By: Bryan Ashton
Over 43 million Americans have begun their college journey and completed some credits, but lack a credential of value to show for their academic progress. The some college, no credential (SCNC) population continues to grow year after year, outpacing the number of students who do choose to re-enroll and make progress toward their degree.
As higher education institutions consider ways to prioritize student success, creating pathways for students who began and didn’t finish their degree to complete is critical, aiding both in student trust in the institution and improving public perception of higher education.
Re-engagement efforts across the sector lag, with only 2.7 percent of working-age SCNC students re-enrolling, according to 2023-24 data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Among those who elect to return to college, only 18 percent will finish their credential in two-years, indicating opportunities to promote student success for re-enrollees.
Trellis Strategies offers a toolkit on how colleges can best support their SCNC students, not only helping them return to higher education but also graduate with a degree.
Assess Cause for Student Stop Out
To best support re-enrollees, institutions should understand why students left in the first place with the goal of creating resources to aid completion. Each student will face unique challenges while enrolled in higher education, but national and institution-level data can reveal trends in why students choose to walk away from their academic program.
Trellis’ spring 2025 Some College, No Credential Survey found, across 3,200 students in 13 states, personal finances (35 percent) was the most common reason students left higher ed, followed by family or personal reasons (32 percent) and cost of attendance (25 percent).
Colleges can also engage in other means of data collection. Exit surveys of departing students can provide qualitative feedback, exploring why students left and what they’d need to return, and surveys of faculty or staff can give insights into campus policy, procedure and practice.
Complete the Checklist
A growing trend in higher education is moving from a paradigm of “student readiness” to “institutional readiness.” In other words, rather than considering a student’s personal and academic preparation to engage in college, administrators and practitioners should evaluate the institution’s preparation to engage diverse learners with various life experiences, backgrounds and attitudes toward postsecondary education.
To help colleges and universities move toward institutional readiness, Trellis Strategies compiled three planning checklists to assess current campus practices and policies and develop strong re-enrollment initiatives.
Topics include assessment and feedback (Has the campus identified the primary reason for student departure and barriers to re-enrollment?), student friendly resources (Has the campus developed opportunities for students to engage in non-credit activities prior to the start of credit activities?), and prevention processes (Has the campus implemented a referral channel for faculty and staff to identify students at risk of dropping out?).
Identify Your SCNC Population
At the campus level, administrators should leverage institutional data to identify all past students who have accumulated credit hours, but are not currently enrolled. This data can be run against the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) system, pinpointing which students are not enrolled at any college or university.
Systems-level data can also showcase which students are nearer to completion based on credit hours or face impediments to re-enrollment created by the institution, including academic, financial or Title IV holds.
From there, colleges can consider their SCNC population in three groups: those with no barriers for re-enrollment, those with limited barriers and those with significant barriers. Understanding the persona of your SCNC population can help determine outreach priority and re-enrollment strategies.
In addition, colleges can expand their efforts to enroll students in the SCNC population by exploring those in their region or near their campus using Trellis’ Some College, No Degree tool. The tool matches completion data with census data, showing what share of adults in various counties have some college credits but have yet to complete a degree.
Design Student-Friendly Practices
Few stopped out students are interested in re-enrolling in a college that is unchanged from the one they left if that means they continue to face financial, academic or personal challenges which pushed them to leave in the first place. Campus customer service plays a crucial role in enrollment and retention, helping meet student expectations and building trust.
Colleges should consider simple, flexible and friendly procedures to make re-enrollment smooth for the returner.
Some of these processes can include:
- Easy re-application buttons on their website
- Timely transcript review
- Offering credit for prior learning
- Balance forgiveness for unpaid finances
- Offering multiple term start days
- Establishing flexible and predictable course scheduling opportunities
Begin Re-Engagement Outreach
Now that the SCNC population has been identified, barriers have been exposed and institutional processes adapted to assist stopped out students, the college can begin outreach. These practices are based on effective Trellis’ work in re-enrollment support; of the 168,000 students Trellis has contacted, nearly 7 percent have re-enrolled, double the national average rate.
Outreach should not be one-size-fits all, but rather targeted campaigns based on factors like how long a student has been out of the classroom and if the student is returning to the same institution or transferring in. Messaging that connects re-enrollment to employment and specifically regional workforce opportunities can align with students’ perception of value and incentivize completion.
Campaigns should be multichannel and have immediate next steps for interested students, connecting them to advisers and degree mapping tools to help them understand pathways to completion. Melt can be a challenge, even for colleges with multiple start dates, so engaging in frequent communication can provide a sense of belonging to the student and ensure no additional barriers pop up between enrollment and a student’s first day back in class.
For more research and insights into how your campus can better support SCNC students, Trellis Strategies provides re-engagement support, data and more. Contact Trellis here.