Tag: Success

“Say My Name, Say My Name”: Why Learning Names Improves Student Success – Faculty Focus

“Yes, Iris,” my Chicana/o Studies Professor spouted as he acknowledged my raised hand for a comment about the reading. “He knows my name?” I thought distractedly as I tried to refocus on the thought I had wanted to share. Attending a university with over 20,000 students, and class sizes often ranging from 200 to 600 students, I wasn’t used to my professors knowing me by name. I wasn’t used to my professor even knowing I existed aside from a percentage in a gradebook. I sat up a little taller in class, became more attentive, and sought to improve my writing skills over the quarter. Could the simple act of an educator knowing their student’s name change the trajectory of the student’s learning and perhaps their overall perception of the course? Research suggests yes.

In a study conducted by Cooper et al. (2017), 85.4% of the students surveyed stated that it was important for their instructors to know their names. When asked why this was important, the most common replies centered on feeling valued. The results also indicated that students whose names were known were more likely to seek help from the instructor and that they felt more invested in the course. What this tells us is that by using a student’s name, we are validating their existence and contribution to the class, and in turn, they feel more invested and motivated to do well or to seek help.

Now that we know learning students’ names is a simple yet powerful tool for building rapport and improving learning outcomes, how exactly do we remember all their names?

1. Name Tents

Yes, those little folded pieces of cardstock with a person’s name written on them. These can be your golden ticket to calling a student by name and, hopefully, in the process, eventually committing it to memory. Interestingly enough, some research suggests that a percentage of students with name tents perceive that their name is known by the teacher when in fact, it is not. Ergo, simply calling on a student by name using their name tent as an aid can improve the student’s perception of how much a teacher cares (Cooper et al., 2017). So, ask your students to bust out those markers and glitter and get creative.

2. Self-Quizzing

When we discuss evidence-based practices that enhance the learning and retention of materials taught, we inevitably emphasize the importance of self-quizzing. Well, now is your time to put all that teaching into practice. Most schools will have a student photo associated with the student on their learning platform. Use this as a tool to quiz yourself by covering up the student’s name when looking at their photo and trying to guess their name. Practice, practice, practice.

3. Chunking

If your students sit in rows, use the time before class or during breaks to go through one row of students’ names. Do this each class time. Breaking up the number of names you need to commit to memory into chunks of 7-9 students increases your likelihood of storing that information as short-term memory with the hopes that it transfers to long-term memory (“How Memory Works,” n.d.).

4. Get Creative

Create an assignment at the beginning of the course where students upload creative content about their name to their learning platform. This can take the form of visual art, video, audio, or writing, allowing them to express their name and, if they choose, share its meaning or a personal story related to it. Make this content available to their fellow students as well by posting it to a forum or discussion board, as this can be a helpful tool for students to learn their classmates’ names.

Conclusion

While there are many methods for improving student engagement and building rapport, learning students’ names is a great way to start. Some practical tools for learning names can simplify this process and reduce the cognitive load on faculty. The results are typically mutually beneficial, with students feeling appreciated and thereby contributing more, and faculty gaining insight into students’ perspectives and having “buy-in” of course content and assignments.

Iris Villanueva, DMSc, PA-C, is a Professor for the Physician Assistant (PA) Program at the University of the Pacific and a practicing PA. She is passionate about providing holistic and compassionate patient care while also equipping the next generation of PAs with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive. Her current research focuses on understanding how physician assistant students perceive burnout and on developing strategies that promote student wellness.

Dr. Julia VanderMolen is a Professor for the Public Health program at Grand Valley State University and a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor with the University of the Pacific, School of Health Sciences. Her research examines the benefits of assistive technology for individuals with disabilities in public health. She serves as a board member of the Disability Advocates of Kent County and is an active member of the Disability Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Her current research focuses on exploring the health and medical services available to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

References

Cooper, K., Haney, B., Krieg, A., & Brownell, S.E. (2017). What’s in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrollment biology classroom. CBE life sciences education, 16(1), ar8. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265

Derek Bok Center, Harvard University (n.d.). How Memory Works. https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/how-memory-works (Access the article here: https://www.scribd.com/document/700827279/how-memory-works)

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January 9, 2026
“Say My Name, Say My Name”: Why Learning Names Improves Student Success – Faculty Focus

“Yes, Iris,” my Chicana/o Studies Professor spouted as he acknowledged my raised hand for a comment about the reading. “He knows my name?” I thought distractedly as I tried to refocus on the thought I had wanted to share. Attending a university with over 20,000 students, and class sizes often ranging from 200 to 600 students, I wasn’t used to my professors knowing me by name. I wasn’t used to my professor even knowing I existed aside from a percentage in a gradebook. I sat up a little taller in class, became more attentive, and sought to improve my writing skills over the quarter. Could the simple act of an educator knowing their student’s name change the trajectory of the student’s learning and perhaps their overall perception of the course? Research suggests yes.

