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On September 23, 2024, the Student Success Scan project team was charged by President Keller to swiftly gauge the progress of student success efforts to inform long- and short-term strategies for improving student success at the University of North Texas.

This project aims to complete a rapid assessment of our current student success efforts to identify key challenges, potential quick wins, and recommendations for transformational improvement. A project team sought to map the current student success landscape at UNT and across peers who are advancing innovative approaches, by addressing the following questions:

  • What is the current state of student success at UNT today, including student persistence, completion, placement, and other measures of success, as well as current UNT support programs and initiatives?
  • How are other institutions organizing to improve student success, especially recognized leaders in student persistence and success?
  • What are the key barriers and enablers to success for UNT?
  • What steps should UNT take in the near term and for the longer term so the university may earn a reputation as a national leader in student success?

The project collected information from a number of sources for the initial scan of the current state of student success at UNT. Recommendations in this final report are based on comments and suggestions from the UNT community.

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General Observations

From its founding in 1890 to the present day, UNT has undergone numerous transformations. In the past ten years, UNT reached designation as a Carnegie R1 university, the highest classification for research universities. In that same time, the enrollment grew from 36,000 students to over 46,000. Demographic changes in the region and state are also reflected in UNT’s enrollment as the university obtained the status of both a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution. UNT has the distinction of being one of only 22 universities in the U.S. to be both an R1 and HSI.

Recent enrollment has also shown changing trends in the type of students. This includes an increase in the size of First-Time-in-College (FTIC) cohorts and a decrease in new undergraduate transfer students coming to the university. FTIC fall-to-fall retention rates had been increasing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a high of 82% for the 2019 cohort, but have fallen to below 77%. While the rate for new transfer student fall-to-fall retention also dropped from a high of over 84% for the 2019 cohort, students in recent cohorts have been retained at a rate of about 83%. At the graduate level, enrollment in Master’s programs increased by almost 300% from 2014 to 2023. There has also been growth in students who are in locations other than the original Denton campus, including those at Discovery Park, Frisco, and online.

UNT’s growth in enrollment, changes in demographics and locations of students, and growing research stature provide both unique challenges and opportunities for the institution.

Student Success Scan Data

The project team collected information from sources across campus to inform the review of the current state of student success at UNT and the factors that can affect it. Information has been gathered through discussions and from a call to the university community to provide their input through a survey. Over 1,400 survey responses were received during the week of October 7th. Respondents included undergraduate students (37%), graduate students (13%), faculty (19%), and staff (27%). The survey data, along with other information, was used by the project team to identify what student success means at UNT, what UNT is doing well, and what needs to be improved.

Defining Student Success

As defined by community feedback, student success at UNT means that students will excel academically, grow personally, be prepared for the next step in their academic or professional career, and continuously seek to improve and adapt. Preparing students for success encompasses a holistic approach that integrates the resources, support, and opportunities they need to achieve academic excellence, personal growth, and career readiness in an engaging and welcoming environment. Student success at UNT is not just about academic performance but also about fostering a well-rounded and supportive environment in which every student has the opportunity to thrive and that prepares students for life beyond university.

Strengths at UNT in Supporting Student Success

The following are resources and activities at UNT that have been identified as enablers of student success at UNT:

  • UNT has a diverse and welcoming community that fosters a strong sense of belonging. This is repeatedly mentioned in the sources as a major strength of the university. Students and staff feel that UNT is a place where people from all backgrounds are accepted and supported.
  • UNT has a dedicated faculty and staff who are passionate about teaching, supporting students, and care about their students' success. Faculty and staff are perceived as being knowledgeable, helpful, and supportive.
  • UNT provides a wide range of resources and services to support students academically, personally and professionally. These resources include academic advising, research opportunities, tutoring, academic support centers, career preparation, mental health counseling, the food pantry, and the clothes closet.
  • UNT offers a variety of academic programs and opportunities for students to get involved. UNT has a wide range of academic programs, student organizations, and events that provide students with opportunities to learn and grow outside the classroom. Students and staff perceive this as a strength of the university because it allows students to find their niche and build community.

Student Success Challenges at UNT 

The following were identified as challenges to student success at UNT. This list has been organized into three categories: Academic, Infrastructure, and Student Work/Life.

