Understanding Student Outcomes: A Data-Driven Approach to Success in Higher Education

Highlights: 

• Understanding student outcomes through data, including financial well-being, income trends, and employment, is crucial for higher education institutions to improve program effectiveness and demonstrate value.
• Analyzing student debt data and its impact on financial milestones helps institutions develop targeted interventions, financial literacy programs, and inform policy decisions for affordability.
• By combining institutional and economic data, institutions can identify student interventions that significantly impact economic mobility and quantify the return on investment of a degree.

In today's dynamic higher education landscape, understanding student outcomes is more critical than ever. Institutions are constantly seeking ways to improve program effectiveness, ensure return on investment (ROI) for students, and demonstrate value to stakeholders. Data plays a pivotal role in achieving these goals. By leveraging comprehensive data, we can gain deeper insights into student journeys, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately, enhance student success.¹

Financial Well-being and Graduate Success

One of the key aspects of understanding student outcomes is looking at their financial well-being post-graduation. Observing their financial resilience as they transition into life after college provides valuable insight into the overall effectiveness of your programs. This approach offers a unique lens to evaluate graduate success beyond traditional metrics.

By examining financial data, institutions can develop a more holistic picture of student outcomes. This includes tracking income trends, student debt levels, delinquency rates, and even home ownership. Understanding these financial indicators helps us see the tangible impact of education on our graduates’ lives.

Income and Employment Trends

Income data can reveal significant trends across different colleges and departments. For example, analyzing longitudinal wage outcomes can show which programs lead to higher earning potential for graduates. This data is especially useful for potential students and their families as they consider various degree options.

Similarly, examining employment industries and patterns can illuminate the pathways graduates take after leaving the institution. Tracking shifts in employment sectors, understanding where graduates migrate to, and seeing the industries where they find work can give us insight into how well our programs are aligning with career opportunities.

Student Debt and Financial Responsibility

Student debt is a prominent concern for many graduates. Having clear data on average loan balances, delinquency rates, and repayment patterns allows institutions to address these concerns proactively. By understanding how student debt impacts our graduates' ability to achieve financial milestones, we can better support them in their financial planning.

Detailed statistics on student debt provide a basis for targeted interventions and financial literacy programs. This data can also inform policy decisions aimed at alleviating student debt burdens and improving affordability.

Economic Mobility and ROI

Addressing affordability and demonstrating ROI are essential for higher education institutions. In an era where the cost of college is a significant concern, showcasing the value of a degree becomes crucial. With rising costs of attendance and decreased household incomes, schools are frequently challenged by public perceptions shaped by economic uncertainty, impacting how prospective students, current students, alumni, and their families all view the significance of higher education. 

Currently, the average cost of an in-state bachelor’s degree is over $38,000 and 6 in 10 high school students say they are unable to afford college without student loans.² Plus, 67% of graduates with student loan debt say that their student loans are preventing them from completing major life milestones, such as buying a home.³ 

Using data-driven insights, institutions can identify which student interventions have the most significant impact on students’ financial outcomes. By tracking salary trends, credit scores, and home ownership, we can better understand how various programs and support services contribute to economic mobility.

Using Data to Help: Identifying Student Interventions That Make an Impact on Economic Mobility

Often, institutions struggle to fully grasp and adapt to the specific needs of their students required to set them up for success. However, data-driven insights can empower institutional leaders to gain a clearer understanding of how student interventions can effectively contribute to positive outcomes for student populations. 

By combining institutional data, such as academic, program, treatment, and pathway data, and economic data from Equifax, including salary data, credit score, home ownership, and loan payment data, we can use AI and machine learning analysis to uncover unique trends, insights, and segments. For instance, we might find that participation in extracurricular activities or scholarships may have correlations to salary outcomes for certain student segments.

Putting into Numbers: Understanding the Effect of a Degree on Economic Mobility

Another critical application is quantifying the effect of a degree on economic mobility and showing the ROI. Despite affordability concerns, many institutions struggle to provide and measure the ROI of their programs due to a lack of data. One way that schools can determine the measurable ROI of a degree from their institution is to use a formula that incorporates the five-year median salary, average high school salary, and tuition cost. 

¹

Measuring departmental wage outcomes and comparing individual wages to parent household incomes can provide robust evidence of the financial returns of education.

Key Takeaways

A data-driven approach helps higher education institutions to:

1. Demonstrate the Value of a Degree: Provide stakeholders with solid evidence of the financial benefits of education.

2. Systematically Track Graduate Financial Health: Monitor trends in graduate outcomes over time to identify patterns and areas for improvement.

3. Develop Actionable Insights: Use graduate data to create meaningful, actionable insights that inform strategic decisions and improve program effectiveness.

Ready to level up your insights? Check out data-driven solutions for higher education institutions, powered by Equifax. 

Sources: 

1. Adapted from talk given at AIR Forum 2025 by Jason Berman and Brandi Recker

2. The Cost of College in 2024, Intelligent; 2023 College Savings & Student Debt Study, Fidelity

3. 2023 College Savings & Student Debt Study