The Routledge Handbook on Postsecondary Student Success

by Shouping Hu (Editor), Joe O'Shea (Editor)

Overview

The Routledge Handbook on Postsecondary Student Success offers a comprehensive and authoritative examination of student success in postsecondary education.

This handbook addresses critical issues in student success, such as student engagement, mental health, and degree completion to provide valuable insights on promoting student success holistically and systematically, for students from different backgrounds or in different institutional contexts. It also offers a robust understanding of how to study and enhance student success by exploring the significance of data, analytics, and various research methods. Using evidence-based insights and practical strategies and offering key concepts, theories, and best practices, this handbook serves as a guide to promoting overall student success and closing success gaps.

With forty chapters authored by leading thinkers in higher education, this handbook is an indispensable resource for postsecondary administrators, faculty, staff, practitioners, graduate students, researchers, and policymakers. It informs and inspires efforts to improve student outcomes and create more supportive environments, so students everywhere can succeed and flourish.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032638041
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/14/2025
Pages:	596
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Shouping Hu is the Louis W. and Elizabeth N. Bender Endowed Professor of Higher Education and the Founding Director of the Center for Postsecondary Success (CPS) at Florida State University, USA.

Joe O’Shea is Associate Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Florida State University, USA.

Table of Contents

Section 1: Landscape of Postsecondary Student Success  1. The Evolution of the Student Success Movement  2. College Outcomes and Broader Perspectives on Student Success: Definitions, Frameworks, and Research  3. Understanding Today’s College Students to Accelerate Student Success  Section 2: Multiple Dimensions in Student Success  4. The Development of Prosocial, Psychosocial Outcomes in College  5. Fostering Student Critical Thinking in Postsecondary Education: Evidence and Promising Practices  6. Supporting Postsecondary Students’ Career Success  7. Leadership Learning and College Student Leadership Development: Pathways to Student Success in Postsecondary Education  8. Postsecondary Students and Mental Health  Section 3: Success for Diverse Student Populations  9. Black Collegians’ Success through Critical Perspective and Black Asset Factors  10. Asian American College Student Engagement: A Reconsideration of Student Success  11. Student Success for Latin* Students  12. Student Success for Indigenous Students  13. Persistence and Retention of Multiracial Students: Unsettling the Monoracial Paradigm of Student Success  14. First-Generation College Students: Who Are They and How Do They Do?  15. Providing Holistic Support to Foster Success of Low-Income Students  16. Increasing Adult Learners’ Success in Two Understudied Contexts: Noncredit Education in Community Colleges and Postsecondary Education in Prisons  17. Transfer Student Success in Postsecondary Education  18. Fostering Success for LGBTQIA+ Students  19. Improving Effectiveness for Changing Demographics of International Students: A (Re)commitment to Inclusion and Success  20. Holistic Development for College Athlete Success  21. Supporting Students with Experience in Foster Care: Invisible No More  22. Perspectives on Graduate Student Success  Section 4: Success for Students in Different Contexts  23. The Critical Role of Rural-Located Institutions and Rural-Serving Institutions in Fostering Rural Student Postsecondary Success  24. Community College and Student Success  25. Student Success Strengths and Challenges at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs)  26. How For-Profit Colleges and Universities Can Better Support Students: Uncovering the Veil  27. Student Success in Research Universities  Section 5: Salient Issues in Student Success  28. Student Engagement and Success in Postsecondary Education  29. Promoting Academic Success by Fostering College Students’ Self-Regulated Learning Skills  30. Digital Teaching and Learning and Student Success  31. Advising the Whole Student: Current Approaches to Integrating Academic, Career, and Personal Support  32. Addressing College Basic Needs Insecurity: The Latest Evidence and Strategies for Success  33. The Role of College Promise Programs in Promoting Postsecondary Student Success  Section 6: Critical Considerations in Student Success Research and Practices  34. Organizational and Equity-Focused Theoretical Contributions to Student Success  35. Using Quantitative Research for Student Success: A Primer on Purpose, Process, and the People Behind the Numbers  36. Culturally Responsive Qualitative Inquiry for Equity in Student Success Research  37. Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Machine Learning  38. Leveraging Research-Practice Partnerships to Develop a More Robust Evidence Base for Student Success  39. Professional Learning Communities as a Vehicle for Driving Campus-Wide Changes toward At-Promise Student Success  40. Student Success: A Long Overdue Never-Ending Movement

Editorial Reviews

“This book provides an excellent and broad array of contributions from leading scholars who study various aspects of postsecondary student success. These chapters explore success among diverse student and institutional populations, and they shed considerable insight into practices and policies that are based on sound research evidence.”

Nicholas A. Bowman, PhD, Mary Louise Peterson Chair in Higher Education, University of Iowa, USA

“This handbook is an outstanding collection of insights from some of the most influential scholars in the field, tackling the complexities of student success from every angle. Whether you’re a researcher, practitioner, or policymaker, this book delivers fresh perspectives and actionable strategies that will shape the way we support students for years to come.”

Victor B. Sáenz, PhD, L. D. Haskew Centennial Professor in Public School Administration, University of Texas at Austin, USA

“The goal of helping students succeed in college is evergreen but the strategies that colleges and universities use are always evolving. This handbook arrives at a pivotal time in higher education, as it explains how professionals can effectively support students amid a rapidly changing set of contexts.”

Amelia Parnell, PhD, President, NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, USA

“By providing accurate and responsible information regarding college and its effects on students, this volume complicates student success, theoretically, methodologically, and critically. The volume’s contributors represent the best higher education thought-leaders whose collective voice addresses the place of empirical work in shaping agendas in both policy and practice.”

Matthew J. Mayhew, PhD, William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration, The Ohio State University, USA

“This handbook takes a comprehensive look at student success in the 21st century. Dr. Hu is a pioneer in the field. He and his co-editor have brought together a great group of higher education thought-leaders to continue and expand the critical conversation on student success and lend practical applications for campus leaders.” 

Joy Gaston Gayles, PhD, Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Professor, North Carolina State University, USA

From the Publisher