In a study conducted by Cooper et al. (2017), 85.4% of the students surveyed stated that it was important for their instructors to know their names. When asked why this was important, the most common replies centered on feeling valued. The results also indicated that students whose names were known were more likely to seek help from the instructor and that they felt more invested in the course. What this tells us is that by using a student’s name, we are validating their existence and contribution to the class, and in turn, they feel more invested and motivated to do well or to seek help.

Now that we know learning students’ names is a simple yet powerful tool for building rapport and improving learning outcomes, how exactly do we remember all their names?

1. Name Tents

Yes, those little folded pieces of cardstock with a person’s name written on them. These can be your golden ticket to calling a student by name and, hopefully, in the process, eventually committing it to memory. Interestingly enough, some research suggests that a percentage of students with name tents perceive that their name is known by the teacher when in fact, it is not. Ergo, simply calling on a student by name using their name tent as an aid can improve the student’s perception of how much a teacher cares (Cooper et al., 2017). So, ask your students to bust out those markers and glitter and get creative.

2. Self-Quizzing

When we discuss evidence-based practices that enhance the learning and retention of materials taught, we inevitably emphasize the importance of self-quizzing. Well, now is your time to put all that teaching into practice. Most schools will have a student photo associated with the student on their learning platform. Use this as a tool to quiz yourself by covering up the student’s name when looking at their photo and trying to guess their name. Practice, practice, practice.

3. Chunking

If your students sit in rows, use the time before class or during breaks to go through one row of students’ names. Do this each class time. Breaking up the number of names you need to commit to memory into chunks of 7-9 students increases your likelihood of storing that information as short-term memory with the hopes that it transfers to long-term memory (“How Memory Works,” n.d.).

4. Get Creative

Create an assignment at the beginning of the course where students upload creative content about their name to their learning platform. This can take the form of visual art, video, audio, or writing, allowing them to express their name and, if they choose, share its meaning or a personal story related to it. Make this content available to their fellow students as well by posting it to a forum or discussion board, as this can be a helpful tool for students to learn their classmates’ names.

Conclusion

While there are many methods for improving student engagement and building rapport, learning students’ names is a great way to start. Some practical tools for learning names can simplify this process and reduce the cognitive load on faculty. The results are typically mutually beneficial, with students feeling appreciated and thereby contributing more, and faculty gaining insight into students’ perspectives and having “buy-in” of course content and assignments.

Iris Villanueva, DMSc, PA-C, is a Professor for the Physician Assistant (PA) Program at the University of the Pacific and a practicing PA. She is passionate about providing holistic and compassionate patient care while also equipping the next generation of PAs with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive. Her current research focuses on understanding how physician assistant students perceive burnout and on developing strategies that promote student wellness.

Dr. Julia VanderMolen is a Professor for the Public Health program at Grand Valley State University and a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor with the University of the Pacific, School of Health Sciences. Her research examines the benefits of assistive technology for individuals with disabilities in public health. She serves as a board member of the Disability Advocates of Kent County and is an active member of the Disability Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA). Her current research focuses on exploring the health and medical services available to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

References

Cooper, K., Haney, B., Krieg, A., & Brownell, S.E. (2017). What’s in a name? The importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their names in a high-enrollment biology classroom. CBE life sciences education, 16(1), ar8. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265

Derek Bok Center, Harvard University (n.d.). How Memory Works. https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/how-memory-works (Access the article here: https://www.scribd.com/document/700827279/how-memory-works)

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January 9, 2026
Doing the “Data Work” in Student Success

The latest episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast, features a discussion between higher ed leaders and IHE editor in chief Sara Custer on how colleges can harness data to better support students.

Speaking at the Student Success 2025 event in November, Courtney Brown, vice president of strategic impact and planning at the Lumina Foundation; Elliot Felix, higher education advisory practice lead at Buro Happold; and Mark Milliron, president of National University, offered unique perspectives to the question of how institutions can be data-driven and student-centered.

“You are not going to serve a student population well unless you do your data work,” said Milliron. The “data work” includes establishing good data governance and data mapping, building a data warehouse, and facilitating data integration across support platforms such as a learning management system and student information systems, he said.

Putting processes and best practice in place is what allowed National to expand its capacity, he said. “I don’t think we could’ve scaled some of the strategies we’ve done unless we did the plumbing work upfront.”

On the question of scale, Felix encouraged institutions to combine their resources to serve more students. “How many institutions are creating their own, bespoke AI policy when they can do [it] as a group or borrow from Educause? There are so many ways to work together to go farther, to go faster.”

While colleges might be teeming with data, Felix encouraged institutions to look at external sources to gain a clearer picture of students’ learning journeys. “I do think more data beyond the walls—employer data, labor market data, employment outcomes—would be really helpful.”

Meanwhile, Brown argued that the needs of the modern-day student are varied and institutions must adapt to their students, rather than students adapting to colleges. Institutions that use data to understand whom today’s students are will be better placed to support their success, she said. “[Students] are parents, they are working, they are financially independent from their own parents. But most policymakers and others don’t think about that. So we need to understand who they are and then transform the system to better serve [them].”

