What New Research Reveals About Student Success

Student success is often measured through outcomes such as persistence and completion, but it is shaped by whether students have the resources and support they need to reach those milestones. Recent research captures the range of factors that can influence students’ ability to succeed, including mental health, financial vulnerability and career literacy.

The findings also highlight potential blind spots for colleges and universities seeking to boost student success, including students who may not know about available resources, populations that institutions may be undercounting and supports that may not be reaching those who need them most.

Here are four recent research findings that challenge assumptions about what students need and how institutions should respond.

1. Financial vulnerability and mental health are deeply connected.

Students’ mental health can influence whether they persist and ultimately complete college, and most institutions offer robust mental health supports for them. But a recent analysis from Trellis Strategies found that students experiencing financial vulnerability or basic needs insecurity are less likely than their peers to know whether their institution offers mental health or counseling services.

Researchers analyzed disparities in anxiety, depression and loneliness among college students using findings from the postsecondary research and consulting firm’s 2025 Student Financial Wellness Survey. Financially vulnerable students reported substantially higher rates of all three mental health conditions than their financially secure peers.

At the same time, 24 percent of financially vulnerable students reported not knowing whether their institution offers mental health or counseling services, compared with 17 percent of their more financially secure peers.

Morgan Beckham, research analyst at Trellis Strategies and author of the report, said the finding underscores a disconnect between students’ need for support and their awareness of the resources available to them.

“A lot of institutions are investing in mental health resources, so the issue is not necessarily that there is nothing there for them,” Beckham said. “But when you are trying to reach students that have challenges or other special circumstances that are happening, it can be difficult because they might not have as much time to go and find the resources for themselves.”

“It’s important for institutions to have that proactive outreach and make sure that they’re reaching students with those campus touch points,” she added.

2. Emergency aid may not be reaching students who need it.

An unexpected expense is one of the most common reasons students stop out of college. Research has shown that emergency aid—a timely grant that helps students cover unexpected costs—can greatly improve the odds that they stay enrolled and complete a degree or credential.

However, a new analysis from the Hope Center for Student Basic Needs at Temple University found that despite growth in emergency aid programs on college campuses, far fewer students are receiving that assistance.

The analysis is based on data from Trellis’s most recent Student Financial Wellness Survey of more than 65,000 undergraduates across 153 institutions nationwide. It found that the share of students receiving emergency aid fell from 44 percent in fall 2021 to 4 percent in fall 2025—a decline of roughly 90 percent.

Muhammad Kara, policy and research analyst at the center, said the decline suggests colleges are either failing to publicize available support or operating programs that are too limited in scope or funding to meet student need.

Unlike traditional financial aid, which is packaged months before a term and disbursed on a fixed schedule, he said, emergency aid is designed to help students respond quickly to an unforeseen financial crisis and can be distributed on short notice.

“These have real-world applications,” Kara said. “If a student can’t pay a medical bill or afford food or housing, they’re really not going to be focused on their academics.”

3. Colleges may serve far more autistic students than they realize.

As colleges work to improve student success, new research suggests they may be underestimating the size of a particular population on campus: autistic students.

A new study from Michigan State University examined 731 publications, reviewed 16 common survey instruments used at postsecondary institutions and inspected codebooks from six federal datasets to come up with the estimate that over 280,000 autistic students are currently enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities—three to five times more than previous data suggested.

Researchers said many institutions may not realize how many autistic students they serve, making it more difficult to design policies, services and supports that help them succeed.

Brad Cox, associate professor of higher, adult and lifelong education at Michigan State, said earlier estimates of autistic college enrollment relied on decades-old data, leaving researchers and policymakers with an incomplete picture of this student group.

“It’s hard to serve a population you don’t know is even there, because autism is an identity that isn’t always apparent, isn’t always visible,” Cox said. “As a result, this population, despite all of the broader public attention that has come to autism over the last decade or two, in a college environment, these students are still underreported and underrecognized.”

4. Career preparation is about more than job-ready skills.

Students who understand how their skills, interests and education connect to a range of career pathways may be better positioned to navigate a rapidly changing job market, according to new research from the DeBruce Foundation.

The report from the nonprofit, which focuses on expanding pathways to economic growth and opportunity, found that people with higher degrees of career literacy—the ability to understand, plan and navigate career pathways—conduct broader job searches, are more open to changing careers over time and experience greater employment security than their peers. Those skills, researchers argue, will become increasingly important as artificial intelligence continues to reshape the labor market.

According to the findings, individuals with high career literacy considered about six potential jobs during a job search, compared to roughly two among those with low career literacy. The research also found that people with both strong career literacy and robust professional networks explored 22 percent more career options outside their current path than their peers and earned an average of $40,000 more annually.

Leigh Anne Taylor Knight, executive director and chief operating officer of the DeBruce Foundation, said career literacy—in contrast to career readiness, which focuses on developing academic, technical and employability skills needed to enter the workforce—helps students understand their strengths, explore different career pathways and make informed career decisions.

“Career literacy really focuses on, ‘Hey, what do you really like to do? What do you do well?’ in order to open the student up to consider multiple careers,” Taylor Knight said. “That’s just imperative in today’s economy, and we’re only seeing AI accelerating that.”

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