Augusta University

Cultivating an institutional infrastructure for meaningful faculty-student interactions is a multi-year commitment, and this initial assessment will focus on product development. Once the professional development options are in place, we can construct assessments that measure the impact on student retention and progression.

“Relationship Rich Education” by Peter Felton and Leo Lambert was selected as a text and framework to support and empower faculty to make meaningful connections with students, both inside and outside of the classroom, to foster student success.

The Academic Success Center (ASC) requests progress reports three times a semester to gather feedback on student performance. This helps identify potential barriers to student success and determine which students may need intervention and referral to campus resources to help them be successful. 

Augusta University has an aspiration to enroll 16,000 students by 2030. To reach this mark, we not only have to hit our enrollment goals, but focus on student retention. Our research shows that students who earn 30 hours in Year 1 are more likely to persist to Year 2 and to reach graduation in a timely manner.  Since the initial implementation of Momentum Year, AU has sought to increase student success by focusing on enrolling freshman students in 15+ credit hours during the first two semesters.

AU recognizes the need to first improve semester to semester persistence. In Spring 2023, the institution set a Fall 1 to Spring 1 aspirational goal of 95%. Since then, the institution has seen continuous improvement in cohort persistence (i.e. Spring 2023--92.6%; Spring 2024—94.1%).  Several tactics have been implemented to achieve these ends.

Augusta University has a robust, multi-year plan to promote student retention and graduation utilizing the Four-to-Finish principles of Mindset, Purpose, Pathways and Engagement. Over the previous years, AU has implemented new strategies to support enrollment growth, and most recently created holistic student support structures organized by meta-majors.

The AU High Impact Practices (HIP) Implementation Team participates in the USG process to support the statewide HIP goals as a critical element of our Momentum Approach.  

To provide support services to faculty and staff engaged in student success activities.