Listen to the full episode here.

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January 8, 2026
Scaffolding for Success in a Crash Course – Faculty Focus

As the lead professor for a clinical crash course with 50 students, 16 weeks to cover almost every bone in the body and limited machinery, it is important for my students to be self-directed learners. “Self-directed learning can be defined as the outcome of creating an experience that empowers learners to make decisions about the information they want to become proficient in” (Robinson et al, 2020). The difficulty with teaching undergraduate students, whose ages range from 18 to 47 years old is that self-directed learning may be perceived as me not wanting to put in more effort to teach the students. Still, given the volume of information covered in the course and the number of students, it is inevitable that students will need to engage in self-directed learning and learn how to effectively utilize the resources at their disposal to succeed in the course.

So, how do I properly prepare these students to effectively utilize their resources, especially since many are first-time students? I use scaffolding and repetition while being cautious of unconscious bias.

Scaffolding and How to Use it in Your Classroom

“Scaffolding is a classroom teaching technique in which instructors deliver lessons in distinct segments, providing less and less support as students master new concepts or material. Much like scaffolding on a building, this technique is meant to provide students with a framework for learning as they build and strengthen their understanding” (Nance, 2022). In the context of Radiologic Technology education, the foundation of learning positioning is understanding medical terminology and human anatomy.

In the first week, I provide PowerPoint slides. Using those slides, I lecture on medical terminology and important anatomical terms that will be used for the rest of the semester and during their time as working technologists. From that point, I begin teaching body part by body part each week moving forward, utilizing and emphasizing the use of medical terminology. After revising the course and teaching this class for three years, it is a fact that some students understand the material right away, some need more time, and some require significant guidance. The average time that it takes most students to begin understanding the time commitment to learn this much material and be successful is around week 7 of the 16 week course. At that point, I encourage the student’s independence in finding resources outside of the course to help them succeed, such as YouTube and radiography websites. I continue to make myself available for them, but the expectations for the course are well understood at this point, and students know what resources are available to them to help them succeed. This allows me to give less instruction and less intervention, thus successfully applying the method of scaffolding.

First Week Steps

In the first week, I give the students a foundation of knowledge and help them become familiar with the class by setting expectations of the knowledge they need to acquire each week and the positioning and critical thinking skills they must possess. Depending on the class, between week five and seven, I begin stepping back and allowing the students to become more independent since they know the expectations of the class and the knowledge and skills they need to possess or develop. This is how I utilize scaffolding in my classroom.

Repetition

“When stimuli are learned by repetition, they are remembered better and retained for a longer time” (Zhan et al, 2018). Repetition is not solely asking the same question over and over again. It is asking the same question or reviewing the same concept while utilizing various methods or verbiage so students not only remember the answer but understand the concept. When giving directions, it is essential to repeat the directions so students follow them. When teaching a concept, it is essential to repeat the same question in different ways to promote understanding and memorization of that concept. In my course, students learn anatomical planes. When teaching the midsagittal plane, I ask students questions about the midsagittal plane, how it may relate to the image receptor on a posteroanterior (PA) chest x-ray, how it may relate to the image receptor on a lateral chest x-ray, what the difference is between the midcoronal and midsagittal plane, and more. These are different methods of asking the same question to ensure they fully understand the concept and how it relates to the positioning.

The Importance of Understanding Unconscious Bias

“Unconscious biases (also known as implicit biases) are involuntary stereotypes or attitudes held about certain groups of people that may influence our behaviors, understandings, and actions, often with unintended detrimental consequences” (Ogunleye, 2022). As a higher education teacher, there is a level of professionalism, etiquette, and understanding that I believe students had when I was in college and that I believe students should have. It is important to understand that not all students come from the same background or were afforded the same luxuries of education and that as instructors, it is our duty to instruct our students to the level we believe they should be at or to help them obtain the resources that will help them achieve the level that college students who are successful in this program should be at. In this case, we can provide more guidance and support at the beginning of their education journey, then slowly scale back as they reach the level, also utilizing the concept of scaffolding.

Dr. Ryan Gregory Garcia is a Radiologic Technology Instructor at Cypress College and a Radiologic Technologist at an orthopedic clinic. Dr. Garcia is an active member of the Association of Educators in Imaging and Radiologic Sciences (AEIRS) and is passionate about improving the quality of didactic and clinical education in the radiologic sciences field.

References

Adam Nance. (2022). 7 scaffolding learning strategies for the classroom. University of San Diego – Professional & Continuing Education. https://pce.sandiego.edu/scaffolding-in-education-examples/

Ogunleye, T. A. (2022). Unconscious Bias. Dermatologic Clinics, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.det.2022.08.003

Robinson, J. D., & Persky, A. M. (2020). Developing self-directed learners. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 84(3), 847512.

‌Zhan, L., Guo, D., Chen, G., & Yang, J. (2018). Effects of Repetition Learning on Associative Recognition Over Time: Role of the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12(1).

