Arkansas Tech University

ATU finds a way to expand educational access without designated funding

With a determination to ensure access and increase degree completion, ATU identified stopout students as an area where they wanted to do more.

From technical career center expertise that serves high school students to degree programs at the associates, bachelors, masters, and doctoral level, Arkansas Tech University offers options and support to students at every step of the educational ladder — with more than 130 degree programs. Across all these domains, ATU currently serves over 11,000 students.

At the heart of providing such a diverse set of opportunities is a drive to ensure access to education. Dr. Jeff Aulgur, who chairs the Department of Professional Studies, explains: “Arkansas Tech continues to focus on access to education, which drives our strategic planning. Arkansas is a state where 1 out of 6 adults has a four-year undergraduate degree. That has been a challenge for this state historically. Any opportunity to help someone complete that degree is not just a benefit to the institution, but it builds a stronger state, and it builds a stronger economy.”

Despite wanting to support stopout students, Dr. Blake Bedsole, Vice President of Enrollment Management, explains that they faced a challenge with finding resources to provide this hard-to-reach population with the support they needed: “We wanted to increase the access for this population, we needed to do more to be able to go after them, but we didn’t have the resources.”

Customized support for stopout students

Looking for a creative solution and intrigued by a partnership model with no upfront costs, Dr. Bedsole reached out to ReUp Education. He describes how this approach fit their desire to impact students without needing any additional resources to get started: “The way ReUp’s partnership is structured, we get to work with this population, we get to find out what their concerns are, and we get them back into classes–and then we settle the financials on the back end. That was the main reason we were able to pursue the partnership.”

While it was important for the stopout approach to work well for the university, ultimately it had to work well for the students themselves by addressing their specific obstacles to access. Dr. Aulgur explains: “I think sometimes once people stop out along their journey, they just get it in their minds that it’s difficult to return. Or that there are too many barriers to overcome. What this partnership has allowed us to do is to assist those individuals in seeing that the barriers in most cases are surmountable. ReUp is assisting us in helping people see that there is an opportunity to return, and there are viable pathways to degree completion.”

Meaningful impact within one year

In the first year since launching the partnership, 181 stopout students have already re-enrolled.

A critical element of the partnership for ATU is the way that ReUp works to ensure that prior to re-enrolling, students are truly ready to return, and have a clear sense of how finishing their degree aligns with their vision for their future. Dr. Aulgur describes how setting a strong foundation with each student makes a difference: “ReUp’s front-end work in the partnership certainly speaks to retention and persistence. Because we talk about the roadblocks students face before they get to us, we are receiving a student that has an idea of what they want to do, where they want to go, and what degree they want to focus on. It allows us to use our internal advising expertise to find the best pathway.”

I think sometimes once people stop out along their journey, they just get it in their minds that it’s difficult to return. Or that there are too many barriers to overcome. ReUp is assisting us in helping people see that there is an opportunity to return, and there are viable pathways to degree completion.

— Dr. Jeff Aulgur

Chair, Department of Professional Studies

But for ATU, ensuring access for stopouts is not only a matter of making sure they are ready, and getting them re-enrolled. It is just as important to continually ensure that they are set up for success once they are back to help keep them from stopping out again. Dr. Aulgur explains why this is critical: “Just re-entering can be overwhelming. And navigating the system once you’re on the inside, is also a challenge. I think the second part of access with this is once they are back in, how can we ensure that they don’t get lost? If they encountered a challenge once, there’s a pretty good chance they are going to hit another challenge somewhere along the way.”

Recognizing the importance of continuing support for returning stopouts, ATU has found the ReUp partnership model well aligned with their vision for supporting access. As ReUp coaches continue to provide ongoing support to returning students term after term until they graduate, there is open communication between ReUp and ATU about what ReUp’s coaches are hearing from the students. The ReUp and ATU teams talk regularly about trends, brainstorm opportunities to improve the student experience, and find the ideal pathway for each student based on their specific needs. Dr. Aulgur summarizes the dynamic: “It’s a collaborative relationship with open communication. I appreciate just how easy it has been for our team to work together with the ReUp team.”

Ultimately what matters most is that the work of this partnership makes an impact in helping students in their individual journeys. One ATU returning student who is now progressing towards graduation shared the following with their ReUp coach: “I really appreciate all the time you have given me this semester and wanted you to know that it really made a difference for me. In all the crazy at least with my meetings with you I had time to focus on just me and my education for 30 minutes and refocus and realign myself.” Having this type of opportunity to regain clarity and focus is a great example of how ensuring access does not stop at re-enrollment, but continues on ensuring continuous support throughout the entire journey.

Looking ahead, ATU is excited to see how the impact of this work grows as ReUp continues to follow up with students who were not ready to return right away. Dr. Aulgur explains: “Generally for adult learners, life gets in the way, and creates challenges for them. There is continued opportunity to recover students, as ReUp continues to reach out.”

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