APLU Student Success Framework

Public and Land-grant universities are advancing student success in powerful and innovative ways. Across institutions, this work spans many common themes like access, workforce development, degree completion, and engagement. While all APLU members are engaged in promoting student success, each institution works with its students, faculty, staff, and community in unique ways.

The APLU Student Success Framework provides a shared way to understand and connect this work by helping institutions to articulate their efforts, strengthen collaboration, and collectively advance student outcomes.

What is it?

APLU’s Student Success Framework is a tool designed to:

• Clarify how student success efforts connect across the institution.
  
• Support alignment across institutional divisions and offices engaged in student success.
  
• Provide a shared language for cross-institutional strategy and collaboration.

The Framework reflects the work of APLU member institutions and is grounded in years of institutional practice, improvement, and learning.

The Framework

The Framework organizes student success across five key areas of institutional focus and is supported by institutional practices that enable, scale, coordination, and impact. Rather than prescribe a single approach, the Framework highlights how institutions are organizing and advancing student success across their campuses.

Why It Matters

Public and land-grant universities play a central role in expanding opportunity, preparing students for the workforce, and supporting communities and regional economies. Advancing student success requires not only strong programs, but coordinated institutional effort.

This Framework helps institutions across the membership bring that work together.

Learn More

Download the brief, Advancing Student Success Across Public and Land-grant Universities, to explore the Framework and how institutions are using it to strengthen student success efforts.

Explore how student success efforts have evolved across APLU institutions in A Decade of Success: 10 Year Analysis of APLU’s Degree Completion Award, which served as the foundation for the framework.