UH Hilo joins UH System’s renewed push to improve student outcomes
The National Institute for Student Success is helping the campus identify barriers and create a clear plan to better support students from enrollment through graduation.
In a University of Hawaiʻi 10-campus statewide initiative, UH Hilo is one of the first two campuses to partner with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) to internally examine policies and practices to spot issues that may unintentionally hold students back. NISS will help the campus identify those barriers and create a clear plan to better support students from enrollment through graduation.
The UH System launched the new effort this fall to boost student success by spotlighting effective strategies and ensuring students have a smoother, more supportive route to graduation. UH Hilo and Honolulu Community College are the first two campuses of the UH System to work with NISS.
“UH Hilo serves a unique population, many first-generation college students balancing work and family,” says UH Hilo Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin. “NISS will help us identify where our systems may be inadvertently creating roadblocks and give us the tools to clear those paths so more students can reach graduation.”
NISS’s track record shows what’s possible. At Georgia State University, its strategies cut “summer melt” (students who are accepted to college but don’t show up) in half. Other institutions that partnered with NISS have seen double-digit gains in first-year retention, and increases in graduation rates by more than 15 percentage points.
In-depth evaluation
The NISS team has been meeting regularly with task force groups at UH Hilo in the fall 2025 semester to look closely at how the campus supports students. The four-month review will result in a customized “playbook” with clear, research-based steps to improve retention, close student outcome gaps and raise graduation rates. The work is producing data that will bring clarity to decisions in the areas where students need more support.
When the NISS review ends, the campus can start implementing the recommendations. Some changes can be made right away, while others, such as updating advising structures, improving early alerts, redesigning high-failure courses and standardizing communication tools, will require broader coordination with faculty and staff.
The initiative is funded through the UH president’s performance funding, using part of the portion not allocated to campuses this year.
Read full story at UH System News.
