Helping Stopped-Out Students Finish College

Colleges nationwide go to great lengths to re-enroll the millions of Americans who have left higher education with credits but no credential. But bringing students back doesn’t necessarily address the financial, academic and personal challenges that led them to leave in the first place.

A new two-year initiative at the University of Houston–Downtown is testing a more comprehensive approach: It combines personalized advising with emergency financial assistance, community-based basic needs support and efforts to change institutional policies that can make returning to college difficult for working adults.

Backed by $975,000 in philanthropic support, Bridge to Completion aims to create a centralized re-engagement hub for former students who have stopped out since 2018. There, students can receive individualized outreach, degree mapping, academic advising, assistance with readmission and financial aid, career guidance, and personalized plans for returning to college.

Jonathan Davis, interim senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, said the university developed the initiative with the understanding that the stopped-out student population can face an array of challenges as they restart their academic careers. Those can include unpaid institutional balances, transportation and childcare costs, and unexpected expenses.

“Every student’s story is their own, and everyone is a little different, but they kind of rhyme in ways that you notice over time,” Davis said. “By having a coherent effort around these specific populations of high need and high opportunity, then we know we can deploy those resources.”

Removing barriers to return: The initiative will also examine institutional barriers working adults are often up against, including scheduling and prior-learning policies, as well as access to online and flexible course options and opportunities for competency-based education.

“When we write policies, we’re never looking to create barriers, but those barriers can sometimes creep in,” Davis said. “This effort is a statement of purpose and a statement of willingness of the institution to re-examine those policies.”

Davis said the initiative responds to a significant challenge facing both UHD and Texas: Thousands of people have earned college credits but left higher education without receiving a credential.

“It’s a significant population,” Davis said. “And for a university like ours serving a population of students that’s predominantly first generation and economically disadvantaged … it often relates to family obligations and financial distress.”

Roughly 70 percent of UHD’s nearly 14,000 students are first generation—a significantly higher share than the national average of 54 percent and Texas average of 43.5 percent.

The initiative comes as institutions and states nationwide have prioritized reaching this population as a way to increase educational attainment and boost enrollment. Michigan, for example, has partnered with ReUp Education to reconnect these learners with higher education as part of the state’s goal to have 60 percent of working-age adults earn a postsecondary credential by 2030.

UHD expects to reach more than 2,000 former students, support approximately 600 through readmission and help at least 500 re-enroll. The university is targeting a persistence rate of approximately 70 percent among returning students and plans to document which strategies are most effective for different student populations.

The initiative is backed financially by the Greater Texas Foundation, the William Stamps Farish Fund and the Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries. Funding will support the university’s re-engagement infrastructure as well as provide direct assistance for students facing financial barriers. Through its partnership with the Alliance of Community Assistance Ministries, UHD will also connect returning students with community-based aid for food, housing, utilities and other basic needs.

Such help is vital; an 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. Drawing on data from Trellis Strategies’ most recent Student Financial Wellness Survey, the analysis found that the share of students receiving emergency aid fell from 44 percent in fall 2021 to 4 percent in fall 2025.

The Trellis survey also found that more than half of respondents experienced at least one form of basic needs insecurity. Over half (54 percent) said they would struggle to access $500 in cash or credit for an unexpected expense, while 65 percent said they had run out of money at least once since the start of the year.

“There’s not necessarily attention paid to the fact that they have barriers in place to begin with that cause them to step away,” Davis said. “What’s exciting about this is that it’s an opportunity for us to put together a care team on the front end proactively to understand that the student who is returning is someone who’s coming with those challenges to begin with.”

Defining success: Davis said the ultimate measure of the initiative’s success will be whether returning students graduate, advance in their careers and improve their families’ economic circumstances.

“All of the numbers are waypoints along the way,” Davis said. “The 2,000 [former] students and 600 through readmission and 500 re-enrolled—that’s all great, but those are just markers in my head to ‘How do we get students through to the finish line and add to their lives and to the Texas economy?’”

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