Academic Challenges

Academic Advising and Degree Planning:

  • Undergraduate students report that academic advisors could provide more personalized guidance. Concerns included:
    • Long wait times and limited appointment times make it difficult for students to receive timely guidance.
    • Difficulty scheduling appointments and advisors not being up to date on important information like catalog or course changes, resulting in a perception of some advisors being unhelpful.
  • Course scheduling is not streamlined or predictable. Course availability does not always match need.
  • Degree requirements and degree audits are complex and difficult for students to navigate. This is especially true for transfer students who may have credits that do not have a direct equivalency or who are unfamiliar with UNT's degree plan structure.
  • Academic programs with multiple prerequisites, check points, and varied options are confusing for students to navigate and graduate in 4 years. Having multiple “tracks” also creates difficulties scheduling all the variations so students can build a progressive schedule.

Graduate Student Advising:

  • Graduate students expressed dissatisfaction with the mentoring and advising support they receive at UNT. Students report receiving incorrect information or insufficient support leading to unnecessary coursework and difficulty graduating on time.
  • Graduate students do not have access to academic tools, such as degree audits, to help navigate their academic progression.

Academic Preparedness:

  • Concerns about UNT’s capacity to provide fundamental academic and college success skills training to students who need this assistance. Inability to identify students who may be at risk at the start of their experience for early intervention.
  • TSI-incomplete students are retained after the first year at a much lower rate.

Student Academic Engagement:

  • Faculty reported concerns about high absence rates in classes.
  • Faculty and staff note that many students are not fully engaged in their learning.

Instructional Challenges:

  • Limited resources to provide faculty support and training to improve instructional knowledge and skills for:
    • Innovative course development.
    • Implementing engaging and effective teaching methods.
    • Adapting teaching styles to meet students’ individual needs.
  • Faculty evaluation structure is not conducive to taking risks in instructional innovation.
  • Students having varied instructional experiences in UNT courses that impact their success such as faculty response times, up-to-date and relevant course materials, and teaching methods that enhance learning.
  • A growing number of students require a level of support that faculty are unprepared to provide.
  • Large class sizes, particularly for courses with high DFW rates and for students who require additional support.
  • As class sizes have grown, faculty are challenged to incorporate key skills valued by employers and provide students meaningful, individual feedback on performance of those skills.

Admissions:

  • Concerns were expressed about a focus on growing enrollment numbers over educational quality.
  • Students admitted too close to the start of the semester have a different orientation and advising experience due to incomplete processing of records and limited course availability.

Infrastructure Challenges

Communication:

  • Survey responses point to a need for clearer and more coordinated communication from UNT to students, particularly regarding events, student resources, and academic requirements. Students report feeling confused and overwhelmed by the numerous platforms and channels used for communication, often missing important information or receiving contradictory information from different departments.

Systems and Processes:

  • Students report difficulty navigating UNT’s numerous systems and processes. There are too many systems for students to navigate, frustrating students and hindering their ability to be successful.
  • Some staff note that UNT has many platforms but does not use some of them (such as Navigate) to their full potential.

Student Support:

  • Concerns about providing a similar UNT experience (services, resources, community) to students at all UNT sites, including Discovery Park, Inspire Park, Frisco Landing, and online.
  • Staffing and infrastructure have not kept up with enrollment growth. Staff feel overwhelmed and underpaid, which leads to increased turnover.
  • The “UNT run-around” continues to be a concern. Students may be referred to multiple offices when trying to get the answer to a question.
  • Many students, particularly those who are working, commuting, or taking online courses, report facing barriers in accessing resources and services due to limited hours, in-person requirements, or lack of awareness.
  • Limited opportunities for research and internships.
  • Students desire more practical, hands-on career experiences and better connections with potential employers.
  • Limited on-campus housing for returning students and limited support for connecting students to off-campus housing options.
  • Difficulty in scaling of known high impact practices.
  • Many support systems and programs are targeted at first-year students and less for continuing students.
  • Loss of support services and networks through the university’s response to recent changes in state law.

Financial Concerns: Many students, particularly graduate students and international students, report concerns about the financial burden of attending UNT.

  • Graduate student stipends: Students note that current stipends are insufficient to cover the cost of living in Denton.
  • The high cost of health insurance, particularly for international students, is a recurring concern.
  • Students express frustration with bureaucratic inefficiencies, particularly within departments like financial aid and payroll.
  • Faculty noted concerns about funding and support for Graduate Students, including low stipend levels, tuition reimbursement, and health insurance.