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January 7, 2026
Graduate careers and employability are now fundamental to institutional success

Higher education institutions are navigating one of the most complex operating environments in their history.

Financial pressure, demographic change, regulatory scrutiny, political scepticism, and shifting student expectations are no longer episodic challenges, they are structural conditions. One function increasingly sits at the centre of institutional success and risk: careers and employability.

Graduate outcomes are no longer a background metric; they shape league tables, influence recruitment, inform regulatory judgements, and increasingly underpin public and political confidence in higher education. But their significance goes far beyond compliance. Careers and employability are now where strategy, regulation, and student experience collide.

From bolt-on to backbone

For many years, professional careers work in higher education was framed – often unconsciously – as a support service operating at the margins of the academic project. Careers services were unfairly characterised as cardigans and chamomile in a cupboard in a quiet corner of campus. Valuable, certainly, but supplementary. That framing could not be further from the truth today.

Over the last 15 years we have seen a wide range of regulatory changes in HE (particularly in England) including the Teaching Excellence Framework, the tightening of access and participation regulation, the Graduate Outcomes survey, or the debate around fees. In practice, this has shifted careers and employability from the periphery to the core of institutional performance.

Careers teams are now the heartbeat of access and participation commitments, facilitating and supporting curriculum design and assessment, driving progression outcomes, and at the intersection of institutional risk and reputation.They are shaping the conditions under which universities can evidence quality, value, and legitimacy.

More than a metric

It is understandable that the sector has been wary of graduate outcomes being reduced to a blunt proxy for value. But rejecting the importance of outcomes altogether is neither realistic nor desirable. Graduate outcomes matter because graduates matter, and graduate destinations are not just a metric; they are a test of purpose. Every regulatory data point represents a graduate life shaped by institutional choices about curriculum, opportunity, support, and inclusion.

Careers and employability professionals work in that space every day, translating learning into identity, helping students navigate uncertainty, and addressing structural inequalities that regulation increasingly demands institutions confront.This is skilled, strategic work. It requires data literacy, policy fluency, pedagogical understanding, and deep employer insight.

One of the clearest lessons of the regulatory environment is that employability cannot be “fixed” by a single team. No careers service, however strong, can alone address continuation risks, differential outcomes, or progression gaps rooted in curriculum design, assessment practice, or institutional culture. Contemporary careers and employability requires academics embedding employability meaningfully into learning, scalable work-based learning opportunities, aligned systems and student support, senior leadership expectation setting and accountability and employers as partners.

As Lisa-Dionne Morris put it at our Annual Conference last year: “it takes a village to raise a child, and a whole university to make a student employable.” Careers services remain the engine room of this work, but they are most effective when employability is treated as a strategic, institution-wide endeavour, not a delegated function.

Public confidence, political scrutiny, and the graduate narrative

Beyond regulation, careers and employability now sit at the heart of a wider reputational challenge for higher education. Public confidence in universities has been strained by debates about value for money, fairness, and relevance. Graduate outcomes, rightly or wrongly, have become a proxy for these concerns.

This is why the creation and fulfilling of opportunity features so prominently in the current Universities UK work on HE reputation in society. Careers and employability offer one of the most tangible, human responses to scepticism: evidence that higher education enables social mobility, economic participation, and meaningful contribution.

This is not about reducing education to salary metrics. It is about demonstrating that universities help people build sustainable lives and purposeful futures. These are outcomes that matter to individuals, communities, and policymakers alike. This is why the vast majority of our members got into this line of work, and what motivates them to succeed.

A moment of change

Over the past year, the professional community supporting this work has been reflecting deeply on its future. Through a large-scale listening exercise, careers and employability professionals made their views clear: the work has evolved, expectations have risen, and the structures supporting it need to evolve too. That reflection has led to a significant moment of renewal.

AGCAS (The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services) is becoming the Graduate Futures Institute. This change reflects a broader shift in how careers and employability are understood and positioned. The new name signals our holistic focus on graduate futures – not just immediate graduate destinations, an inclusive view of who contributes to graduate success and a commitment to impact, leadership and quality.

It recognises that careers and employability are not ancillary to university success – they are fundamental to it.

Careers leadership is institutional leadership

One of the most striking changes in recent years has been the role of careers leaders themselves. They now operate at the intersection of regulation, pedagogy, strategy, and performance. They advise on risk, shape institutional narratives, and increasingly sit at tables where decisions about quality, investment, and accountability are made. This is why leadership development and collective voice matter so much in this space.

The Graduate Futures Institute exists to support that leadership; equipping practitioners to engage confidently with policy, influence institutional strategy, and articulate the value of their work in a regulatory environment that demands clarity and evidence.

Universities are unlikely to see regulatory pressure ease in the near future. If anything, expectations around outcomes, value, and accountability will intensify. In that context, careers and employability are a strategic asset to be invested in, not a reputational risk to be managed.

Graduate Futures Institute members will make that strategic intent a reality. They connect students to opportunity, institutions to purpose, and regulation to lived experience. If universities are serious about success, then they must be serious about careers and employability.

