If you’re a higher ed professional, you probably realized some time ago that students shouldn't be the only ones learning during their postsecondary education. Today, enrollment is declining and there is growing scrutiny of the value of college. This makes the student perspective even more valuable, especially as it pertains to success and satisfaction.

At Student Connections, we rely on feedback from students (and academic experts) to inform the evolution of our products and services. That allows us to continually improve them while sharing best practices with institutions in support of our nonprofit mission to promote student success.

As part of this process, we recently commissioned a student success survey, polling nearly 1,300 former college students. We designed the survey to shed light on three areas:

1. How students define success.

2. What obstacles students had to overcome to lead a successful life.

3. What skills and resources students think were helpful in achieving success.

We broke our review into three summaries, one for each of the areas above. You will find them on our website, but a below are a few findings:

Students look to college to help them achieve a living wage and a job they can live with. They expect a postsecondary degree 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. But they also want to enter a career that is personally fulfilling. The balance they seek is evident in the fact that “making enough money to support myself/my family and prepare for the future” was ranked most important while “becoming independently wealthy” was ranked much lower (above only “power/influence”) as a response to a survey question that asked students how they defined success.

Younger students especially valued a career that made them happy. Meanwhile, older students placed more importance on earning an adequate income. This underscores the importance of accounting for shifting priorities when structuring student outreach. In another interesting finding, part-time students valued “lifelong learning” more than full-time students. This reminds us that part-time students cherish an education at least as much as their full-time counterparts. It also may be another confirmation that people return to school when suffering a disruption in their careers or when pursuing greater opportunities. Both scenarios confirm the value of higher education.

Turning to the obstacles that students identified, most former students said their financial situation was their biggest challenge. Our survey confirmed the cascade of related challenges that this issue can produce. Half of all students worked either a part- or full-time job to mitigate financial pressure. This was more likely among part-time students (58 percent) than full-time students (46 percent). In effect, students trade a lighter class load for the distraction of a nonacademic workload.

Although financial worries were widespread among all student groups, responses indicate the issue was greater for students who did not progress as far on the academic path. This indicates that persistence and completion could be aided by the early availability of financial literacy resources. The struggle to balance school with family obligations was a greater factor for students who failed to complete a degree, indicating the impact this challenge can have on retention and progression as well.

Finally, when it comes to enabling success, students indicated that goal setting, independent learning, time management and money management were top factors. A significant fraction of students chose an online resource/smart app as a preferred platform for developing soft skills that support success. This was especially true of recent graduates.

Caption: Responses to “How do you think students should be exposed to these soft skills in an educational setting?”

There are many additional details in our findings, but the survey confirms that a gap in practical/soft skills can make nonacademic factors a threat to academic outcomes. In a dangerous cycle, students may react to financial stress by taking on a workload that threatens retention and completion. While troubling, this challenge is also an opportunity for schools to enrich the educational experience. Using adaptive, interactive m-learning platforms, schools can target the students who most need help building the practical skills needed for their individual success. This ensures that assistance is available when it is most convenient and effective for students, complementing traditional intervention while fulfilling students’ strong affinity for independent learning.

If you’d like to learn more about the survey, please visit us at studentconnections.org.