Parking and Transportation:

  • Many students express frustration with the parking and bus situation at UNT, stating that they are forced to arrive on campus very early to get to class on time. Others report missing or being late for classes due to unfavorable bus schedules.

Student Work/Life Challenges

  • Mental Health Resources:
    • Students experience high levels of stress and burnout, often from balancing work and coursework, which impacts their success.
    • Students report long wait times and difficulty scheduling appointments with mental health services.
  • Many students struggle with basic needs insecurity, such as housing, food, and transportation.
  • Student work obligations combined with full-time enrollment cause difficulties with attendance and completion of academic work.
  • Several sources identified a lack of a sense of community as a challenge for students, particularly commuters and those from marginalized groups.

Recommendations

The project team reviewed the collected data and information, including comments and suggestions on the initial report from over 100 members of the university community (25% of responses were from undergraduate students, 12% graduate students, 20% faculty, and 40% staff), to inform the following recommendations for improving student success at UNT. The recommendations were further refined following additional responses from almost 100 members of the community. While this list reflects much of the feedback received from the community, recommendations are limited to those within the scope of the project’s focus on student success. Feedback and recommendations that fall outside our scope will be shared with the appropriate Division/department. The project team also acknowledges that implementation of any recommendations would be dependent on available resources and existing workloads of those faculty and staff involved.

Academic Support

Providing support to students through their academic journey is critical to their success.

Short Term Strategies

  • Implement an improved Early Alert system that includes processes and interventions that directly targets the needs of at-risk students and involves the appropriate staff or faculty who can adequately provide the necessary support.
  • Form a Student Success Outcomes Team to analyze data on student performance and identify barriers to success. This team should implement evidence-based strategies and collaborate with departments to enhance student outcomes.

Long Term Strategies

  • Expand the academic support services offered by The Learning Center (tutoring, supplemental instruction, etc.) in subjects where students struggle most, as well as other campus and department-based tutoring centers (Writing Center, Math Lab, etc.). Ensure robust online tutoring options are available, particularly for fully online students.
  • Expand opportunities to equip students with skills for academic success and to be college-ready in reading, writing, and math prior to the start of their freshman year. Bring together all relevant departments and programs to develop a coordinated plan that builds on the summer bridge program, improves formative assessments of college readiness, and expands accessibility to college readiness preparation for economically-disadvantaged students.
  • Utilize existing campus courses like UCAR and college-embedded FYE courses to develop a comprehensive, credit based First-Year Seminar course to support academic success, promote student ownership in their education, promote student well-being, and provide a pathway for early intervention.

Advising

Providing timely access to academic advisors who can give accurate information is critical to the success of undergraduate students.

Short Term Strategies

  • Foster collaboration between advising offices across campus by developing a shared resource to promote best practices and innovative solutions to address the advising challenges.
  • Implement proactive advising techniques utilizing data analytics to identify students at high risk.
  • Expand collection of early indicators of academic progress to identify students in danger of failure for targeted interventions.
  • Create a targeted communication plan to inform students of advising opportunities and registration-related information. 
  • Review availability of advisors in relation to the student populations being served (online, campus location). Offer varying advising appointment times to accommodate students’ busy schedules.
  • Create a system of liaisons from offices such as Financial Aid, Registrar, etc. to advising offices so that advisors have a point-person in those offices to facilitate obtaining answers to questions.

Long Term Strategies 

  • Expand centralized training for onboarding new academic advisors to promote a uniform standard of advising across all colleges and address inconsistencies in advisor knowledge.
  • Identify approaches to reduce processing workload and streamline processes to allow academic advisors to spend more time meeting with students. 
  • Identify better UNT systems to automate the evaluation of transfer or other credits, as well as the processing of graduation applications.
  • Implement systems for regular collection of data to assess the effectiveness of advising in colleges across UNT and evaluate relative to national standards for academic advising.

Career Connected Learning 

As an institution of higher education, part of our role is preparing our graduates to be successful in an ever-changing world. UNT has implemented expanded career education efforts in recent years.

Long Term Strategies

  • Conduct a feasibility study on integrating into every degree plan a professional learning experience such as an internship, service learning, symposia, or research that exposes students to post-graduation opportunities.
  • Increase financial support for students in unpaid internships.
  • Leverage alumni and D/FW corporate partners to enhance career preparation and opportunities for students; expand alumni mentoring opportunities.
  • Leverage on-campus student employment to reimagine the worker-learner experience and help students make better connections to their future career.
  • Better communicate to students the realistic expectations and earnings of their career options as a UNT graduate, based on major (such as the SeekUT site from the University of Texas System).

