Unpacking the Student Confidence Equation in Higher Ed

When we are confident in something, we have faith in it, we are content and relaxed, secure in the knowledge that things will work out the way we expect them to. We are secure in our own abilities, armed with the knowledge that we are capable of handling the situation we are in. 

And that’s exactly how you want your students to feel at every single point in their journey with you. 

Related: How to Build Confident Student Journeys in Higher Ed

For many of them, this is the biggest investment they’ll have ever made. So it’s essential to give them the confidence to walk onto campus, informed, aware and ready to tackle the challenges and opportunities in front of them!

And it matters because confidence is the single biggest predictor of academic success – students who feel confident in their abilities are more likely to succeed in the classroom. Research has shown that a lack of confidence is one of the biggest blockers to attending higher education. And, when a huge problem for institutions around the world is retention, we know that confident students are less likely to drop off. 

Our shared objective in higher education is to ensure as many people have access to the best opportunities as possible, and that they have the tools to unlock their full potential – that’s why you’re all in the jobs that you’re in, because you’re all so passionate about the experiences of students around the country. 

Confidence is the tool to help students unlock their potential. 

But how do you give students that confidence?

That is exactly what our latest research sets out to unpack. We asked 1500 students from around the world when they have confidence, when they need it, when they lack it – and what you can do to offer them confidence at every stage of their journey. 

You can download our full report here.

Here are my key takeaways:

Students lack confidence about applying to higher education

Most students would, generally, rate themselves as confident people. 

But when we asked them specifically about applying to higher education, the average student dropped on our confidence scale to either ‘more anxious than confident’ or ‘extremely anxious’. 

In fact – on the journey of applying to university, over 50% of students somewhat or completely lacked confidence in their academic abilities, and that rose to a whopping 67% who lacked confidence in their social abilities. 

And if we hone in specifically on those who said they felt a complete lack of confidence in their social skills – this was 1 in 5 of the students we surveyed, rising to 1 in 4 for students who were first in their family to go to university.

Students have a fear of the unknown – and it’s causing melt 

When we asked students specifically about the period between enrollment and arrival – we found that over 90% of students reported feeling nervous.

We dug into this a bit deeper, and asked students what was making them feel nervous in this pre-arrival period. Of course we found some of the old cliches you’d expect to see: the fear of getting lost was a concern for almost a third of students (32%). 

Related: Why Confident Higher Ed Arrivals Spur Longtime Student Retention

But for almost half of students (48%) – a broader fear about not knowing what to expect was detracting from their confidence. 

This far exceeded the fears they had about the academic or even the financial side to their education. It was the general unknown of university life that was what scared them the most. 

Think about how powerful your ‘day in the life’ pieces of content could be, or the chance for them to connect with someone who has been there, done that, or someone who’s going through it at the same time as them.

Students are at high risk for leaving their studies 

Over 30% of the first year students we surveyed had low or no confidence at all that they would remain in higher education.

They gave varied reasons for this. For over half of students who gave a reason they might drop out, that their mental health would be a factor. Nearly 40% said they may drop out if their course became too difficult. And 1 in 4 said the difficulty they’d had in making friends might be a factor that leads them to drop out.

Related: How Community Forums Drive Student Retention

Boosting student confidence is proven to impact outcomes at every stage of the funnel.

Confident students will be more likely to apply, to accept an offer, to enroll on day one, and to graduate at the end of their course. They will be more successful academically and socially, and into their career. They’ll be loyal advocates for your university long after they graduate.

So our recommendation to higher education is this: 

Do whatever it takes to boost student confidence. 

Our report gives the practical steps – based on what students themselves have told us – on how to give students the guidance; connectedness; and sense of belonging they need to traverse beyond their comfort zone.

You’ll see the impact in your enrollment and your retention. 

But more importantly you’ll see those students go on to their graduation and future success thanks to how you made them feel on their journey to and through higher ed.

Download the full report here. 

• Poppy Hall, Head of Industry Marketing, Unibuddy