Resources
Everything in one place.
Original research, documented campus outcomes, and practical guidance, written for the people accountable for retention, engagement, and student success.
What do you need to do?
Research
The State of Higher Ed series
Our annual survey of students, graduates, recruiters, and administrators on the gaps between what campuses teach and what employers expect. Every edition is ungated.
State of Higher Ed 2026: The Experience, Skills & AI Gaps
Students believe they are ready for the workforce. Their schools are less sure. Employers are the least convinced of all. Three measurable gaps explain why.
State of Higher Ed 2026 in brief: every key figure on one page
The fast read: the 83.8% / 65% / 37% preparedness divide, the experience, skills and AI gaps, and five moves the data supports, in about four minutes.
State of Higher Ed 2025: Addressing the soft skills gap
Employers want problem-solving; only 51.5% of undergraduates rank it critical, a 36.8-point gap that students close themselves, years too late. 3,790 respondents on career preparedness, teamwork, communication, and the internships almost no one gets.
Guides
The Administrator's Guide
What it takes to bring a leadership program to your campus: the launch process, the advisor time commitment, what's included, and how to build the internal case.
By topic
Start where your problem is
Student retention
Co-curricular impact on persistence, first-year retention, and how to measure it.
Student engagement
Reaching the students your staff never see: belonging, involvement, and commuter and online populations.
Career readiness
What employers actually ask for, how to define it, and how to build it into a program.
Campus leadership programs
Building your own or bringing one in, curriculum requirements, and staffing without new headcount.
Measuring outcomes
Co-curricular assessment, high-impact practices, and reporting to leadership and accreditors.
Case studies
What this looks like on a real campus
Campus stories and reported outcome summaries. Each page explains the scope of the available evidence.
Coastal Carolina University
How Coastal Carolina's chapter built a trained student E-Board, raised its average induction rate from 33% to 46% with a peak of 49.8%, and received the NSLS Innovation Award.
Delgado Community College
Semester-to-semester retention among students who earned NSLS induction.
St. Petersburg College
In a one-campus pilot chapter, 24 students St. Petersburg College invited to join the NSLS were retained at a rate 37% above the college-wide rate.
Merrimack College
Reported retention among students who joined the NSLS.
William Paterson University
William Paterson went from a nearly inactive chapter to inducting more than 100 new members in spring 2022, and was named the NSLS's 2022 Chapter of the Year.
Webinars
Sessions for administrators
The NSLS Learning Center hosts recorded sessions on student success, engagement, retention, and career readiness, including panels with campus practitioners.
Want to talk through what this would look like on your campus? Book a campus walkthrough.