The Impact of Co-Curricular Activities

In a post-pandemic world, keeping students engaged on campus can be a challenging and multifaceted task.

Often, the landscape that creates successful student outcomes is not based in the classroom alone, but in a holistically-connected and invested student experience. This is where co-curricular activities can truly make or break the student experience.

Many factors go into student success and retention, making hard data on the topic difficult to collect and assess – location and proximity to family, finances and financial aid, feelings of belonging, or lack thereof, academic success, and more. 

A Student Voice survey from Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, with responses from 1,250 students at 60 institutions, demonstrated that students who do not spend time involved in on-campus activities are significantly less satisfied than students who spend extracurricular hours on campus. 

This is what the data shows for student satisfaction in accordance with how many extra hours students spend on campus:

• “Fewer than half (42 percent) of students who spend zero hours per week (n=340) are very or somewhat satisfied."

Those who are not involved outside the classroom are often dissatisfied and the flip side is also true:

• "Nearly all (91 percent) of students who spend six to 10 hours per week on extracurriculars (n=214) are very or somewhat satisfied.”

Clearly, getting students involved in campus activities is paramount to their satisfaction, and this metric is therefore crucial to retention outcomes.

Using this lens, how can we leverage these out-of-classroom experiences for the best possible retention and student success?

What is a Co-Curricular activity?

Co-curricular activities are similar to extra-curricular activities. They include activities like study abroad, intramural sports, and student government. 

A co-curricular activity encompasses any university-sponsored activity outside of the traditional classroom setting that is aimed at enhancing the student experience.

A Changing Landscape

Following the pandemic, we saw wide-sweeping changes across Higher Ed – how and where we educated, convene, connect, and provide value to students shifted dramatically.

Some schools saw drastic drops in attendance, involvement, and retention. Other schools were able to ride the wave, and we'd point to a specific metric of success here.

In this fast-moving and ever-evolving playing field, bringing smart tech solutions into the mix is a necessity. It's speaking the language that today's students speak.

This is why we implemented The Hub at Suitable, a platform where every student organization is hosted in one place, and upcoming activities and experiences are shared in a one-stop app, making it easy for students to get connected, even in a digitized world.

Wide-Reaching Impact

Making co-curricular activities accessible to students in this way has an extensive impact. It not only improves academic outcomes and retention rates but holistically improves students' lives on campus.

Being involved on campus is linked to better mental health, a heightened sense of belonging, and better self-esteem. Due to these factors, among others, students who are well-connected on campus are much more likely to succeed socially and academically. 

Furthermore, involvement in co-curricular activities can help build workplace-relevant skills, particularly if students are involved in high-impact practices – internships, community service, and work studies – that are specifically geared toward fostering career readiness. Examples include time management, teamwork, professionalism, communication, leadership, and more.

Speaking Their Language

While traditional ways of engaging students are still in the mix, it is exceedingly important to consider students' shifting structural needs. Gone are the days when a poster citing the next student government event was enough to generate an impactful turnout.

At Suitable, we tailor our products to meet students where they are most comfortable – in the digital space.

As opposed to a student needing to take the initiative to find and connect to on-and-off-campus activities and events themselves, we make it as easy for them as possible.

Any school-sponsored activity is right at the student's fingertips, and they can check the club page to gauge their interest level before they ever stick their neck out there and actually show up to an event. 

We give them the tools to find something that interests them and get connected before they leap to show up in person, which can be difficult for today's students to do organically. 

Looking Forward

A holistic student experience is extremely important for retention and student success, and it's our responsibility to keep up with students' evolving technology needs. 

This means putting opportunities to connect in students' hands in a way they feel comfortable with and making opportunities not only accessible but irresistible. 

¹ Flaherty. (2023, November 3). Survey: Getting more college students involved in campus life. Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/college-experience/2023/11/03/survey-getting-more-college-students-involved