Coalition of 15 Research Universities Awarded Grant to Boost Student Success in Key Courses
The University Innovation Alliance (UIA) has received a $3.5 million grant led by Ascendium to find solutions for the problem of high dropout and failure rates in college gateway courses.
Founded in 2014, UIA is a coalition of 15 public research universities that focuses on solving two persistent problems in higher education: 1) an insufficient number of college graduates across the socioeconomic spectrum to keep the U.S. economically competitive, and 2) a tendency for universities to work in isolation, resulting in a failure of many promising interventions to attain a reasonable scale.
Over the years, it has tested and scaled several interventions developed at member campuses designed to improve student success. UIA began by building a strong predictive analytics capability that used institutional data to identify key predictors of student outcomes. Building on those tools, it introduced intrusive advising practices, providing students with individualized academic maps and early, real-time alerts to keep them on track.
