Higher education is under increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable student success and retention outcomes. Institutions depend on strong retention to maintain reputation and financial sustainability, and families weigh these outcomes when deciding if a college degree is worth the investment. Unfortunately, universities often attempt to address student success in silos, with academic affairs and student affairs working in parallel rather than in partnership. This fragmented approach can lead to constrained financial and human resources, duplicated efforts and diluted impact.
Universities must recognize that student success is a shared responsibility, not the work of a single office, and embed this shared responsibility in its mission. In response, the University of North Carolina (UNCW) created the Student Success Working Group (SSWG), a cross-divisional team to align student success strategies, identify common goals and ensure every student-facing initiative contributes to a unified definition of student success.
Define Student Success
The SSWG’s work centered around three foundational student success strategies. First, the group developed an operational definition of student success—student success is you—a simple yet complex and often overlooked step. Without a shared understanding of what success means, institutions risk pursuing conflicting objectives. For UNCW, success was defined not only as retention and graduation but also as students’ academic achievement, career preparedness, engagement and holistic well-being.
After 27 months of research, dialogue and campus-wide feedforward, the university adopted this definition:
“Student success is positive growth and development across the span of time a student interacts with the university, from recruitment through degree completion and beyond. Along each student’s journey, we encourage the exploration and development of diverse perspectives.
UNCW recognizes that student success looks different for every student, and there are multiple pathways to success. Each pathway should include but is not limited to academic achievement, career preparedness, engagement and holistic wellbeing.”
This definition was significant because it reflected both rigor and inclusiveness and was the result of a collaborative effort between academic and student affairs. Additionally, it recognized that success is not one-size-fits-all and that nontraditional pathways, whether military service, transfer or graduate school, are equally valid. It also anchored success in four measurable dimensions: academic achievement, career preparedness, engagement and holistic wellbeing.
Catalog Initiatives
After successfully developing a unified definition of student success, the SSWG’s second task was to survey the university landscape to create a comprehensive catalog of university-wide student success initiatives. The group identified over a hundred initiatives ranging from institutional systems to student-focused programs and early alert interventions. This process revealed two insightful findings. The university offers a vast array of student-focused programs and support; however, several departments had no knowledge of the resources, and other resources did not connect across divisions. By mapping these efforts using research-based frameworks such as EAB’s Student Success Playbook, the group identified gaps and opportunities to strengthen cross-divisional coordination. This resource enhanced the transparency and visibility of campus-wide initiatives.
The value of this work was practical as well as strategic. The catalog identified and displayed the diverse student success initiatives within both academic and student affairs, thus fostering cross-divisional collaboration and sharing of best practices. More importantly, the centralized catalog helped staff connect students to the right resources, addressed duplication of efforts across departments, created transparency for parents, students, faculty and staff, and provided critical data to assess impact and allocate resources. Ultimately, the catalog clarified and rendered student success efforts visible, coherent and actionable.
Spread the News
Finally, the group launched a student success marketing campaign designed to engage and inform students and the campus community about the available campus resources. Even the best initiatives fail if students, parents and the campus community do not know about them. By raising visibility and communicating consistently about the meaning and pathways of success, the campaign promoted a shared vision of student success, fostered a culture of support seeking and provided a central location for students, faculty and staff to find information about student success pathways. By normalizing the concepts that success looks different for each individual, the campaign encouraged students to see themselves reflected in the university’s vision of student success.
Why Collaboration Matters
UNCW’s SSWG exemplifies how shared leadership and intentional collaboration can transform a university’s approach to retention. The early outcomes of this initiative are promising. UNCW achieved a record 88% first-year retention rate in 2023 and 2024, underscoring the power of collaboration. More importantly, the initiative has cultivated a sense of collective ownership where faculty, staff and administrators now see themselves as partners in student success rather than isolated actors.
As higher education continues to navigate resource constraints and shifting student needs, institutions cannot afford to operate in silos. The lesson from UNCW is clear: Sustainable student success depends on eliminating silos, aligning strategies across divisions and committing to a shared vision of student success. Student success and retention are more than numbers; they reflect how well a university comes together to support its students.
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