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January 6, 2026
8 Types Of Management Teams (Plus Tips For Success)
There are many types of teams you can find in a work setting depending on the type of industry you work in, the size of your business or the company’s preferences on teams in general. If you’re currently in a management position or are interested in becoming one, consider learning more about the different types of teams you can be a part of or manage. In this article, we discuss what a management team is and provide eight types of management teams you can find in the workplace.

What is a management team?

A management team is a group of individuals who work together in a company and collaborate to achieve a common goal. The supervisor of the team usually creates a list of tasks for each member to work on to complete the team’s objective. Although not every member of the team may have the same tasks to complete, the team’s overall goal is usually the same. Some management teams work within one department, while employers create other teams to function between departments. In addition, some have more than one supervisor and others work autonomously without one.

8 types of management teams

Here is a list of eight types of management teams you may see in the workplace:

1. Functional

A functional team, also known as an operational team, is the most common type found in an office setting. Generally, an office has multiple functional teams with a supervisor responsible for the people on their team. Accounting, marketing and human resources are all examples of functional teams you can find in an office. Members in this type of team may have different responsibilities, but all perform the same function of the department, such as finance or sales.

2. Cross-functional

Cross-functional teams, or inter-working teams, comprise individuals from different departments. These teams come together with the help of a supervisor to complete specific tasks that require knowledge in each of their fields of expertise. Cross-functional teams are useful when they’re completing a project that involves varying departments for it to be successful. Team members need to remember that each of them is there because of their experience and particular strengths, so it can be beneficial to collaborate and use each of their abilities to produce the best outcome for the team’s intended purpose.

3. Virtual

With more individuals working from home, virtual teams have become increasingly popular. They comprise individuals working from different locations who use video chats and collaborative tools to work toward a common goal. Some virtual teams include people who work from home, while other members of the group are still in the office but meet with the rest of the team virtually. Virtual teams can be functional or cross-functional depending on the purpose of the team.

It can be helpful to meet with your virtual team weekly to ensure everyone is in agreement about what tasks they’re working on and possible upcoming deadlines. In addition, it’s helpful for teams who work from a place other than the office to be involved in the company culture when possible so they feel a sense of connection with other employees despite not being in the physical location with their coworkers.

4. Self-managed

A self-managed team is a group of employees that take responsibility for their work through peer collaboration without the help of a manager. They may have different daily objectives, but their individual tasks align to form a shared goal. Many small businesses or startup companies begin with this team model. People in a self-managed team benefit from being able to take full ownership of their work and are generally very self-motivated.

5. Matrix

A matrix team occurs when a team has more than one supervisor. This type of team is more popularly used in businesses that share employees across different functions of the organization. It can be useful when creating a new project because the project manager can choose employees who perform different functions in the organization and bring them together on their team to work toward the common goal of completing the project. The employee then has two supervisors—the direct supervisor of their department and the project manager they’re working for on the project.

6. Contract

Contract teams are temporary teams that employers bring in on contract for the completion of a project. Members of a contract team are usually highly skilled in their field and come in to complete one aspect of an upcoming project. Once they’ve completed their portion, their contract ends and their work is no longer required.

7. Taskforce

A task force team is a group of employees used for investigating or solving a specific challenge in the workplace. Supervisors usually form this team when a specific event has occurred so that they can discuss options to improve the issue. The objective of the task force is to offer solutions and to create preventative measures for potential challenges. Types of issues that a task force may handle include bullying, improving employee training or increasing customer sales. Once they’ve found a solution, the team disbands until they’re needed again.

8. Executive management
An executive management team is the highest level of management within an organization. It comprises executives in a company who help the president and CEO make important decisions for the company’s benefit. The individuals in this team discuss ways to improve the financial security of their company as well as work toward ways to develop it internally. They set actionable steps for achieving the company’s goals and motivate those around them, such as supervisors and other employees.
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December 28, 2025
Not everyone goes home: why inclusive winter planning matters for student success
Author:

Fiona Ellison and Kate Brown

Published:

19 December 2025
This blog was kindly authored by Fiona Ellison and Kate Brown, Co-Directors, Unite Foundation.

It is the third blog in HEPI’s series with The Unite Foundation on how to best support care experienced and estranged students. You can find the first blog here and the second blog here.

Every December, universities flood inboxes with references to “going home” and “family time.” But thousands of students will not go home, because there is no home away from university to go to. For care experienced and estranged students, winter magnifies isolation, financial pressures and risk. This isn’t a welfare sidebar; it’s a retention issue, central to building a sense of belonging for this group of students.

The Unite Foundation supports All of Us – the UK-wide community for all care experienced and estranged students – where students can find friends who get it and allies to organise with. We know first-hand from students how challenging this time of year can be. That’s why we’re re-issuing our winter guide with practical examples of how you can support care experienced and estranged students this winter.

Why does it matter?