Communication

Communication is essential to ensure our students, faculty, and staff are fully aware of all the opportunities and resources available to them. 

Short Term Strategies

  • Promote existing resources more effectively through targeted emails, social media campaigns, and classroom announcements. Ensure resources are accessible to students at all campus locations and online learners.
  • Utilize technology and AI for more targeted communication, such as personalized notifications through a mobile app or online portal, to ensure students receive relevant information in a timely and easily understood manner.
  • Send clear and timely reminders about important deadlines, registration dates, and degree requirements via email, text, and the student portal.
  • Provide students timely and consistent multi-modal messaging from pre-orientation through the first year that sets personal and academic expectations for a successful UNT experience and shares UNT resources that supports student success. Communications to focus on meeting deadlines, completing academic readiness and placement requirements, taking actions required for enrollment and financial aid, attending class, maintaining grades, etc.

Long Term Strategies

  • Implement standardized communication protocols and training for staff across departments to ensure students receive accurate, coordinated and consistent messaging and are not referred unnecessarily to other offices.
  • Provide quick access, such as through a mobile app, to critical information about classroom support/locations, enrollment needs, current event location/directions, and financial aid programs.
  • Identify opportunities for proactive messaging for academic and student support.
  • Consolidate student information from various systems (admissions, advising, etc.) to help create a unified approach to messaging and communication.
  • Look for solutions to breaking down information silos and improve cross-departmental communication to reduce cases of students being sent to multiple offices to receive assistance.
  • Develop a strategy for focusing students’ UNT email accounts on important official communications.

Curriculum

As a large, comprehensive university, UNT offers a diverse inventory of courses and degrees. Navigating degree options and requirements, scheduling courses, and planning for graduation can be complex. Providing clear information and guidelines can assist in supporting student success.

Short Term Strategies

  • Create a curriculum handbook that defines UNT processes and provides helpful guidance for program development and revision.
  • Create a Responsive Course Scheduling Task Force to facilitate initiatives that will optimize the course schedule and support student degree progression. Initial tasks to include adopting standard time windows for course offerings (with consideration of the impact of course schedules on student success for working students or effects of longer passing periods on parking and transportation issues) and designing a freshman course schedule that accommodates all incoming freshmen and sets them on a successful path to degree completion. 
  • Identify the best practices of UNT programs with high 4-year graduation rates and create models of success to share across colleges.
  • Create or expand block scheduling opportunities for first-year students.
  • Provide easy-to-find information of current and future course offerings and course rotation schedules to assist with longer-term schedule planning.

Long Term Strategies

  • Have the Responsive Course Scheduling Task Force utilize Academic Planner to predict course enrollments and build a schedule that accommodates student degree progression. Identify the resources that would be needed to schedule classes more than one semester in advance.
  • Conduct comprehensive reviews of undergraduate degree programs to map program outcomes to degree requirements, create easy-to-follow pathways, develop 4-year course sequences, and publish pathways for students to access.
  • Engage UNT faculty in developing UNT curricular expectations that define the academic learning experiences, set high expectations accompanied by strong support, and promote student success, potentially including approaches such as career-focused content, emerging technology applications, high-impact practices, marketable skills, etc. All UNT academic degree programs should be reviewed within the context of these expectations.
  • Charge the Student Success Outcomes Team to evaluate the many suggested curriculum-related changes and their impact on student success to determine if action would have positive results and the feasibility of implementation, including:
    • Identifying courses that would benefit most from reduced class sizes and seek the resources to move to smaller course section enrollments.
    • Developing blueprints for multi-year block scheduling pathways in academic programs where many students follow similar course plans.
    • Expanding online and hybrid course offerings to accommodate diverse learning styles and schedules, particularly for working students and those who face barriers to attending in-person classes.
    • Aligning courses with professional certifications and industry needs to increase students' motivation and sense of purpose, ultimately contributing to retention.
    • Creating an inventory of credentials of value that would complement degrees offered by UNT and identify existing sources of credentials that can be promoted to students.

Enrollment and Registration Processes

Admission and registration processes play a role in student retention and success.

Short Term Strategies 

  • Provide effective communications that guide and support both prospective and current students throughout the discovery, admissions, and financial processes to help navigate requirements effectively.
  • Create better lines of communication between enrollment and academic affairs to ensure course offerings accommodate enrollment numbers, especially in college readiness courses, and sections are not cancelled prematurely.

