2026 Student Success and Planning Conference

In this session, we will go over some tips and tricks for our current student success and planning tools which include, uAchieve, TES, and Transferology! This session will be focused on the program and transfer encoding side of the student success and planning tools.

As demand for disability accommodations grows, accessibility teams must respond to increasing caseloads and more complex student needs. This session explores how the Center for Accessibility Resources developed a dynamic data dashboard to identify trends, guide staffing and service decisions, and improve support. Learn how data-driven insights strengthened connections to campus resources, enhanced service delivery, and improved access, retention, and student success.

Minneapolis College has compared its policies with 2-year colleges, state universities, and private colleges seeking more-student-centered practices and has found 2-year colleges often have the most stringent policies (e.g., pass/fail grading, last date of attendance, semester length). As Equity 2030 challenges us to change practice and Workday Student opens opportunity to do so, this session invites discussion on system and campus policies as levers for increasing equity and student success.

The Student Resource Center and Student Life partnered together to receive the Hunger Free Campus Grant. Through this grant, we are able to focus on how to eliminate hunger and food insecurity on campus among students. The Student Resource Center oversees the Food Pantry and Student Life oversees Amy’s Food Depot. Through our efforts, we have increased usage and visibility of both resources, collaborated on events and put together the Hunger Free Campus Committee.

Building on the Transfer and Credit Mobility Summit held at Winona State University on September 18, 2026, this interactive session will explore what it means to move from credit transfer to holistic, student-centered credit mobility. We’ll highlight insights from the Summit, Ithaka S+R’s work on holistic credit mobility, and AACRAO’s Start from Yes approach, along with key data and common challenges. Through discussion and self-assessment, participants will identify strengths and opportunities on their campuses and consider priorities for future action planning.

Learn how to effectively use the ACE Military Guide to evaluate military courses and occupations and translate Joint Services Transcript (JST) into college credit. Explore the additional details available in the ACE Military Guide beyond the JST, including learning outcomes, course length, and minimum passing scores. Gain practical strategies for using these resources to support military-connected students and maximize earned credit.

This session highlights work underway in the North Carolina Community College System to expand Credit for Prior Learning (CPL). Topics include awarding credit for military training and experience, strengthening credit mobility and transfer pathways between institutions, and building consistent, transparent CPL policies statewide. Attendees will hear about current initiatives, challenges, and opportunities for reducing time-to-degree and cost for veterans, adult learners, and transfer students.

Using AI for equivalencies and the CourseWise grant opportunity.

Minnesota colleges are expanding resources for students with foster care experience, but Foster-informed support goes beyond knowing what Foster supports already exist. Join Foster Advocates and Foster leaders for a conversation about navigating college, finding support and belonging, and what institutions can do differently. Attendees will hear from Fosters and leave with practical actions they can take within their roles and across their campuses.

This presentation will look at Minnesota State University Moorhead’s implementation of a Student Success Coaching Model, primarily aimed at increasing retention of first-year students through the Student Success Specialist role. The presentation will explore the strategies used to foster student engagement, promote proactive success coaching and examine their efforts to shift campus culture by normalizing help-seeking behaviors. Through this discussion, attendees will gain insight into the methodology, implementation, and positive results yielded from MSUM’s model.

This presentation provides an overview of the TES 5.0 beta release. Attendees will be introduced to several enhancements to help evaluate transfer credit and maintain equivalencies more efficiently, as well as additional changes to improve data security, performance, and accessibility. The timeline for the official launch will be reviewed and time will be allotted for questions.

The Network for Educational Development’s (NED) Student Success through Equity by Design (EbD) Cohorts and academic offerings provide structured opportunities for faculty and administrators to build capacity for advancing equity and improving student outcomes. This session introduces a scalable model that connects faculty practice, institutional strategy, and professional learning. Participants will explore how the Student Success through Equity by Design cohort program engages faculty and administrators in using course-level data and equity-focused redesign to address structural barriers to student success and how the NED academic equity offerings extend this work.

Join colleagues from Bemidji State University and Minnesota State University, Mankato for a conversation on building and expanding Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) programs at the university level. Panelists will share their institutions’ approaches to developing CPL infrastructure, including where they began with policy and procedures, strategies for increasing student awareness, engaging faculty, and cultivating employer partnerships. The discussion will explore challenges encountered, resources leveraged, and effective practices that have supported implementation and growth. Participants will gain practical insights and lessons learned that can inform their own efforts to innovate, expand access, and strengthen CPL opportunities for learners across the Minnesota State system.

Metro State University’s Student Apprenticeship Program connects academic learning with paid, workplace-based experience that prepares students for career success. Students gain valuable skills, earn a credential, reduce educational debt, and access living-wage career opportunities. Employers benefit by developing a skilled and diverse talent pipeline. Unlike Registered Apprenticeships, this program offers flexible, non-registered apprenticeship experiences tailored to student and employer needs.

