Additionally, respondents were asked how integral their core administrative systems (such as student information system, financial system, and human resources management) are to managing their institution’s student success program, and on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is integral, the average score was 3.88.
Twenty-four percent of respondents said their institution has shifted its enrollment approaches to target best-fit students, even if enrollment counts suffer. Forty percent said they expect student success to be the main driver for replacing their core student information system in the next two years.
Looking at modern technology implementations, one-fifth of those surveyed said more than 50 percent of their new technology is custom-developed, while 63 percent said less than 50 percent is custom-developed and 15 percent said none is custom-developed.
A relatively small number of respondents (37 percent) said they leverage a data warehouse and analytics to support their student success initiatives. Sixty percent say they are using automation in their core systems to support early alerts and action plans for at-risk students.
Sixty-two percent have recently overhauled their student portal, self-service capabilities, or developed new mobile applications to improve the student experience. Only 28 percent claim to leverage CRM to support their student success initiatives, with 19 percent confirming they don’t and 52 percent admitting they don’t know.
New technology like bots and AI are still some way from becoming mainstream, with 6 percent of those surveyed confirming they are used to support student success.
- Weak tech could push students, faculty to other institutions - April 13, 2026
- 13 predictions about edtech, innovation, and–yes–AI in 2026 - January 1, 2026
- 5 essential dimensions of AI literacy - December 12, 2025