Higher education institutions need to step up their game to attract and retain students. And part of that strategy is ensuring optimal connectivity across campus.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) recently reported that undergraduate and graduate enrollment continued to shrink this fall, but noted that the decline has slowed to nearly pre-pandemic rates. Also noteworthy is data from Education Data Initiative indicating that first-time undergraduate freshmen have a 12-month dropout rate of 24.1 percent.
T.J. Hunter, a software engineer and co-founder of the all-in-one communication platform provider Pronto, explains that the company’s mission is to help institutions recruit and retain students by connecting and engaging students from matriculation to graduation and beyond. “Pronto connects an entire campus directly via a mobile app,” Hunter said. “It gives students unlimited access to faculty, classmates, and support services instantly.”
There are more than one million fewer students enrolled in higher education institutions since 2020, and colleges and universities have to take measures to keep students connected with their schools and one another. Hunter points out that the Pronto platform helps foster communication, which combats student disengagement, and associated issues, according to Hunter. “Disengagement leads to higher levels of stress, anxiety and loneliness,” he said, adding that these are more significant reasons students drop out of school, ahead of cost, academic rigor or Internet access.
“With Pronto, schools are better equipped to help students overcome these obstacles and get more out of their academic experience,” Hunter explains. “Pronto ultimately helps students form intelligent connections with professors, classmates, academic advisors, the financial aid offices, the student life department and all others resources that have the highest impact on helping students stay engaged and enrolled.”
Pronto offers a mobile-optimized communication platform for higher education students through chat, video conferencing, announcement tools, automatic language translation, file sharing and task management. Pronto’s seasonal peaks align with the academic school year, since a large portion of its business supports colleges and universities.