The – perhaps forgotten – Office for Students’ Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR) identified risks that disproportionately affect under‑represented groups – including care experienced and estranged students – across access, continuation, and progression. These include insufficient academic and personal support, mental health challenges, cost pressures, and lack of suitable accommodation. All of which were shown to be particularly key for care experienced and estranged students – and which ,as we approach the winter period, are even more at the forefront. There are even more reasons:

Three quick wins

Your institution’s winter break is a stress test for belonging. When libraries close, halls empty and festive messaging assumes family gatherings care experienced and estranged students can feel invisible. There are three foundational moves that every provider should implement immediately:

Mind your language – Drop “going home for Christmas” and family‑centric messaging; use inclusive language (“winter break,” “happy holidays”) across all channels.

Keep the place alive – Maintain open, warm spaces (library, SU, study hubs) with skeleton staff and programmed activities for residents; publish clear opening hours and what’s on.

Proactively signpost specifics – Put support routes (welfare, counselling, emergency contacts, hardship funds) in email signatures, posters and social media – not buried webpages.

Everyone’s role

Supporting care experienced and estranged students during the winter break isn’t just a widening participation problem – activity should run through everyone within the university. Here are a few suggestions of what you could be doing:

Academics: Make proactive check-ins part of your routine, ask students where they’ll be during the break and whether they need support. Clearly publish extenuating circumstances routes and deadlines, and consider scheduling optional study drop-ins for those staying on campus.

Estates and Library teams: Keep central, warm spaces open on a rota so students have somewhere to study and socialise. Publish opening hours well in advance and ensure signage at entrances makes this information visible.

Residence Life: Maintain a skeleton support service throughout the holiday period and actively include care experienced and estranged students in any events planned for international students, making it clear they are welcome.

Security: Brief your team on the heightened risks these students may face, such as harassment or stalking, and incorporate welfare checks into your holiday protocols.

Students’ Union: Organise inclusive social events to reduce loneliness, advertise them relentlessly across channels, and partner with local food banks or community projects to provide essential support.

Welfare, Counselling, and Mental Health services: Keep services running, even at reduced capacity, and promote crisis lines and emergency contacts prominently so students know help is available.

Widening Participation and APP leads: Ensure term-time employment opportunities continue into the break, name – a real person – as a designated contact for care experienced and estranged students.

We need everyone to be proactive with their intentions – could you forward this to three people to encourage them to take action?

Act now

If you’re a senior leader in your institution, how can you fund at least one visible, winter‑specific intervention? It could be a staffed warm hub, hardship vouchers, or a winter get-together.

Choose one immediate change and implement it this week. Whether it’s using inclusive language in your emails, ensuring a key space stays open, or adding support details to your signature, small actions make a big difference. Belonging is built through everyday signals of care.

Make sure students know about existing sources of communities. Connect peers to All of Us, the community for care experienced and estranged students. Peer networks reduce isolation and create a sense of solidarity – especially during the winter break when loneliness can peak.

If you’re working in higher education and want to explore this work more, so you’re not making last minute plans next year – why not join our HE Peer Professionals network – a member curated, termly meeting of fellow professionals.

When you’re thinking about going ‘home for Christmas’ have you thought about what you can do to support a home for care experienced and estranged students? Find out more about the wider work of the Unite Foundation and how we can support you through our Blueprint framework – to support your institution in building a safe and stable home for care experienced and estranged students, improving retention and attainment outcomes.
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December 19, 2025
Trends in higher education student success for 2026
The higher ed sector underwent rapid change in 2025, as leaders navigated new and evolving federal and state policy, emerging technologies and shifting employer expectations for graduates, all while responding to the diverse and pressing needs of students.

