, making their journeys smoother.
• Using systems that are improving our interfaces so students have a simpler overall experience.
• Revisiting the student journey to determine friction points and then developing plans to address the issues.
• We know the lessons of the pandemic include projecting ourselves into the digital world where students live instead of expecting them to navigate the analog spaces where we work. To do this, we must design that experience. It must be dynamic, immersive, and opportunistic, reflecting our values but demonstrating their needs. We have formed a team to build this capability through mobile with those means in mind.

Student success

• The institutional research office is constantly researching the programs and initiatives at the college that make a difference to students in order to create an impact on retention and graduation. We offer loaner devices to students who don't have any. We offer Wi-Fi hotspots free of charge to students who need them.
• Implementing a new student success network comprised of staff, procedures, and technology to stay better connected to students.
• We have several initiatives that monitor student progress to alert students to actions to take for a greater chance of success.

System modernization

• The college is heavily invested in reducing tech debt and sprawl. Part of this is replacing outdated (legacy) systems that no longer meet our needs and replacing them with innovative solutions that greatly enhance the student experience; e.g., our student portal, application, CRM, and advising systems.
• Leveraging our use of Salesforce, along with SIS and third-party data, to improve recruitment activities. Implementing Stellic and leverage EAB Navigate for current students.
• Taking advantage of and implementing SIS capabilities that deliver a personalized user experience to our students that help them navigate digital aspect of their college experience.
• We are currently in a Salesforce launch. Personalization for students, via personal portals, will be available second semester, 2024–2025.
• ERP conversion.
• Enhancing our student app and working to deploy Workday Student.
• We expect to achieve this through implementations of Workday Student and Salesforce Student Success. We are currently improving Current state our use of ServiceNow to address student services.
• Implementing the campus-wide CRM strategy.
• Modern student planner, EAB, CRM for prospect and recruitment.

Teaching and learning

• We're developing fully online programs, not just classes.
• Embracing the use of AI as encouraged by our Academic Technology Services department as well as by my faculty peers, I was able to create in-class use of AI tasks that related to existing course content. Students became familiar with many print, video, graphics, research, and writing tools in support of their career focus as it related to our course. This exercise introduced them to ethical challenges, data ownership, and copyright concerns, which in turn allowed them to think through how best to use AI to support their academic assignments. We discussed how important these skills are in the workplace and to expect/answer job interview questions on the topic. One graduating senior interviewed for a government position requiring a high-level security clearance and was asked many questions on the topic of. She was hired and told her AI answers and knowledge set her apart from all the other applicants.
• Creation of the student "passport" to enable teaching and learning.

Note

1. Nicole Muscanell, 2024 EDUCAUSE Analytics Landscape Study, (EDUCAUSE, September 2024). Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩

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Nath Czechowski is Chief Information Officer at University of South Wales.

Mark Johnston is Director of IT at University of Glasgow.

Ed Kelty is Chief Information Officer at Finger Lakes Community College.

Felix Zuñiga is Campus Engagement Partner at The California State University, Office of the Chancellor.