Student Needs are Evolving—Can Your Institution Keep Up?

Student needs aren’t what they were 20 years ago—or even 20 months. Higher education is evolving so rapidly that institutions need more than a proactive mindset to keep up. They need technology that can anticipate and alleviate modern barriers to student success.

In a recent panel at the 2022 Ellucian Europe User Conference, higher education leaders came together to confront new challenges such as the cost-of-living crisis, an overall drop in on-campus engagement and an increasingly urgent need for student services. While individual institutions may approach these obstacles differently, higher education as an industry will need to rethink old practices and embrace new tools to deliver continuous value to students today.

Navigating the Cost-of-Living Crisis

In the United Kingdom, the cost-of-living crisis has tightened belts for institutions and students alike, stretching available accommodations and derailing education plans. Heriot-Watt University’s Global Academic Registrar Paul Travill explained, “Trying to deal with the accommodation crisis in the city, the cost-of-living crisis, students coming back onto campus—I don’t think we know what the new normal is yet. I think we’ve probably learnt that it’ll take a few years before things settle down again.”

This is a systemic problem, not one that institutions can solve on their own. The obvious solution—investing in new housing for students to live on-campus—is the least feasible as accommodation prices continue to soar across Europe. Instead, institutions are looking for ways to ease friction in the short-term.

While accommodation costs can’t be lowered, other expenses can, letting students dedicate more of their resources to housing. One approach is to temporarily ease up fees for items such as graduation gowns, either nixing the expense entirely or offering them as temporary rentals. Another is to support students living with family members in neighbouring areas by offering shuttling services to get them to and from on-campus.

Most importantly, students should have a full understanding of all available financial aid resources. By making financial aid processes clear, intuitive and efficient, institutions can help ensure students can access their full entitlement.

Greater Access, Dwindling Attention

Students today are digital natives. They familiarize themselves with new devices quickly, pick up computer programmes with little training, and are largely comfortable with data capture. Particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have gotten used to learning online and may struggle to adjust back to in-person learning.

Having the world at our fingertips may keep us connected, but it hasn’t helped concentration levels. During his keynote at the recent 2022 Ellucian Europe User Conference, Dr Paul Redmond noted that the average concentration span on a single task tops out at only three minutes. For higher education, this means more opportunities to fall off-track during critical activities such as financial aid completion or just staying on top of coursework.

As part of the panel on delivering value to students today, Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Academic Registrar Ben Rogers highlighted another emerging hurdle: in-person attendance. Rogers said, “Very few students are turning up to those lectures, whether or not that’s because they aren’t used to it, or technology has taken over, we’ve seen student engagement on campus has fallen.”

Some institutions are combatting this by emphasizing the appeal of coming on campus. They’re rededicating resources to provide comfortable study spaces, affordable food options and engaging activities. These can double as career-building opportunities, creating face-to-face offerings for current students and alumni alike to network, workshop CVs and more.

And of course, attendance requirements can be powerful motivators. "Nudge" systems send automated, helpful updates to students on how attendance is affecting their grades, providing a gentle push to get back in the classroom.

Supporting Student Well-being Through Constant Change

Today’s challenges aren’t just impacting students financially or in terms of their higher education experience. They’re also taking a toll on overall health and wellbeing. A 2021 study by Accenture and Cibyl found that 39% of students reported a deterioration in their mental health since starting higher education, with 80% saying the pandemic had contributed to this. 55% of students also reported regularly feeling lonely, and 24% shared they don’t have any real friends at their school.

By leveraging data, it is possible to understand how students are coping and what sort of support they require, such as mental health services, financial aid or perhaps just well-timed reminders about campus events. Iain Sloan, senior solutions consultant at Ellucian, said, “Having these [resources]… [and] all your information in one place, personalised to yourself, is really the direction that students expect. It’s a given now, the same way we use Amazon… and this is what we need to support institutions to do.”

Students shouldn’t have to scour several websites or trek to multiple locations to get the support they need. Simplifying the search goes a long way in keeping students on track. A personalised dashboard is one tried-and-true solution, delivering easy access to each user’s most critical resources such as timetables, emails and up-to-date grades. And when that dashboard can integrate with all necessary services, it turns into a one-stop shop for all students, faculty and staff.

Finding a New Way Forward

Student needs change quickly, but higher education’s evolution is constantly picking up speed as more institutions adopt agile, scalable technology. Individual schools can’t solve systemic problems such as the cost-of-living crisis, but they are adapting to offer short-term mitigating solutions to help make education affordable for students. While in-person engagement rates have dropped, leaders are offering innovative, face-to-face opportunities to make trips onto campus more valuable and appealing, while leveraging automated “nudges” to keep students on track in class. And despite increasingly urgent needs, simplified and centralised student services help ensure everyone gets the support they need to complete in their educational journey.

Learn more by watching the full recording of the panel session 'Delivering Value for Today’s Students'.