Case Study: Florida International University achieves a 10% increase in four‑year graduation rates with Tableau Software

Florida International University increases graduation rates by 10% with predictive modeling in DataRobot + Tableau

Florida International University (FIU), a large, minority‑ and Hispanic‑serving public university with nearly 60,000 students, needed a scalable way to understand and act on student risk factors after Florida tied funding to performance metrics. With many first‑generation and low‑income students and constrained staffing, FIU sought a forward‑looking, transparent analytics approach to improve retention, on‑time graduation, and compliance with state performance funding.

FIU deployed dozens of DataRobot predictive models integrated into nearly 200 Tableau dashboards, giving 10,000 administrators, faculty, and staff timely, self‑service insights into what drives student success. The effort produced a 10% increase in four‑year graduation rates, nearly half of Pell recipients graduating on pace, a >20‑point jump in state performance rankings to second place, more than 21,000 staff hours saved annually, and multi‑million dollar cost reductions by eliminating third‑party analytics contracts.

Florida International University

Paden Goldsmith

Assistant Director, Strategic Data Analysis