Director Of Learner Success - Academic Affairs, Research and Student Success - UT System Administration

The Director of Learner Success serves as the UT System's lead strategist for retention, persistence, and credential completion for postsecondary students enrolled in all types of programs.

This role operates at the system level and has the exciting opportunity to build the infrastructure, evidence base, and cross-campus coordination necessary to strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of student success professionals at all UT institutions. The Director does not work directly with students but instead ensures that the people and systems closest to students are well-supported, data-informed, and strategically aligned.

The Director of Learner Success collaborates with academic and student affairs professionals at each UT institution and serves as a key liaison with campus chief student affairs and student success leaders. As one member of the Learner Success team in AARSS, the skills of the incumbent are complimented by team members who have responsibilities for access and affordability, work-integrated learning, and the economic outcomes of program completers. The Director of Learner Success primarily focuses on the student experience between enrollment and completion, ensuring that every learner who enters a UT institution has the strongest possible chance of persisting and completing their desired credential.

Retention and Completion: 

The primary responsibility of the individual in this role is to lead system-level retention and completion strategy which can adapt to institutional contexts and student populations. The director will identify and analyze system-wide patterns in learner stop-out, drop-out, and time-to-completion, translating findings into actionable strategy recommendations. They will develop re-engagement strategies for learners who have stopped out, including system-level policies and processes that reduce barriers to return. They will ensure retention and completion strategies are inclusive of the full range of learner populations served by UT, traditional undergraduates, adult learners, graduate students, transfer students, and learners in non-degree pathways. They will collaborate closely with campus leaders to promote evidence-based learner support models and emerging best practices in persistence and completion. They will lead or coordinate system-wide pilots of promising learner success interventions, learn about digital solutions that support student success and develop avenues for knowledge sharing and realizing economies of scale among campus partners.

Strategic Plan Alignment: 

In coordination with campus leaders who have responsibility to align to the UT System strategic plan, advance objectives related to credential completion and student progression. Objectives describe increasing the number of students who graduate from in-demand programs, promoting strong retention and completion in industry relevant non-degree credentials or new credentials of value, and identifying structural barriers to progression such as remediation bottlenecks, stop-out triggers and milestone failure points. Developing, expanding or socializing strong practices around credit for prior learning and work-based learning are key job functions requiring strong partnership development across internal and external stakeholder groups.

The successful candidate will possess a bachelor’s degree in a field related to higher education administration, education, liberal studies, communication and (5 years or more) in leadership roles that require organizational change management expertise in a postsecondary setting including communicating the impact of various
learner success strategies.

Additional knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required

Learner Success Research and Practice

• Deep knowledge of evidence-based practices and research on student retention, persistence, and completion.
• Knowledge of evidence-based student support interventions, including proactive/intrusive advising, early alert systems, learning communities, supplemental instruction, and caseload management models.
• Familiarity with the research on wrap-around supports and their relationship to persistence including basic needs insecurity, mental health, childcare, transportation, and other non-academic barriers.
• Understanding of developmental education and remediation reform models (e.g., corequisite remediation, multiple measures placement, accelerated developmental sequences) and their outcomes.
• Knowledge of stop-out and re-engagement research, including the characteristics of students who leave and the institutional conditions that facilitate or hinder return.
   

Higher Education Systems and Governance

• Understanding of how multi-campus university systems operate, including the distinct roles of system offices versus campus-level administration and the levers available at each l