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Our Work

Providing Holistic Support & Ensuring Basic Student Needs

APLU institutions are working to test and scale interventions that meet students’ needs beyond the classroom. These supports are often targeted toward those who need them most – students who are low-income, minoritized, or first-generation.

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PxP brings together 125 institutions to increase college access, student success, and graduation. The initiative is the largest-ever collaborative effort to improve outcomes through innovations in affordability, teaching and learning, and holistic student supports.

Addressing Food Insecurity Cover

Addressing Food Insecurity

Drawing on the experience of students, faculty, and public university administrators at five public urban universities during the pandemic, APLU and USU outlined steps institutions can take to better address food insecurity.

Photo Courtesy of VCU

Completion Grants

Some pathbreaking public universities are offering completion grants of a few hundred dollars to help cash-strapped students pay for college as they near graduation. APLU and USU are now  undertaking a rigorous empirical review of completion grants’ efficacy.

Photo Courtesy of Portland State University

Student Experience Project

The Student Experience Project is using more than a decade of social psychology research showing positive experiences of community, belonging, and support on campus and in the classroom can increase a student’s likelihood of persevering through academic challenges.

University of Minnesota

Ensuring Transfer Student Success

For many students, far too many credits are lost during the transfer process, slowing their progress toward a degree. That’s why public research universities are innovating to make transferring between institutions easy and efficient for students.

University of Houston

Holistic Admissions

Diversifying the workforce starts with college admissions. That’s why APLU and USU have partnered with the American Association of Medical Colleges, and the National Institutes of Health to educate a health workforce that reflects the diverse population it serves.

Photo Courtesy of the University of Mississippi

Supporting International Students

APLU supports the DREAM Act, which would provide undocumented youth an expedited path to citizenship through attending college or military service. APLU also supports expanding opportunities for international students to live and work in the U.S. following graduation.  

Degree Completion Award

Degree Completion Award

APLU established the Degree Completion Award to identify and honor public universities using innovative strategies and initiatives to increase retention and graduation outcomes and close achievement gaps for all students.

Urban Adult Learner Institute

The APLU and Coalition of Urban Serving Universities Urban Adult Learner Institute (UALI) works to build awareness around the needs and assets of adult learners, disseminate best practices on serving them, and advance national momentum in better serving these students.