Student Success Initiatives

Graduation Help Desk

The Graduation Help Desk is here to help students overcome obstacles to timely graduation. Retention and Completion Programs support students by developing solutions to complex academic and non-academic issues that could adversely impact persistence or completion. After working with their academic advisor, students who are still facing unresolved obstacles will contact the Graduation Help Desk for assistance at graduationhelp@uta.edu. 1896 student referrals have been resolved since its inception in 2017.

SUCCESS WITH ACADEMIC TIMELINESS (SWAT)

The Success with Academic Timeliness (SWAT) initiative process starts with the Graduation Help Desk and Retention and Completion Programs and involves the review of degree progress for students with >90 credit hours every semester. This in-depth review with campus-wide collaboration has increasingly resulted in identification of additional students for graduation. UTA has seen a 4% increase in the 4-year graduation rate and an 8% increase in the 6-year graduation rate since 2017 (IPEDS).

Academic Coaching

Academic Coaches help students with academic skills and college-life management skills applicable to a variety of subjects and situations. Academic Coaches will work individually with students to do an assessment and develop a customized plan for each student's unique needs. Students will evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, apply strategies, and reflect on the goals they have for academic coaching.

APLU Powered by Publics

UTA is a participant and the Metropolitan Cluster Lead in APLU’s Powered by Publics (PxP) initiative. Together with 11 other urban institutions we are working to close the achievement gap through the sharing of evidence-based practices and a focus on proactive advising and student employment.

Mavs RISE

Mavs RISE is an invitation-only admissions program designed to serve, support, and empower our first-year students who are conditionally admitted. The targeted support is tailored to each student to provide the right path for academic success.

Terry Scholars

The Terry Scholarship is a last dollar scholarship funded by the Terry Foundation, which was founded by Howard and Nancy Terry. Students must meet a set of academic and event attendance requirements to maintain this scholarship annually. Since 2015, over 110 students at UTA have earned this prestigious opportunity and have been challenged to achieve their highest potential in scholarship, leadership, and service while building a community with fellow Terrys, students, faculty, and staff of UTA.

UT System Equitable Student Pathways Project

Peer-led Team Learning

Weekly small group study sessions are offered to support STEM gateway courses with practice problem sets developed by faculty and facilitated by student leaders who were successful in the course. The goal is to help students gain a better understanding of the content, concepts, how to apply what is learned, and build a sense of community and belonging. Peer-Led Team Learning was launched in Fall 2020 with 278 students who participated with 2,876 contact hours provided for two courses (ENGR 1251 and MATH 1421). The PLTL Program, has expanded since its inception and now supports MATH 1426, MATH 2425, MATH 2326, CHEM 1441, CHEM 1442 and CHEM 1465. During Spring 2022, the program provided 35% student coverage as opposed to 20% during the pilot semester. The overall PLTL registrations for Spring 2022 totaled 450 students. This is a 62% increase of student registrations from the program’s inception. The goal for Fall 2022 is continue expansion to 50% student support and add additional STEM courses such as Organic Chemistry and Physics.

Supplemental Instruction

Structured group study sessions are offered to support historically difficult courses which are led by a student leader who was previously successful in the course and who attends the classes with the students. SI empowers students to develop improved comprehension of class material with the introduction of study techniques & strategies. Since 2020, 5,473 students have been served, and 30,210 contact hours have been provided to UTA undergraduate students in a wide range of courses.

Tutoring

Services include 1:1 appointment-based and just-in-time learning opportunities with 24/7 online support both in synchronous and asynchronous modalities. The tutoring programs have received two levels of International ITTPC Certification by CRLA (College Learning and Reading Association) ensuring a standard of excellence across all tutoring services. Since 2020, 2,909 students have been served, and 15,773 contact hours have been provided to UTA students in a wide range of courses.

Predictive Analytics

The University of Texas at Arlington uses predictive analytic tools, provided by Civitas Learning, to measure and monitor the persistence rates of students on its campus. This meaningful partnership helps UTA build a real-time analytics infrastructure that supports the programming and resources to support and maintain student success rates across our campus.

Support for Colleges

Each year the Division of Student Success provides financial support for student success initiatives happening in UTA Colleges. By supporting graduate students, peer academic leaders, microgrants, and more we hope to provide a spring board for our colleagues’ great ideas to impact student success.

Experiential Major Maps

Experiential Major Maps (EMM’s) are designed to help undergraduate students choose the correct courses needed to complete a degree at UTA as well as highlight important co-curricular activities.

Project Based Learning (PBL)

Tarrant To & Through (T3)

The Tarrant To & Through (T3) Partnership aims to ensure more Tarrant County students obtain a postsecondary credential and that each student has the training and skills they need to thrive in today’s workforce. All T3 Scholars at UTA will receive bridge programming the summer before their first semester, persistence coaching and resources to ensure they stay on track, and transfer student support should they choose to attend Tarrant County College and then transfer to a UTA.

