Looking to modernize the student experience across campus, The University of Akron has adopted Stellic’s unified solution for degree management, advising, and reporting. Stellic will support UA’s undergraduate, graduate, and professional academic programs, ensuring each student has the opportunity to take ownership over their path to completion through a modern digital experience that resonates with their everyday lives.

“Our focus is to be student-facing. So admittedly, Stellic was very appealing to us. It’s time for us to be able to offer something that makes degree audit, registration, completion - all important things to the student - real and useful.” - Ron Bowman, University Registrar, The University of Akron

Offering over 200 academic programs across liberal arts, sciences, healthcare, engineering, and more, The University of Akron wanted to streamline the way students understand their progress and navigate their academic journey. Though they initially sought out a student-facing degree audit and planner, UA quickly realized that these components were at the core of a larger, interconnected student experience that Stellic could provide.

"We noticed that the degree progress functionality was so much better than what we have and we couldn’t just stop there,” said Ron Bowman. “Then we saw how that information was easily moved to registration. The schedule builder makes it painfully easy for students to pick a schedule that works best for them based on their work schedules, athletic practices, and so on."

Through Stellic, students at UA will also be able to explore pathways that align with their interests, understand how their current progress could satisfy additional majors, minors, or certificates, and identify the fastest, most efficient plan to completion. When adjusting their plans, students will receive automatic warnings on unmet requirements or course availability to help them understand the impacts of certain choices on time to completion.

By empowering students to plan ahead with greater visibility into their progress, advisors will be able to dedicate more time to proactive guidance. They’ll be updated in real-time should any student fall off track, ensuring they can swiftly get back on their corrected path. Stellic will enable advisors to view all pending student requests, schedule advising appointments, and keep a continuous pulse on how students are progressing through customizable reporting. Other institutional staff will also unlock data-powered insights to help them quickly identify students that haven’t fulfilled certain requirements for graduation, trends in course substitutions and exceptions, and courses in high demand based on specific programs and cohorts.

“The other piece that was really appealing was the advising portion. And the analytics will provide us with the opportunity to use multiple resources to determine what is really keeping students here, making them leave, and then all the while, we’re able to determine course demand from the pathways. This, to me, is much more forward-focused. It’s not reactive at all." - Ron Bowman, University Registrar, The University of Akron

The partnership between The University of Akron and Stellic is one that will enable students, advisors, and leadership to maintain shared, real-time visibility and communication among all elements of degree completion. By transitioning from separate systems into one source of truth that starts with the needs of students, The University of Akron will be able to make a meaningful impact on student engagement and retention, ensuring every student can maintain an on-time path to completion with effective guidance from advisors along the way.