For practitioners, faculty, staff and administrators looking to impact student success in the new year, Inside Higher Ed identified 26 data points that outline the major trends of 2025 and those to watch out for in 2026.
1. 80 percent of college students rate the quality of their education as good or excellent, up 7 percentage points from 2024.
2. 83 percent of the class of 2023 remained enrolled for two terms and the national persistence rate rose to 77.6 percent, up from 74.8 percent in 2019.
3. Two-thirds of Americans say a four-year degree isn’t worth the cost because graduates leave without a specific job and with large amounts of debt.
4. Nearly 10 percent of incoming first-year students speak a first language other than English; of these students, approximately half are U.S. citizens.
5. One-third of students said they’re thriving, reporting high levels of success in relationships, self-esteem, purpose and optimism.
6. 15 percent of colleges are using AI for student advising and support; an additional 26 percent use genAI for predictive analytics in student performance and trends.&
7. 70 percent of Americans believe higher education is “going in the wrong direction” due to high costs, poor preparation for the job market and ineffective development of students’ life skills.
8. 62 percent of students said they have “very high” or “somewhat high” trust in their college or university; 11 percent rate their trust as “somewhat low” or “very low.”
9. 23 percent of stop-outs said they won’t re-enroll because they can’t afford upfront costs; 15 percent said they are already too burdened by student debt to re-enroll.
10. 45 percent of students want colleges to encourage faculty members to limit high-stakes exams to improve their academic success; 40 percent want to see stronger connections between classroom learning and their career goals.
11. 36 percent of students have not participated in any extracurricular or co-curricular experiences while in college; an additional 39 percent say they’re very involved in at least one activity.
12. 71 percent of students have experienced financial trouble while enrolled in college, and 68 percent said they ran out of money at least once since the start of the year.
13. 43 percent of students say they study in the evening, while 18 percent said they study at night.
14. 84 percent of students say they know when and whether to use generative artificial intelligence to help with their coursework; the majority attributed this knowledge to faculty instruction or syllabi language.
15. 24 percent of parenting students said they missed at least one day of class in the past semester due to a lack of childcare.
16. 71 percent of students said it was acceptable to shout down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus; 54 percent believe it’s acceptable to block other students from attending a campus speech.
17. International enrollment declined 1 percent in fall 2025, with 17 percent fewer new students coming to U.S. campuses this past fall.
18. As of August, 37 percent of students said federal actions to limit diversity, equity and inclusion have had no real impact on their college experience.
19. 57 percent of students said cost of living is “a major problem,” for college students today; 55 percent said mental health issues are a major problem, as well.
20. 49 percent of high school students who didn’t apply for FAFSA said they didn’t believe they qualified for aid.
21. 59 percent of Americans are in favor of awarding green cards to foreign students who graduate from American universities so they can work in the U.S.
22. 87 percent of Gen Z said they feel unprepared to succeed at work due to limited guidance, unclear paths to career from school and uncertainty about which skills matter most.
23. Two-thirds of college presidents are concerned about student mental health and well-being.
24. Only 44 percent of students say they know some information about post-graduation outcomes for alumni of their college or university; 11 percent say they’re not sure where to find this information.
25. 67 percent of students said they don’t use AI in their job searches; 29 percent said they avoid it because they have ethical concerns about using the tool.
26. 94 percent of employers think it’s equally important for colleges to prepare a skilled and educated workforce and to help students become informed citizens.
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December 19, 2025
How Excessive Phone Use Can Hinder Student Success
Many of today’s college students are digital natives, having grown up in a world dominated by cellphones, the internet, social media and rapid technological advancements.

Coming of age alongside smartphones, however, has been linked to high rates of mental health concerns among Gen Z. A 2024 brief by the National Center for Health Statistics found that half of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 spent four or more hours on screens per day, and those teens were more likely to experience anxiety or depression symptoms. In 2025, 32 percent of college students reported moderate or severe levels of anxiety and 37 percent said they experience moderate or severe depression, according to the Healthy Minds Study.

As a result, more primary and secondary schools are introducing phone-free policies to improve children’s interpersonal skills and mitigate the harms of social media on their developing brains.

At some colleges and universities, students, faculty and administrators have identified opportunities to encourage healthy device habits and promote student success.

By the numbers: Students, in large part, are aware of their heavy device use and its potential link to poor academic outcomes.

A fall 2025 survey by Echelon Insights found that 54 percent of U.S. students say they spend five hours or more on recreational screen time, including scrolling social media, streaming or gaming. Of those students, 18 percent say they spend over six hours on their devices doing non–coursework-related tasks.

Another 2025 study of smartphone use surveyed students in the U.K. and found that among young adults aged 18 to 22, 73 percent spend more than four hours on their phone each day. Over three in four students also believe their smartphone negatively impacts their academic performance.

Finding ways to unplug, however, is difficult.

One research study from San Jose State University found that students who logged daily social media use reported a slight decrease in overall screen time over the course of a month, but simply monitoring screen time didn’t change the students’ high internet use. A Northwestern study of Americans who deactivated their Facebook account found leaving the platform did improve their mental health, but many just spent their time on other platforms rather than go offline entirely.

DIY: A 2023 survey of college students found that over 80 percent of respondents believe colleges and universities should do more to support breaks from technology. For practitioners looking to support students who are glued to their phones, other institutions and experts offer interventions that can encourage them to disconnect from devices.
- Encourage sleep. Excessive screen time is linked to poor health outcomes; it has been shown to disrupt students’ sleep and energy levels as well as their emotional health and cognition. First-year seminar instructors at the New York Film Academy require incoming students to complete a sleep log. Students track how many hours they sleep in a week, and the log provides a space for reflection and links healthy habits to academic and personal performance.
- Provide tech breaks. Fluid Focus’s survey of U.K. students found that 67 percent of students struggle to disconnect while they’re at home studying; an additional 16 percent said they have trouble disconnecting “during class.” Faculty and staff can help make it possible by assigning classroom activities that don’t require a device or creating phone-free class sessions.
- Establish phone-free environments. New York University’s president announced this fall that the university would implement device-free spaces, classes and events at campuses in New York, Shanghai and Abu Dhabi. Wyoming Catholic bans phones outright on campus; it also limits students’ internet access in the dorms to college emails and selected websites for class. Students leave their phones at the student life center and can check them out before they leave town.
- Support student leadership. The fear of missing out can also hinder students from spending less time on their smartphones, according to U.K. survey respondents. Some colleges and universities house student clubs that promote device-free engagement.
- Provide incentives. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Texas at Austin evaluated how an app that rewards students for staying off their phone during class could change behaviors. They found that app users were more likely to be focused, attend class and be satisfied with their academics, but weren’t necessarily more likely to study using the time saved by staying off their phone.
Do you have a wellness intervention that might help others promote student success? Tell us about it.
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December 18, 2025
OPINION: Workforce Pell can lead to good jobs for students if they get the support needed for long-term success