Long Term Strategies 

  • Evaluate the impact of UNT’s admission criteria on student enrollment and success.
  • Conduct a review of admission, registration, and payment deadlines and their impact on retention, resources, course availability and student success.

Faculty/Staff Support

  • Ensure that there are enough trained staff in student-facing offices to support growth and demand.
  • Review staff training opportunities and staff retention in offices that support student success to provide a stable, knowledgeable workforce for these efforts.
  • Expand Navigate training opportunities to all staff and faculty to fully utilize our Navigate resource to support student success.

Graduate Students

Graduate students play a crucial role on a college campus by contributing to research advancements, enriching the academic community, and mentoring undergraduate students.

Short Term Strategies

  • Establish a Faculty Mentoring Training Program that prepares faculty to mentor graduate students.
  • Modernize the graduate student experience to include systems and processes that undergraduate students have access to, including degree audits and Navigate.
  • Conduct a feasibility study on increasing graduate student stipends and enhancing health-care benefit options.

Long Term Strategies

  • Establish a Graduate Education Enhancement Task Force and conduct an evaluation of our graduate education infrastructure, including faculty mentorship, student resources, and technology.
  • Expand resources and mentorship opportunities for graduate students, making sure graduate students are connected to external funders and alignment with major funding agencies' requirements like the NIH and NSF.
  • Add student mentoring effectiveness into Promotion and Tenure evaluations.
  • Expand access to essential software platforms that can support graduate students (e.g. iThenticate, Inscribe, etc.).

Infrastructure

How the university is organized and structured supports the operation of our institution and fosters student success.

  • Evaluate the effects of parking and transportation on course attendance and student success and develop communications strategies to enhance understanding of transportation resources.
  • Continuously explore options to improve the student experiences that impact success at all campuses (Discovery Park and Frisco locations).
  • Increase housing options beyond the first year, both on- and off-campus, keeping in mind the needs of special populations, like our returning, international, and graduate students.

Instruction

High-quality instruction is an important component to student engagement and success at UNT. 

Short Term Strategies

  • Organize a faculty development conference to include a keynote speaker and instruction-focused breakout sessions by UNT faculty.
  • Collect data on attendance trends across course types/levels and identify best practices for syllabus language and course-level interventions to emphasize the importance of attendance to students.

Long Term Strategies

  • Establish a “Teaching Success Center” within Academic Affairs dedicated to supporting faculty and providing skills and strategies needed to prepare students for success. The center would provide a central point of contact for faculty who are seeking teaching resources and would complement existing services in the Office of Faculty Success and the technology-focused efforts available through DSI CLEAR. The center would fill important current gaps at UNT including:
    • Developing a program to expand resources for new faculty to help them create courses and syllabi while learning UNT’s systems
    • Providing resources to departments and colleges on evaluation of instruction
    • Identifying high-need areas such as courses with high DFWI rates and assist with strategies for addressing those challenges
    • Creating programs to share engaging instructional practices and collect best practices in curricular design
    • Providing resources for the creation of development plans for faculty. 
  • Establish working groups with representation from faculty, promotion and tenure committees, and academic administrators to explore how UNT’s policies could better support innovation in teaching.

Student Financial Support

The financial burden college often places on students can greatly impact their success.

Short Term Strategies

  • Evaluate the effectiveness of communications and timeliness of customer service from financial offices.
  • Enhance efforts to connect students with part-time jobs, internships, and other opportunities to earn money while attending school.
  • Continue efforts to promote open educational resources to reduce costs for students.

Long Term Strategies

  • Identify ways to expand financial aid and scholarship opportunities, particularly for low-income and first-generation students and for emergency expenses.
  • Expand financial literacy programs to equip students with budgeting and debt management skills.

Student Support Services

Personalized student care, enhanced mental health services, and improved transition programs are all support services that lead to success.

Short Term Strategies

  • Increase proactive well-being programming for all students.
  • Improve access to mental health counselors, proactive mental health programming, as well as group and individual counseling in residence halls. 
  • Better facilitate connections between UNT students and student groups with local community resources.

Long Term Strategies

  • Expand the Emerald Eagle Scholars program to initially include all Promise Program students, and eventually all TEXAS Grant eligible students.
  • Expand the ACCESS Mentoring program to provide additional peer mentoring support.
  • Develop extended orientation programs during First Flight, similar to the First-Gen Experience, for other groups needing additional support, such as transfer students.

