The Student Success and Retention Initiative was launched in fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025 to help further align financial incentives in retention efforts. One of the key priorities of UWM’s 2030 Action Plan is student success, and UWM seeks to raise graduation rates from 47.6% to 55.1% by fall 2027, as well as close equity gaps in these graduation rates.
If we were to achieve this improvement in graduation rates and hold new student enrollment steady, undergraduate enrollment would increase by ~1,800 students or 10% above current levels. This would not only positively impact our students in many ways, but it would generate approximately $18-20 million annually. See the program overview document.
OAIR and BFS calculated the impacts of this initiative in its first year, and seven of nin colleges received distributions due to improvements in retention from fall 2023 to fall 2024.
While there was improvement in retention rates, every college still has significant opportunities to further improve retention rates. See the full spreadsheet of retention and awards.
As many of you may recall, last year, approximately 2,067 students didn’t re-enroll from fall 2023 to spring 2024 despite being eligible to do so, which even conservatively using resident tuition rates amounted to $8 million in foregone revenue to the institution across associate, bachelor, and graduate degree programs. Under the Activity Based Budget Model, in fiscal year 2026, colleges will receive in-year distributions, and so improvements over prior year retention will automatically be rewarded starting in FY26.