Defining and Achieving Student Success at Non-Elite Schools

Ensuring student success has become an increasingly loud conversation for business schools. Unfortunately, most of the solutions offered within the literature tend to be proffered by those at elite institutions, and their advice unconsciously reflects that worldview. However, the vast majority of us do not work at elite institutions, even those residing in the, by definition, limited and prestigious universe of Assocation to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB)-accredited schools. Subsequently, the elites’ problems do not match our non-elite realities and, even worse, often push our issues into the background. This article seeks to explore three student success concerns that are more relevant, yet typically undiscussed, to those of us at non-elite AACSB-accredited institutions. These are the ways we collect and use data, an overemphasis on process without a firm outcomes perspective, and the increased emphasis on efficiency-based measures of performance. By identifying and exploring these themes, this article seeks to help reframe and broaden the conversation to include non-elite institutional issues about how best to ensure student success.