by Alexander Mayer, The Hechinger Report
December 16, 2025

Ohio resident Megan Cutright lost her hospitality job during the pandemic. At her daughter’s urging, she found her way to Lorain County Community College in Ohio and onto a new career path.

Community colleges will soon have a new opportunity to help more students like Megan achieve their career goals. Starting next summer, federal funds will be available through a program known as Workforce Pell, which extends federal aid to career-focused education and training programs that last between eight and 15 weeks.

Members of Congress advocating for Pell Grants to cover shorter programs have consistently highlighted Workforce Pell’s potential, noting that the extension will lead to “good-paying jobs.”

That could happen. But it will only happen if states and colleges thoughtfully consider the supports students need for success.

This is important, because helping students pay for workforce programs is not enough. They also need support and wraparound services, much like the kind Megan was offered at Lorain, where her program followed an evidence-based model known as ASAP that assigns each student a career adviser.

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Megan’s adviser “helped me from day one,” she said, in a story posted on the college’s website. “I told her I was interested in the radiologic technology program but that I had no idea where to start. We just did everything together.”

Megan went on to secure a job as an assistant in the radiology department at her local hospital, where she had interned as a student. She knew what steps she needed to take because her community college supported and advised her, using an evidence-backed practice, illustrating something we have learned from the experience of the community colleges that use the ASAP model: Support is invaluable.

Megan also knew that her path to a full-time position in radiologic technology required her to pass a licensure test — scheduled for four days after graduation.

The students who will enroll in Workforce Pell programs deserve the same careful attention. To ensure that Workforce Pell is effective for students, we should follow the same three critical steps that helped drive the expansion of ASAP and brought it to Megan’s college: (1) experiment to see what works, (2) collect and follow the data and (3) ensure that colleges learn from each other to apply what works.

Before ASAP was developed, the higher education community had some ideas about what might work to help students complete their degrees and get good jobs. When colleges and researchers worked together to test these ideas and gathered reliable data, though, they learned that those strategies only helped students at the margins.

There was no solid evidence about what worked to make big, lasting improvements in college completion until the City University of New York (CUNY) worked with researchers at MDRC to test ASAP and its combination of longer-lasting strategies. They kept a close eye on the data and learned that while some strategies didn’t produce big effects on their own, the combined ASAP approach resulted in significant improvements in student outcomes, nearly doubling the three-year college completion rate.

CUNY and MDRC shared what they learned with higher education leaders and policymakers, inspiring other community colleges to try out the model. Those colleges started seeing results too, and the model kept spreading. Today, ASAP is used in more than 50 colleges in seven states. And it’s paying off — in Ohio, for example, students who received ASAP services ended up earning significantly more than those who did not.

That same experimentation and learning mindset will be needed for Workforce Pell, because while short-term training can lead to good careers, it’s far from guaranteed.

For example, phlebotomy technician programs are popular, but without additional training or credentials they often don’t lead to jobs that pay well. Similarly, students who complete short-term programs in information technology, welding and construction-related skills can continue to acquire stackable credentials that substantially increase their earning potential, although that also doesn’t happen automatically. The complexity of the credentialing marketplace can make it impossible for students and families to assess programs and make good decisions without help.

Related: OPINION: Too many college graduates are stranded before their careers can even begin. We can’t let that happen

A big question for Workforce Pell will be how to make sure students understand how to get onto a career path and continue advancing their wider career aspirations. Workforce Pell grants are designed to help students with low incomes overcome financial barriers, but these same students often face other barriers.

That’s why colleges should experiment with supports like career advising to help students identify stepping-stones to a good career, along with placement services to help them navigate the job market. In addition, states must expand their data collection efforts to formally include noncredit programs. Some, including Iowa, Louisiana and Virginia, have already made considerable progress linking their education and workforce systems.

Offering student support services and setting up data systems requires resources, but Workforce Pell will bring new funds to states and colleges that are currently financing job training programs. Philanthropy can also help by providing resources to test out what works best to get students through short-term programs and onto solid career paths.

Sharing what works — and what doesn’t — will be critical to the success of Workforce Pell in the long-term. The same spirit of learning that fueled innovation around the ASAP model should be embedded in Workforce Pell from the start.

Alexander Mayer is director of postsecondary education at MDRC, the nonprofit research association.

Contact the opinion editor at [email protected].

This story about Workforce Pell was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

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December 16, 2025