Case Study: Connecticut State Colleges and Universities achieves higher retention and on-time graduation with Ellucian Degree Works

Keeping students on track with digital interventions

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, a 17‑institution public system serving about 85,000 students, faced a high advisor‑to‑student ratio and needed to improve advising efficiency to keep students on track to graduate on time. To address this, the system partnered with Ellucian and deployed Ellucian Degree Works as part of its advising toolkit.

Ellucian implemented Degree Works (along with CRM Advise and a mobile app) to let students and advisors set educational plans and use red/green/yellow dashboards to flag at‑risk students for rapid outreach. Ellucian’s solution added text messaging and mobile interventions that produced quicker response times and higher student engagement, boosting the system’s ability to retain students and graduate them on schedule.

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities

Joseph Tolisano

Chief Information Officer