Student attrition is a major issue for American colleges and universities. Studies show that more than one-third of undergraduates who enroll in college leave before completing their degree programs. Attrition among first-year students alone cost taxpayers more than $9 billion between 2003 and 2008, representing about 20 percent of education spending in this country.
These aren’t abstract statistics—they have tangible effects on nearly every institution. The average university, for instance, spends around $8,800 on each student who leaves college after one year, and that number can balloon to an average of $40,000 when the student withdraws after three or more years. And that’s not even counting the loss of a lifetime of donations that college graduates provide to their schools. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that there is a strong correlation between high attrition rates and poor financial health.
The user-experience problem
Attrition represents a significant source of waste at our educational institutions. That matters in today’s higher-education climate, in which less and less money comes from state sources and students are expected to pay more out of their own pockets. Colleges simply cannot afford high attrition rates.
So why do students leave? A small number of them discover in their first year that, for lack of a better phrase, they are simply not “cut out” for college. But that’s by no means the main cause of dropping out. In fact, academic distress often does not figure into attrition—only 10 percent of students who leave have GPAs below a C-level. By comparison, one report found that there are four reasons for departure that account for 84 percent of the attrition rate:
1. the college doesn’t care about its students
2. poor service and treatment
3. investment not worth it, and
4. difficulty with schedules.
In other words, logistical issues are far more likely than academics to lead a student to drop out. And most of these issues are completely preventable.
(Next page: How technology can help you fight student attrition)
The technology solution
While it’s unfair to cast all the blame on college administrators for these student withdrawals—well-known issues with admissions criteria help explain why retention rates are so disappointing—it is almost certainly administration offices that will bear the brunt of the criticism. Fair or not, they are on the front lines and must take the first steps to resolve student attrition.
Despite what people might think, reducing tuition costs is one of the least effective methods of increasing student satisfaction. What does make a difference is spending on instructional/academic support and student amenities, both of which fall under the category of “customer experience.”
Administration officials, academic counselors, and financial aid representatives want to be helpful, but their efforts are often undermined by the sheer number of students they work with. Similarly, frustrated students who spend hours waiting in line to just submit paperwork are unlikely to feel positively about the institution that wasted a chunk of their day. That’s why many of them look at the lines snaking around the block and just walk away.
Digital to the rescue
Customer experience management (CEM) software can make a big difference in keeping students enrolled. By using modern technologies such as mobile check-ins, customer surveys, and data analytics, schools can foster meaningful connections by reducing the frustration, stress, and anxiety.
In addition to tracking interactions, customer experience management is powerful because of the feedback mechanisms it enables. In the private sector, managers use CEM software to capture and analyze data to improve their service as they interact with customers, leading to greater alignment between customer needs and the business’s offerings. That agility is only possible because this data is integrated within the same systems that also perform marketing, sales, and customer service functions.
In the context of a university administration office, this kind of feedback mechanism might look like a short survey immediately after the completion of an appointment. Since it integrates naturally into the overall experience, people are more likely to make use of the function, making this a great method of finding out what’s working and what’s not in the words of the students themselves. In this way, CEM technology can help administrators collect real-time feedback by making it a seamless process, unlike traditional surveys that make respondents feel like they’re doing you a favor.
Embracing technology
Attrition is a serious obstacle for many colleges’ financial futures, with no easy answer. However, universities may underestimate how much the inability to easily meet with advisors and other staff negatively affects the college experience. By incorporating modern mobile technologies, higher ed institutions can make measurable advances in the fight for student retention.
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