Arizona’s Universities—Student Success—Universities have established goals and designed strategies to improve student retention and graduation rates, and can enhance these efforts by consistently evaluating strategies and improving strategic plans

The State’s universities—Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and the University of Arizona (UA)—have established goals and appropriate strategies for improving student retention and graduation rates and can further enhance these efforts by more consistently evaluating their strategies and improving their strategic plans. The Arizona Board of Regents worked with the universities to establish student retention and graduation goals for each university to meet by 2025, and all three universities have developed multiple strategies that may help them achieve these goals by addressing common obstacles students face to staying in school and graduating in a timely manner. However, the universities’ evaluations of these strategies did not always address important evaluation components. Therefore, they should develop and implement university-wide guidance to more consistently evaluate their student retention and graduation strategies that aligns with program evaluation best practices. In addition, although the universities’ strategic plans include some best practice components, they should better align their strategic plans with their student retention and graduation goals and strategic-planning best practices.