In recent years, higher educational institutions (HEIs) have come to rely more heavily on data-driven assessments for decision-making, including students’ satisfactory academic progress. The need for students to successfully complete courses also is causing HEIs to become more student centered by focusing resources on improving student retention and graduation rates. Student centeredness, in turn, requires a holistic approach to education—one that accounts for students’ diverse backgrounds, goals, and learning needs. Strategies to promote student success include increasing access to enhanced learning experiences, instructional techniques, and academic support services.
Beyond the Credential Factory: Why Higher Education Must Shift from Management to Flourishing
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that
Yoshitaka Iwasaki
August 3, 2026
