The University of North Carolina Asheville has been selected to join a national cohort of more than 35 higher education institutions participating in a student success initiative led by the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education in partnership with the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC), with support from the Gates Foundation.
UNC Asheville is the only institution within the University of North Carolina System chosen to take part in the programme, titled Advancing Student Success: Strategic Prioritization for Student Success. The initiative is designed to help colleges and universities strengthen student outcomes through structured planning, institutional assessment, and long-term academic strategy.
The programme provides participating institutions with an evidence-based framework aimed at improving student learning, retention, and completion rates. Campus leaders will gain access to customised reports, facilitated planning sessions, strategic prioritisation tools, and implementation roadmaps aligned with the Gardner Institute’s Six Transformation Principles.
The selection marks a significant development for UNC Asheville as universities across the United States continue to focus on improving graduate outcomes, student engagement, and workforce readiness amid growing scrutiny over higher education performance and value.
Andrew (Drew) Koch, chief executive officer of the Gardner Institute, said the initiative is intended to help institutions move beyond isolated student support programmes and towards broader institutional transformation.
“My Gardner Institute colleagues and I are honored and excited to partner with UNC Asheville and COPLAC in this important work,” said Andrew (Drew) Koch, chief executive officer of the Gardner Institute. “Our experience — supported by external evaluation of our work — shows that programs, while necessary, are not enough on their own to produce lasting gains in student learning and success. Institutions make the greatest progress when they develop and implement a comprehensive plan for student success. This effort will help UNC Asheville bring together strong existing work into a more coherent whole, informed by the Institutional Transformation Assessment and the collective wisdom and contextual knowledge of its faculty and staff.”
The initiative reflects a wider trend across the higher education sector towards data-driven decision-making and integrated student support systems. Institutions participating in the programme are expected to assess existing academic structures and identify areas where coordination and strategic investment can improve educational outcomes.
UNC Asheville Provost Yvonne Russell said the partnership would strengthen the university’s existing focus on student achievement and career preparation.
“This partnership enables us to refine and reinforce our strong commitment to student success on our campus,” said UNC Asheville Provost Yvonne Russell. “We know that by coordinating our efforts—including our new First-Year and Senior Year Seminars—we can ensure that our public liberal arts and sciences mission translates into career readiness for every student. Our students thrive in a campus-wide environment that supports their values, passion, and dreams into concrete post-graduate pathways and empowers them to leverage every opportunity inside and outside of the classroom to create lives of purpose and meaning.”
The university said participation in the initiative would support efforts to align academic experiences with measurable career and post-graduate outcomes. This includes enhancing pathways that connect classroom learning with professional development opportunities both within and beyond the university environment.
COPLAC, which represents public liberal arts institutions across the United States, is serving as a strategic partner in the initiative. The organisation is working alongside the Gardner Institute to support participating colleges and universities as they implement student success strategies tailored to their institutional goals and campus structures.
The Gardner Institute will oversee the design and facilitation of the process for all institutions involved in the cohort. The organisation has previously worked with universities and colleges across North America on institutional transformation projects aimed at improving equity, student persistence, and academic achievement.
The latest initiative comes at a time when higher education institutions are under increasing pressure to demonstrate value through improved completion rates and employment outcomes. Universities are also facing challenges linked to student retention, affordability, and changing expectations around career readiness.
For UNC Asheville, participation in the national cohort positions the university within a broader network of institutions seeking to modernise student support systems and strengthen institutional effectiveness through coordinated, evidence-based planning.
