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Feb 13, 2024

University System of Georgia Working with Georgia State University’s National Institute for Student Success

University System of Georgia (USG) Chancellor Sonny Perdue today announced the successful start to an ongoing partnership with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) to close student achievement gaps and improve student enrollment, retention and college completion.

Jan 2, 2022

The Inside Story

Andrew Gumbel’s prize-winning book “Won’t Lose This Dream: How an Upstart Urban University Rewrote the Rules of a Broken System” recounts Georgia State’s highly successful efforts to level the playing field for students from all backgrounds.   Interview by William Inman (M.H.P. ’16) When he was first approached to write a book about Georgia State’s…

Jan 24, 2022

National Institute for Student Success Launches Partner Scholarship Program for Minority-Serving Institutions

ATLANTA – Georgia State University’s National Institute for Student Success (NISS) has launched a partner scholarship program to provide Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) access to the institute’s student support consulting services. The work is supported by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Partner scholarships…

Jan 29, 2021

Steppingblocks CEO Interviews NISS Executive Director

Students Success means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Interestingly in higher education, the term is a relatively new concept in terms of strategy, but over the last few years, some of the most innovative universities in the country are focused on implementing student success programs. In this interview, we…

May 18, 2022

Harvard Business School Podcast Discusses Georgia State Student Success

Georgia State University was facing a growing “summer melt” problem, where nearly 20 percent of incoming students never actually enrolled. The university used a data-based approach to retain students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds and help them graduate. Harvard Business School professor Mike Toffel and senior fellow Robin Mendelson discuss what the university…

Jul 7, 2021

NISS Executive Director Writes About Redesigning Universities for Equity

By traditional metrics, Georgia State University is far from elite. A large urban university in Atlanta with more than 50,000 students, the university is one of the largest minority-serving institutions in the country, with 75% of students being non-white and 60% Pell-eligible. Our student-to-faculty ratios are well above national averages and our tuition costs are…

Jan 24, 2022

Georgia State plans to improve student career outcomes by sharing job data

Georgia State University plans to create and expand information systems designed to help students find a job, using a $250,000 grant announced last week. The funding is part of a $10 million effort by the higher education nonprofits Strada Education Network and the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity to improve career outcomes at higher…

Oct 4, 2021

Closing the Achievement Gap at Georgia State University

Georgia State University’s successful decade-long effort to use big data to improve student success – especially among students of color and first-generation students ­– is the focus of the latest episode of the Talking About Cities podcast series hosted by Kresge Senior Fellow Carol Coletta. Dr. Tim Renick, senior vice president for student success, explains…

Nov 4, 2022

Spreading Roots

As Georgia State continues to expand the Atlanta Campus with new open space, new buildings and new uses for historic structures, it remains true to a legacy of existing hand in glove as part of the city.  

Jan 26, 2022

Fortune Names NISS Executive Director Tim Renick to Top 50 World Leaders

Confronted by Georgia State’s yawning achievement gaps—a little over a decade ago, graduation rates for African American and Hispanic students at the 50,000-plus-student school were barely above 20%—Renick, who is also a religious studies professor, turned to technology. Using big data and predictive analytics that Renick helped deploy, GSU preemptively targets students with financial aid…

Elevating Achievement, GSU Magazine

The National Institute for Student Success is showing that in higher education, there is, indeed, a better way.

An Educated Guest: Are We the Problem?

“Are we the problem?” This simple question would lead Dr. Tim Renick to leverage big data at scale and profoundly improve Georgia State University (GSU) students’ outcomes. In this episode of An Educated Guest, Todd Zipper, EVP and GM of Wiley University Services and Talent Development, welcomes Dr. Tim Renick, founding Executive Director of Georgia…

Sep 21, 2022

The Magical Move Leaders Can Make to Create Seismic Change

What if the most critical change in any organizational change is within the leaders?

The Edge: Teaching Colleges to Take Down Barriers They've Created

Goldie Blumenstyk, a senior writer at The Chronicle, covers innovation in and around higher ed. This week The Edge highlights the work of a new institute for student success.

Jun 14, 2023

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce

NISS Executive Director Tim Renick provides witness testimony to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce's hearing on Postsecondary Innovation: Preparing Today's Students for Tomorrow's Opportunities.

Jul 11, 2023

Response to the Supreme Court's Decisions to Overturn Affirmative Action and the Biden Administration's Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning, in rapid succession, affirmative action in college admissions and the Biden Administration’s plan to forgive federal student loans, I have been asked repeatedly about the impact of these rulings on the work of the NISS.  My response is straightforward: these decisions do not make our…

Jul 14, 2023

Is the affirmative action ruling a call for colleges to do better to help students 'where they are?'

Listen: NISS Executive Director Tim Renick discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action and how it should serve as a call for colleges and universities to fix post-admission issues.

University System of Georgia Strategic Plan 2024

The National Institute for Student Success is a feature of the USG's 2024 Strategic Plan.

Aug 23, 2023

Press Release: Launch of the NISS Acceleration Grants Program

The National Institute for Student Success (NISS) has launched an ambitious new program to catalyze improvement in student success outcomes nationally. The NISS Acceleration Grant program will award more than $12 million in funding to universities that display a commitment to improve graduation rates and reduce equity gaps through the adoption of a suite of…

Data and Student Success in Higher Ed - A Conversation With Tim Renick

A Conversation With Tim Renick, Executive Director, National Institute for Student Success at Georgia State University Sometimes innovation is about shiny new technology, and sometimes it’s about a fresh look at the data already at our fingertips. The University Innovation Alliance (UIA) always looks forward to sitting down with Dr. Tim Renick, Executive Director of…

Nov 30, 2023

National Institute for Student Success Receives Grant from the Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation

ATLANTA – The National Institute for Student Success (NISS) at Georgia State University received a grant from the Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation to fund pilot programs of one of the university’s most successful initiatives, Keep Hope Alive, at three higher-ed institutions in Georgia, including two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Through this grant, NISS will…

Feb 6, 2024

National Institute for Student Success Receives $4.96 Million Grant from the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation

ATLANTA—Georgia State University’s National Institute for Student Success (NISS) received a $4.96 million grant from the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation that will enable the institute to provide its services to more colleges and universities, with a focus on those serving students underrepresented in higher education.

Feb 13, 2024

University System of Georgia Working with Georgia State University’s National Institute for Student Success

University System of Georgia (USG) Chancellor Sonny Perdue today announced the successful start to an ongoing partnership with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) to close student achievement gaps and improve student enrollment, retention and college completion.

Mar 7, 2024

NISS Partner Schools See Marked Increase in First-Year Retention Ratess

Colleges and universities working with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) at Georgia State University saw a dramatic increase in retention rates among first-year students, according to data from Georgia institutions provided to the state’s university system.

Mar 8, 2024

Timothy Renick, head of Georgia State University’s National Institute for Student Success, explains how his university achieved results for disadvantaged students

Here’s a true story. Twenty years ago a large urban university in the US was graduating less than 30 per cent of the students who initially enrolled. It also had a major “equity gap”, with white students outperforming students of color, and students from richer families outperforming those from a low income background.