Serving all students: A study of learner mindsets

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes already underway in higher education, including a reduced pool of "traditional" students, an increasing societal need for lifelong credentialing and skilling, the rise of alternative education providers (such as private education companies, bootcamp providers and employers) and changing student expectations.

For many colleges and universities, succeeding in this context means both improving service to existing students as well as pivoting to serve new student segments across the learner lifetime. Doing this well means understanding learners’ varied journeys and motivations.

To help, Accenture conducted research on how colleges and universities can differentiate their approach to serving learners across a lifetime, inside and outside the classroom, to improve student satisfaction, experience, outcomes and equity.

In Summer 2021, we surveyed 6,500+ post-secondary US learners aged 16 to 65+. Our research went beyond most student surveys to include the population of "all learners"—that is, both current and prospective students, those seeking either academic degrees or professional certificates, and those attending or considering any type of post-secondary education provider.

Our study revealed a high degree of alignment in current satisfaction within and across segments. Students are most satisfied with how colleges and universities describe their academic program offering and then provide academic advising to help students navigate through it. Students are less satisfied with the level of support they are receiving in critical non-academic areas, such as financial counseling, mental health and wellness and disability support. For every segment, "Greater flexibility around coursework modality (online, onsite, hybrid opportunities)" emerged among the top-four desired program improvements.

Accenture’s research also uncovered program and service delivery preferences by segment. All segments have a good mix of students who want in-person vs. online. These findings suggest that colleges and universities need to deliver nearly all services well across modalities. Without that ability, they risk losing large portions of their target segment(s) of students.

Delivery preference for some activities cuts across segments. Students do value in-person delivery—especially for certain deeply relevant experiences, such as graduation, internships and clubs/organizations. Students generally do not want in-person interactions for most administrative services (for example, researching programs, applying, registering for classes, paying bills, getting IT support and reviewing records).

For some activities, there is correlation between segments and delivery preferences. For example, some segments have a greater preference for in-person delivery for some activities than other segments. These differences will be important when targeting and serving specific segments.

Together, these findings present a strong imperative for institutions starting to think differently about how they serve students. The insights can help institutions appropriately assess service gaps, address student needs and expand their reach to new learner groups. To do this, institutions can use our toolkit of offerings to accomplish one or all of these pivotal goals.