Public university turns to Wave to help track key performance indicators (KPIs) in its student-success-focused transformation program

A large North American university launched a transformation program focused on six strategic areas to help drive student success.

It looked at ways to innovate its curriculum and transform the way students are taught.

Seeing the importance of integrating technology, the university developed ways to digitize learning platforms and incorporate artificial intelligence and analytics to refine data and learn more about its students, staff, and community.

In addition to transforming education and integrating technology, other key focus areas of the program included understanding the path of graduate students, finding ways to increase student acquisition, and increasing alumni involvement.

Wave was brought in during the early stages of the program and provided a clear governance structure for the initiatives during the original framing of the opportunity.

The organization’s focus was not on tracking financial impact but rather tracking KPIs.

In a customized tab within Wave, there are 39 KPIs tracked across four distinct themes: student success, finances, faculty and staff research, and diversity. Some of these KPIs include the following:

• Increasing retention rates
• Time it takes to complete college term
• Reducing number of students on academic probation

The entire program is slated to last through 2027, with investments reaching $2 billion. To make the long-term vision sustainable, Wave was configured to track incoming streams in order to cover the initiatives and to identify any funding gaps.

Usage of Wave is being seen across all levels of stakeholders involved in the program, such as deans and associate deans of the college, faculty senate and affairs, department heads, and fraternity and sorority leaders.

There has been an upward trend of Wave usage, with an active user rate of 91 percent (81 out of 89 users).