Better technology tools could help students finish their degrees

Many college students never complete their degrees. While there are many reasons for this, the cost is a significant factor. By implementing better technology tools, institutions may be able to increase the number of students that actually graduate. Better technology tools help students finish their degrees.

Only 46 percent of Americans who enroll in college complete their education, according to Ellucian. Often, it’s because of ineffective systems that don’t properly transfer credits or other vital information when students transfer from one school to another. It can even be related to losing financial aid as a result of poor class selections that cause GPAs to plummet. Whatever the reason, this is something that colleges and universities need to consider.

One quick solution would be to implement cloud-based software that facilitates the communication of data from one platform to another. A recent survey from Forbes found that cloud-based software enhances communication and collaboration capabilities within business organizations. This can also be true in higher education.

One example of this is scholarship management platforms that make the process of applying to multiple scholarships far easier by collecting data from a central system and applying it to each application. This approach could also potentially be used in transferring credits. In addition, scholarship management may be an additional way to deal with the issue of students not finishing their education.

While ineffective processes exacerbate the problem, students are often unable to finish their degrees because of financial issues. This means finding additional funding opportunities could be a great benefit. Scholarship funds do not need to be paid back, so they would not require students to take on additional debt. Unfortunately, scholarship applications can take a significant amount of time to finish, and when students are applying for multiple awards, the process can be overwhelming. Platforms like CommunityForce’s scholarship management solution enable them to complete the process more quickly by eliminating much of the manual data input.

By implementing more effective processes throughout higher education, these institutions may be able to streamline procedures in a way that prevents students from dropping out.