AASCU Washington Policy Update – February 2025

January 24, 2025

Hear about notable activities on Capitol Hill.

Academic Planning for Equitable Student Success

An initiative designed to elevate the importance of the course schedule and leverage it to improve student outcomes in higher education.

Removing barriers to student success.

One of the most essential elements to a student’s academic success is getting the courses they need to complete their degree. Yet, research indicates that at most institutions, the course schedule has become a structural barrier to success.

AASCU received funding from The Ascendium Education Group to improve course scheduling and ensure that access to courses required for degree completion is not a barrier to success, especially for low-income students and students of color.

Created in partnership with Ad Astra, the project included: two convenings, monthly webinars, benchmarking with technical assistance, data coaching, and change management consulting for eleven institutions. These structured engagements supported institutional capacity for data-informed course scheduling and improved scheduling policies and practices.

Participants

After an initial application process, 11 institutions from AASCU’s SSEI Initiative were selected to participate. The following map identifies the states represented by participating institutions and the number of participants in that state.

–

Guam

Puerto Rico

U.S. Virgin Islands

Bahamas

Canada

Mexico

Outcomes

Through this work, institutions have identified actionable strategies to:

Improve degree velocity
Close equity gaps
Improve course scheduling policies and practices
Align academic resources with student needs and academic pathways

Program Impact

Increase in momentum

For students starting in Fall 2023, there was an 8% increase in the overall momentum year rate, with rates for Native American, Black/African-American, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiians having an average increase of between 7% and 13%.

Increase in degree velocity

The average annual productive credits increased by 1% for students starting in Fall 2023 as opposed to students beginning in Fall 2022.

Texas A&M University

Had an increase of students taking 15+ credits per semester from 23% in fall 2023 to 45% in fall 2024.

Western Kentucky University

Had 25% improvement in the Overloaded Course Ratio, specifically in first-year (100-level) courses, between fall 2023 and fall 2024.

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

From fall 2023 to fall 2024, classroom utilization increased by 5%, while Primetime Compression decreased by 11%; in Fall 2024 Off-Grid Waste decreased over two percentage points compared to Fall 2023.

Texas A&M University-San Antonio

From fall 2023 to fall 2024, overall primetime utilization increased in classrooms while off-grid meeting pattern utilization decreased by 10% and off-grid waste decreased by three percentage points.

“Helping our member institutions reengineer their course scheduling policies and practices to put students at the center is a critical component of AASCU’s strategy to scale student success. The course schedule is the engine of degree completion. You simply cannot drive better outcomes without a course schedule designed with student success in mind.”

Terry Brown

Vice President of Academic Innovation and Transformation

AASCU

Resource

Course Scheduling Playbook

The playbook, created as a result of this initiative, is a guide for any institution interested in levering their course schedule as a strategy for improving student success. It introduces project phases designed to drive innovation and momentum, project management strategies, and relevant metrics, to support the teams empowered to do this work.

Download full report.

COVER Course Scheduling: A Strategy to Support Equitable Student Success Outcomes (2024)