Residential Learning Communities

Trio SSS

This program supports eligible students throughout the college experience. Program services include: individualized coaching (personal, career, and academic), academic success and skills development, tutoring, advice and assistance in course selection and financial aid programs and benefits, guidance on locating scholarships, and more. For 2019-2020, 94% of participants ended the year in “good academic standing”; 92% of TRIO SSS participants persisted to Fall 2020.

Experiential Learning

Nudges to the Finish Line (N2FL)

University Studies staff participated with researchers from UVA on a project titled Nudges to the Finish Line: Experimental Interventions to Prevent College Late Departure. The purpose of the project was to investigate whether low-cost, behaviorally informed nudges that provided personalized information to students about how they can finish their degree improved college completion rates at open-enrollment institutions. 34,260 messages were sent to UTA students from 2018-2019.

Dual Credit Scholars

UTA has many partnerships within DFW school districts. Within Grand Prairie ISD, students can complete teacher training coursework through our Education Leadership Preparation program. Students can also complete nursing program requirements through our partnership with Grand Prairie Early College High School. Within Dallas ISD, UTA has partnered with City Lab High School to provide an in depth look at the Architecture program. UTA has hosted 129 dual credit students in spring 2021.

STEM Academy

Students at the AISD STEM Academy at Martin High School can take STEM focused courses during their junior and senior years of high school along with general core classes. This allows students to experience a more in-depth view of the STEM fields and to explore possible areas of interest while enrolled in courses at UTA. 39 STEM Academy students have matriculated to UTA following high school since 2019.

LION Scholars

The AISD Lion Scholar program partners with Arlington Collegiate High School to allow students to complete dual credit coursework at UTA during their senior year of high school. These students are unique as they are also earning their Associate degree from Tarrant County College along with their high school diploma. These students focus on major specific courses while enrolled at UTA and 54 students have matriculated to UTA following high school since 2018.

Major Exploration

Major Exploration is designed to help students discover personal attributes, connect them to majors at UTA, and guide students toward deciding on a major path. This process is open for all UTA students feeling unsure about their chosen major and involves an immersive online module designed to guide students from uncertainty toward a decision.

UTA MavPlanner

UTA’s MavPlanner is located in MyMav and allows students and advisors to track and plan academic progress. Specifically, it guides students on which courses that will apply towards their major. A student’s academic advisor can also communicate with a student about their progress and make sequencing suggestions and provide comments to the student within the MavPlanner. Students can access MavPlanner, which includes MavScheduler, by logging into MyMav and selecting the "manage classes" tile to start mapping their path to graduation!

Student Success Task Force

A strategic group of campus administrators, faculty and staff who come together to discuss complex barriers, data insights and policies and to resolve issues affecting student success and influence change across the University.

New Student Courses

These first year seminar courses are designed to orient students to life on the Maverick campus by providing students with essential resources about major and career, instruction on critical thinking skills for academic success, and access to faculty and peer networks. In the 2022-2023 academic year, 8,019 students have been served in these courses, 13,984 near-peer office hours have been offered, and 5,280 study group sessions have taken place.  Additionally, the Office of New Student Courses offered 80 experiential learning sections of the UNIV first year and transfer seminar during the 2022-2023 academic year. 

Peer mentoring

Peer Mentoring involves opportunities for peer-to-peer conversations regarding topics beyond academic concerns. Questions focused on study habits, planning, organization, time-management best practices, techniques to improve motivation for academic success and identifying strategies for adapting to campus life and academia at a large research university. For 2019-2020 year, we hosted 214 in-person contacts (220 hours), 98 contacts online (86 hours).

Mobile TSI Testing

Academic Testing Services (ATS) staffs have partnered with local ISDs to provide the Texas Success Initiative (TSIA2) exam on high school campuses. UT Arlington provides placement testing in English, Language Arts, Reading, and Math to new and incoming students by means of the new TSIA2. This exam serves to ensure that students are advised for ideal course placement.

Credit by Examination

UT Arlington's Academic Testing Services (ATS) serves as the liaison between students, testing companies, campus faculty, and key offices to interpreting scores from nationally accredited exams and converting them to course credit. This process can assist in decreasing student cost and time to degree completion. Academic Testing Services (ATS) is a recipient of the 2021-2022 CLEP Honors-National Achievement award as one of the Top 20 CLEP testing centers.

MARK "Maverick Advisors Reaching for Knowledge"

Training provides UT Arlington advisors with the knowledge and skills to develop a strong foundation in best advising practices that enhance student learning and persistence. The training comprises of two tiers of sessions and modules, with each tier taking place across one semester. During the 2020-2021 academic year, 32 Advisors received their Tier 1 certificates and another 32 Advisors received their Tier 2 certificates.

Academic Advisor Professional Development

At UTA, new and continuing advisors have access to a series of professional development opportunities that include new academic advisor training, peer-led networking and discussions around best-practices through UTA's Advising Association, and university funded participation at local, regional, and national conferences and institutes. The knowledge academic advisors gain enhance the services offered to students.