A team of Illinois State University students recently completed a project to understand why students decide to pursue a degree at Illinois State University. The student team was enrolled in the Innovation Consulting Community (ICC) course led by Peter Kaufman and supported by the Hagge Innovation Institute.
In ICC courses, students from various majors across campus (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students) bring diverse educational backgrounds and personal experiences to collaborate on a semester-long project. Student teams select a project manager and recorder and function as a consulting team to achieve the project goals.
To complete this Value of Higher Education project, student teams worked together to conduct primary research and complete a review of secondary research to further explore international student retention at ISU and other similar institutions.
The team found that ISU offers more support services compared to many other public institutions in Illinois, including academic support, disability services, a technology center, Milner Library, veteran/military services and an international engagement office.
To learn more about student retention, they created a survey, asking the student population from ISU's various academic programs why they are currently enrolled at the university. After analyzing the survey responses, they concluded that the Bloomington-Normal community was the top reason, followed by the university's ranking. The university's reputation, social life, and opportunities were all rated as equally valuable by students. They also found that 87% of respondents wanted to continue their education at ISU.
Dr. Amy Hurd, vice president for undergraduate education at Illinois State University, one of the clients for this project, was asked what stood out to her in her experience with the student team.
“They were problem solvers,” Hurd said. “They asked for information, but they were able to dig into it to find meaning and relevance. They looked at the problem from different perspectives and proposed from those perspectives. And because of the complexity of the topics they addressed throughout the semester, they didn't present just one solution. This was a very positive experience for the students and for us, the administrators. We met with the students every week, and they asked great questions. We were able to give them some direction, but they were creative in finding solutions and took the initiative to research the topic.”
When asked what the most enjoyable part of the project was, Mouna Bounouader, a doctoral student in Educational Leadership and Management and one of the consulting team members with a strong interest in the topic, replied, “We worked with a diverse team of students, our mentors, and both clients. Having Mike Wiese (our mentor) by our side was crucial to this project. He guided us in the right direction and we knew we could rely on a professional and talented person whenever we had questions or wanted opinions. He introduced us to experts in the field that we could interview. This project is a very unique and enriching experience for both undergraduate and graduate students. Being able to work with real-world clients and real-world data gives you a different feeling of growing your knowledge and expertise.”
Team members and their majors include: Olivia Witulski (Public Relations), Susan Wheeler (Public Relations), Ridita Mizan (PhD in English), Mouna Benoader (PhD in Educational Leadership and Administration) and Lindsay Jones (M.A. in Political Science).