Doing the Work: How Collaboration Among America’s Biggest Colleges is Helping More Students Complete Their Degree

Michael M. Crow(Arizona State University), Kim Wilcox(University of California, Riverside), Bridget Burns(University Innovation Alliance), and Teresa Watanabe(Los Angeles Times) explore Doing the Work: How Collaboration Among America’s Biggest Colleges is Helping More Students Complete Their Degree ASU+GSV Summit 2021Short Session description emphasizing speakers, companies, and session title at the 2021 ASU+GSV Summit.Seven years ago, eleven of the nation’s largest research universities joined forces to tackle one of higher education’s most pressing challenges: degree completion, particularly among students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. Known as the University Innovation Alliance, the group sought to break down the silos that so often prevent colleges and universities from sharing best practices and learning from each other. The Alliance set an ambitious goal to graduate an additional 68,000 students in its first ten years. Now, after just six years, member institutions have graduated more than 73,000 additional students, increasing the number of graduates from low-income backgrounds by 36 percent and graduates of color by 73 percent. What does it take to build a culture of collaboration among the country’s biggest and most influential universities—and implement the sort of transformative practices that can put more students on a path to economic mobility? Join ASU President Michael Crow, UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox and Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, for a candid conversation around the successes, lessons, and challenges they’ve encountered throughout the UIA’s completion initiative, as well as the interventions – both internal and external – that more colleges can implement to help students complete their degree.