The learning process between institutions and students can be bidirectional – if all parties are willing to listen. Student Connections continuously looks for ways to facilitate that exchange of information. Recently, we commissioned a student success survey, polling nearly 1,300 former college students. We designed the survey to shed light on three areas:

• How students define success.
• What obstacles students had to
  overcome to lead a successful life.
• What skills and resources students think were helpful in achieving
  success.

Our goal was to provide a deeper knowledge of student aspirations, what they view as their biggest challenges, and what they value most as tools for success. This insight can help institutions deliver postsecondary outcomes that align with how their most important stakeholders view success.

Below is a summary of some key findings. You can download a whitepaper with a more thorough summary here.

How Students Define Success
Overall, students measure success by two principal outcomes: earning a stable income and doing what makes them happy in life. They expect college to be a bridge to a lifestyle that is both personally and professionally rewarding so that they can support the needs of themselves and their families while feeling fulfilled in the pursuit of their life’s work.

Obstacles on the Road to Student Success
Financial concerns are the biggest threat to completing school and becoming successful. Although the problem was common among all student groups, responses show it was more acute for students who did not advance as far along the academic path. This confirms the potential that financial literacy skills have for boosting retention and completion and for default prevention.

Meanwhile, students expect to build important nonacademic skills before they begin college. However, this expectation often is not met. But postsecondary institutions that don’t have the resources to meet practical skills gaps in the classroom or through other face-to-face engagement can use flexible learning platforms to help students. Such an approach can allow students to build practical skills key to their success within the independent learning environment they clearly favored in their responses to this survey.

Information about how students appraise postsecondary outcomes can only improve the impact of student engagement. Our survey reflected several other links between student circumstances and how success, challenges and resources are perceived. To read the complete summary of the student survey, click here to download the white paper.