Key points:
- How institutions handle digital experiences matters
- 6 things to know about the student experience today
- Pedagogy for persistence: Designing courses that keep adult learners engaged
- For more news on the student experience, visit eCN’s Student Success hub
Somewhere on campus, a first-year student tries to register for classes toggling between a student portal, the course catalog, the financial aid system, and the registrar’s site, piecing together course schedules and affordability. Every minute clicking around adds a little more pressure, and with registration closing soon, the student is stressed, exasperated, and questioning their enrollment choice.
More and more, this represents the typical college student experience.
A recent survey gathered insights from more than 1,000 U.S. college and university students and found nearly half of students missed a critical deadline–an assignment, a payment, a registration window–simply because they didn’t know it was due.
Unfortunately, the systems designed to support students often work against them.
The experience gap
Students are accustomed to apps remembering their preferences and interfaces so intuitive they don’t need instructions or tutorials. Then, they arrive on campus only to navigate a labyrinth of platforms, logins and workflows testing their patience.
Data backs up this disconnect: More than half of surveyed students (59 percent) say their institution’s digital experience falls short of the technology they use in the rest of their lives–and they believe it should be better. Only 21 percent feel their campus tech meets the standard. This isn’t entitlement–it’s students recognizing dysfunction and being honest (and polite) enough to point it out.
The real cost of frustration and inconvenience
The experience gap for simple information retrieval is real. The survey found 60 percent of students spend more than five minutes searching for basic information like their course schedule or financial aid status. Roughly one-quarter spend 10 minutes or more. Two-thirds (66 percent) of students “sometimes,” “frequently,” or “very frequently” click through multiple links or platforms just to complete a simple task burning precious time hunting down information that should be front and center, not buried under clicks.
And then consider the emotional toll. Ask students how they feel about their school’s digital systems, and nearly 70 percent will report feeling frustrated at least “sometimes.” For 40 percent, frustration happens regularly. When technology creates barriers, it’s harder for students to succeed–and that technology may undermine an institution’s own mission.
Those who need the most support face the most friction
Here’s where the experience gap becomes fundamentally uneven. First-year students–still learning how college works while juggling new academic demands–are more likely than upperclassmen to feel “very frequent” frustration with campus technology. First-generation students are less likely than their peers to report a “very positive” impact from their school’s digital experience, demonstrating how much harder navigating college becomes without built-in institutional knowledge.
For any student finding their footing in a completely new environment, technology should steady the path–not complicate it.
And those at public institutions–which often serve larger, more diverse and more economically varied populations–are less likely than their private school peers to rate their digital platform’s usability as “excellent.” Complexity may be expected in large public systems, but it shouldn’t be the student’s burden. Students are signaling the experience can–and must–improve.
Altogether, these disparities surface a simple point–poor digital experiences don’t affect students equally. The friction isn’t random; it impacts the students that institutions most want to support. And when that inequity goes unaddressed, it quietly pushes certain students further from the finish line.
The importance of community and connection
We know belonging contributes to student success. Students who feel more connected persist at higher rates, engage more deeply with learning and graduate with stronger ties. Digital experiences must enable and accelerate a sense of belonging.
Yet only one-third of students use institution-provided technology to find clubs and groups. The rest rely on word of mouth, flyers, chance encounters, or unregulated social media. A resounding 65 percent wish their institution made it easier to discover campus organizations–that’s nearly two-thirds of students saying they want to get more involved but can’t figure out how. The communication gap appears even more stark–barely a quarter of students use their school’s community app to connect with peers, while 64 percent wish their institution would make peer-to-peer communication easier.
Students want to connect. They want to get involved, and they want to feel like they’re part of a community. Current technology just isn’t helping them do it.
How campus tech shapes reputation
Students don’t keep their frustrations to themselves. More than half of students (54 percent) say they’re willing to share their institution’s digital experience with prospective students–even if it’s not positive. In a world where social media and peer recommendations shape most consumer decisions, every student’s experience becomes part of the story prospective students hear.
The enrollment implications also run deep. One-third of current students report that if they were choosing their college based only on digital systems, they would rethink their decision. In other words, nearly 1 in 3 students regret their enrollment when they consider the technology. For institutions facing enrollment pressures, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Digital experience forms the institutional value proposition, and it offers a significant, controllable lever for making a real impact.
Digital campus experiences matter
The data makes one thing clear: how institutions handle digital experiences matters. Institutions must move beyond incremental system fixes and instead prioritize unified, student-centered digital ecosystems that surface what matters most at the moment it matters. By treating digital experience as mission-critical infrastructure, universities can reduce friction, close equity gaps and strengthen persistence, reputation and long-term enrollment outcomes.
Students show remarkable forgiveness when they see genuine improvement. And the return on getting it right extends far beyond the tech stack–it extends to all institutional goals.
Shana Holman is Head of Alliances and Strategic Engagement at Pathify.
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