Systems and Processes

Navigating university systems and processes at a large institution can be a barrier to student success.

Short Term Strategies

  • Convene a task force to identify ways to consolidate and streamline the number of systems students need to interact with at UNT.
  • Identify scalable digital solutions that will help staff and faculty free up time for more personal interactions with students.
  • Evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of “Scrappy Says” in meeting students’ needs and answering common questions.

Long Term Strategies

  • Create a student portal that houses all platforms a student may need to utilize, including MyUNT, Canvas, OrgSync, Navigate, etc., utilize Single Sign On and include the ability for students to receive personalized notifications. Mobile-friendly access would be helpful. 
  • Conduct a review with major stakeholders of the different systems in place and their capabilities to determine how they could be better utilized and implemented to their full potential (i.e. using CourseLeaf to plan further out for future schedules, consolidating student communications, scheduling appointments, and using predictive analytics in EAB Navigate, etc.).
  • Identify how the full capabilities of Navigate could be utilized to support student success. 
  • Implement data-driven assessment methods to track the impact of interventions and programs on student success to identify what works best and allocate resources more effectively.

Priority Recommendations

The project team has identified several recommendations that they suggest as priorities for implementation. These are categorized into two groups: activities that can be implemented quickly (Quick Hits) and activities that could have a large impact (Long-term High Impact).

Quick Hits

  • Create a Task Force for Advising Best Practices (representation from the Senior Advisors Group, Academic Associate Deans Council, University Counselor and Advising Network, Student Affairs) to provide guidance on efficient and effective
    practices to advising offices across campus.
  • Expand the Emerald Eagle Scholars Program, which will, in turn, expand ACCESS Mentoring (currently underway for fall 2025).
  • Develop extended orientation programs during First Flight, similar to the First-Gen Experience, for other groups needing additional support, such as transfer students.
  • Identify existing training resources for faculty mentoring graduate students and coordinate between the Toulouse Graduate School, colleges, and departments to implement a schedule of workshops on graduate faculty mentoring.
  • Promote existing student support resources more effectively through targeted emails, social media campaigns, and classroom announcements.

Long-term High Impact

  • Develop a Student Success Data Team with a continuing focus on reviewing institutional data to look at student success and identify areas of need or opportunity to impacts of change. This team could help identify pinch points in degrees, identify at-risk student groups (such as late admits who were identified as at-risk from previous data reviews), and consult with colleges at regular intervals each year to advance data-based student success strategies.
  • Create a system of liaisons from offices such as Financial Aid, Registrar, etc. to advising offices.
  • Have the Responsive Course Scheduling Task Force utilize Academic Planner to predict course enrollments and build a schedule that accommodates student degree progression, including strategic scheduling to allow for reliable multi- semester schedule planning guidance to students.
  • Provide students with more practical information related to their field of study and possible careers through required internships/research and information on the realistic expectations and career options for UNT graduates.
  • Create a Student Portal, accessible via mobile app or online and utilizing Single Sign On, that houses all platforms a student may need to access.
  • Create a unified approach to messaging and communication with students.
  • Implement standardized communication protocols and training for staff across departments to ensure students receive accurate, coordinated and consistent messaging, and provide students quick access, such as through a mobile app, to critical information.
  • Establish a “Teaching Success Center” within Academic Affairs to provide training to faculty, instructional resources to departments, and assistance in identifying and addressing instructional challenges that impact student success.

Next Steps

The Student Success Scan project team collected information from the university community during the Fall 2024 semester to identify major challenges related to student success at UNT and potential solutions. The suggested recommendations in this report are the first steps of an on-going, iterative process planned by the UNT administration to develop strategies to improve student success. As next steps in this continuing effort, the project team recommends a deeper dive into the quantitative data on student success that is available to the university to establish baseline comparisons for the measurement of outcomes from strategies that are implemented in response to this report. An external scan of programs and activities from peer institutions could also provide additional models for successful approaches to the challenges that UNT and its students face. On-going efforts to improve student success at UNT will benefit from the insights gained from both internal data analysis, assessment of outcomes from implementation activities, and adaptation of external models to address our specific challenges.

The authors of this report utilized Microsoft 365 Copilot, a large language model, for assistance with analyzing and summarizing survey data.