Military-connected students bring unique experiences, strengths, and challenges to our campuses. This session explores who these students are, the impact of military life on their educational journey, and practical ways educators and staff can foster connection, belonging, and success. Leave with greater awareness and actionable strategies to create a more supportive campus experience for military-connected students.

Transferology, our systemwide transfer portal is where students can view personalized results instantly! Students can enter and import courses, view course-by-course equivalencies, and view how their courses complete program requirements in a just few simple steps. The onboard Statistics Reports allow colleges and universities an overview of how Transferology and Transferology Lab are being used. We will walk through functionality, on-demand, videos, and more!

This session details a Transfer Coaching Community (TCC) providing holistic support for transfer students. Transfer students bring valuable experiences but often face distinct challenges navigating a new university environment with a compressed graduation timeline. Presenters will share TCC components, strategic partnerships, and assessment data showing increased student confidence and sense of belonging. Attendees will gain actionable strategies to implement a tailored coaching program.

Co-requisite composition serves some of our most under-resourced students. Singular changes don’t meet the complex needs that prevent these students from succeeding. This session shares how Minneapolis College took a comprehensive approach (overhauling curriculum, rethinking course modality, revising policies, and embedding academic coaches) over a two-year period to create measurable change in student success, increasing success rates by nearly 25%. Discussion will invite honest conversation about the institutional conditions that make this kind of work possible and point to some of the barriers to sustainability of the efforts.

Career readiness has become a critical component of student success and post-graduation outcomes. Faculty can play a key role in helping students connect their academic experiences to meaningful career pathways. In this interactive session, faculty from Metro State University will share practical examples from initiatives and activities they created to strengthen students’ career readiness throughout their academic journey. Attendees will leave with adaptable ideas and resources that can be implemented across disciplines to support students in translating their education into fulfilling careers and lifelong success.

Wondering what happens when a transfer evaluation is run? Find the path through IREFs, I2U, U2I, Rules, and Evaluation Groups as we walk through all of the processing.

Vertical transfer from community colleges to universities is often identified as a pathway to increase enrollment. However, nationally, although over 80% of community college students say when beginning college that their goal is to attain a bachelor’s degree, only 17% do so within six years. Within the Minnesota State system, around 12% of transfer students acquire that degree within six years. There has been research regarding the barriers, but the 4-year university faculty voice is missing or underrepresented. Therefore, questions exist about what faculty believe, experience, and recommend for improvement. This study attempts to answer those and other questions based on responses from our system universities.

In this session we will review how the UMN Twin Cities uses data to support transfer students. Specifically, this session will include an overview of a transfer student “leaver” project that sought to understand why transfer students left the UMN Twin Cities prior to graduating and how we are using this data to better support transfer students. This session will also include a brief overview of our campus-wide retention dashboard and outreach protocol for “at risk” students.

Join colleagues from Rochester Community and Technical College, Metro State University, and Anoka Ramsey Community College for a discussion on developing “certificates to credits” pathways. Learn how these institutions evaluate and award academic credit for industry-recognized certifications, workforce training, and community-based learning experiences including: strategies used to build equivalencies, challenges encountered, lessons learned; resources to support implementation, and examples of credit for prior learning (CPL) options for workplace experiences requiring individualized assessment.

System condition codes are an extremely useful tool in the encoding skill set. They allow students to be tagged with attributes to turn on or off conditional requirements and sub-requirements. This session will demonstrate how to utilize System Condition Codes when conditional requirements and sub-requirements are needed.

The Online & Remote Tutoring RFI was issued to gather market intelligence on solutions capable of delivering scalable, equitable, and high-quality academic support across Minnesota State’s multi-institution environment. We would like to share its outcomes, market intelligence gathered and next steps (i.e. Request for Proposal) with a wider stakeholder audience.

Ridgewater College uses a CRM-based “no show” check-in to identify students not attending classes at the start of each term. A No Show Team contacts students to understand barriers, connect them with resources, and support appropriate financial aid disbursement. This session will share the workflow, including faculty, academic coaches, counselors, student success, and financial aid, and highlight the impact of cross-campus collaboration.

The transition to college is a significant developmental milestone for all students, but deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind (DHHDB) students often navigate additional academic, social, communication, and environmental barriers that can affect their sense of belonging and overall success. Join this session to explore practical, evidence-informed strategies that support deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind students as they transition to college. Participants will consider how communication access, self-advocacy, belonging, mental health, and accessible technology shape student success. The session will highlight collaborative campus approaches that promote resilience, independence, engagement, and well-being through inclusive, culturally responsive support.