Glossary

The vocabulary, defined.

These terms get used loosely and often interchangeably when they shouldn't be. Each entry gives a one-sentence answer first, then the detail that matters for an institution.

Student retention

First-generation student: A first-generation student is one whose parents did not complete a bachelor's degree, the definition in federal law for the TRIO programs. Institutions vary.
Persistence: Persistence is the share of students who stay enrolled in higher education anywhere from one year to the next, even at an institution other than their first.
Student retention: Student retention is the share of students who return to the same institution the next academic year, usually measured for a full-time, first-time fall cohort.

Student engagement

Sense of belonging: Sense of belonging is a student's perception that they are known, accepted and expected at their institution: the state campus involvement is meant to produce.
Student engagement: Student engagement is how connected a college student is to their institution beyond coursework, through organisations, programming and campus relationships.

Career readiness

ACE credit recommendation: An ACE credit recommendation is an American Council on Education evaluation of what credit a course could be worth. It is not credit: institutions decide.
Career readiness: Career readiness is the set of competencies that let a graduate perform in a workplace and manage a career, plus the ability to demonstrate them to an employer.
Durable skills: Durable skills are transferable human capabilities such as communication, critical thinking and leadership that stay valuable as roles and technologies change.
Employability: Employability is how hireable a person is given labour-market conditions: a property of the person relative to the market, so it moves when the market does.
NCCRS: NCCRS, the National College Credit Recommendation Service, evaluates learning delivered outside colleges and publishes credit recommendations, not credit.

Measuring outcomes

Co-curricular: Co-curricular describes learning an institution organises alongside the academic curriculum: tied to stated learning outcomes, but carrying no academic credit.
Co-curricular record: A co-curricular record is an institutionally validated record of a student's learning outside the classroom: leadership roles, service and structured programs.
High-impact practices: High-impact practices are a specific, named list of teaching and learning practices catalogued by the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
Student affairs assessment: Student affairs assessment is the systematic collection and use of evidence about what students learn through the programs a student affairs division provides.

General

Induction: Induction is when a nominated student becomes a full member of the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), earned by completing five required steps.