Family engagement correlates with higher student retention at University of North Georgia
University of North Georgia (UNG) serves approximately 18,000 undergraduate students across five campuses. Before 2022, UNG didn’t have an official family communications plan for the large number of families they served. Parent and Family Orientation was the only source of information endorsed by UNG. On top of that, there were multiple parent-run Facebook pages, which made it difficult to control the narrative and prevent FERPA and student privacy violations from happening.
“It was quite the mess,” said Meredith Higgins, Associate Director, Student Retention & Success at UNG. “Our Director of Orientation & Transition Programs at the time would get notified anytime there were issues and arguments.”
UNG recognized the importance of families and the influence that they could have on student success and retention. But the lack of proactive communication caused confusion and concern among families — the UNG team knew that they needed a more strategic approach.
UNG’s first-gen families average a 72% open rate and 11% click rate!
In 2022 UNG turned to CampusESP to keep parents more properly informed with information they need to support their student. CampusESP helps UNG streamline university communication through a controlled, trusted environment. Moderated commenting in the platform allows UNG to reply directly to parent questions, while maintaining a positive tone.
Automated email newsletters from CampusESP share the information that UNG families need about important events, deadlines, and reminders to help their students stay on track. Content is personalized for specific UNG groups and campuses. Overall, UNG families are very engaged, averaging an email open rate of 62% and click rate of 5%. Families of first-generation students — who often need the most support — engage at even higher levels, with an average open rate of 72% and average click rate of 11%.
“We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel with our family communication strategy, which helped with getting our campus partners on board as well,” said Higgins.
Family engagement correlates with higher student retention
While increased engagement with a consistent message were big wins, some digging into the data revealed perhaps one of the biggest positive outcomes from the switch to CampusESP. UNG found a correlation between how often a family member received newsletters from CampusESP and student retention.
UNG reviewed 6,772 students enrolled in Fall 2022 with less than 30 earned hours and their retention to Fall 2023. Families that received an email newsletter from CampusESP more frequently were tied to higher student retention. In fact, students that had families receiving newsletters on a weekly basis retained at a 21.2% higher rate compared to students with families on a monthly or quarterly basis.
These results align well with growing communication expectations of today’s college parents. Most families of college students are looking for consistent content. 85% of families want weekly communication from their student’s college or university — a 20% increase over the last three years.
“Generation Z is the most connected generation to date and many of them talk to their parents on a daily basis. Students and their families are a package deal,” said Higgins. “And in just over a year, we’ve found that there’s a huge correlation between family engagement and the persistence of our students.”
More informed parents means better supported students. Connect them with the information they need consistently to strengthen student success and retention.
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