At Indiana University, our definition of student success transcends outcomes like retention and graduation rates. While useful, these measures don’t show the whole of a student’s experience or honor the different ways that success might look for each student.
To this end, we’ve developed an undergraduate framework that includes nine domains we know contribute to student thriving. Rooted in research, these domains are positively correlated to concrete student success outcomes.
The framework consists of 9 domains, grouped into 3 meta-domains. They are as follows:
Holistic Support
Recognizing the need for a comprehensive approach to student support, we aim to equip students with the resources, skills, and resilience necessary for success.
Access and successfully manage resources to meet their basic needs.
Develop skills to facilitate their own wellness and well-being.
Understand, embrace and exhibit help-seeking behavior.
Academic Journey
We aim to empower students to seamlessly navigate their academic journey, build professional skills, and prepare for what's next.
Successfully navigate and grow in their IU academic career.
Actively engage in a practical, major and/or career-related experience.
Have a plan for employment, graduate school, government service, or a non-profit experience post-graduation.
Belonging
We aim to foster an inclusive environment where students build a sense of community, respect diverse peers, and develop relationships where they feel valued and connected.
Intentionally engage with and contribute to their university and local community.
Cultivate positive, sustained relationships with fellow students, staff, and faculty.
Demonstrate civil engagement and cultural competence.
Our goal for this framework is to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for all students, irrespective of their campus or major. We strive for a balanced approach that maintains uniform standards of excellence across the university while allowing individual units to tailor experiences that resonate with their students’ identities, goals, and interests. This allows each campus, office, and school to leverage their strengths to support our students.
As we embrace this approach, our office is committing to comprehensively assessing each of these domains to effectively tailor our services and resources to bolster IU’s student success ecosystem. Our units and projects directly address these domains (e.g. basic needs, well-being, academic pathway), ensuring every student has access to the supports they need to be successful throughout their journey.
