By James Holder
The start of a new academic year in the higher education sector brings excitement, potential, and (for a lot of students) apprehension. Many are treading into the unknown, making new friends, joining new societies, and adapting to the lecture-style learning that they wouldn’t have experienced at school.
Unfortunately, for many students, this massive life change can be a little overwhelming. According to Grattan Institute, around 50,000 students drop out of Australian higher education pre-census — and around 15–25% of those who do stay don’t go on to complete their studies.
The cost to the individual of dropping out is huge, but there’s also a knock-on effect to the higher institutions themselves and the Australian economy. For example, a university graduate in Australia stands to earn around 50–60% more than a non-graduate, which means higher tax contributions and a healthier GDP. In short, we as a country want those who go through higher education to finish higher education.
And there’s a specific moment during a student’s life where institutions can make a difference to the attrition rate — the first four weeks before the census.
Why? Because a first-year student who quietly disappears by census rarely does so because they can’t do the work. They drop out because they never felt part of the cohort. Early attrition is not usually about academic capability; it’s about belonging, clarity, and competing pressures. This makes weeks 0–4 the most critical window to rationalise investment in student wellbeing.
So what can universities do exactly? The answer lies in reading the room.
Beyond attendance: the power of visibility
Too often, we mistake attendance for contribution. Counting bodies tells you who turned up, but it offers no insight into how students are feeling or whether they are truly engaging. The leverage point is earlier and simpler: gathering early, light-weight signals using a live student engagement platform.
A simple toolkit featuring live polls, one-minute pulses, word clouds, and anonymous Q&As is more than just a novelty; it’s a way to get a sense of how engaged students are in real time. Crucially, it shows who responded, what they felt or said, and when. This ability to track participation and sentiment is vital, especially for cohorts where silence is often the loudest risk signal — like pure online or night classes.
Australian research already confirms that interactive polling in first-year cohorts is highly rated by students for both engagement and learning in face-to-face and online modes. It shifts the focus from a broadcast model to a conversation.
Belonging is the mechanism for persistence
Getting students to answer simple questions about how they’re feeling during learning is one thing — and displaying that information screen for everyone to see is another. When students see their peers’ questions and pressures, hurdles feel normal, and asking for help gets easier. This visibility cultivates belonging, which systematic reviews and Australian analyses consistently link to engagement, persistence, and equity outcomes.
Furthermore, anonymous tools like polls, word clouds, and Q&A lower the barrier to contribution for diverse learners. This is essential for neurodivergent students, students with anxiety, shift-working adults, and online learners.
The hard ROI: actionable signals before census
The evidence that early touchpoints change outcomes is compelling. The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) runs a “First Year Now” phone outreach to all first-year students within weeks 1–3, which significantly reduced failure rates and withdrawals after census. Similarly, personalised pre-orientation calls at The University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) were associated with fewer post-census withdrawals and higher GPA than basic emails or no contact at all.
Gathering timestamped signals and noted responses creates a clean line from action to outcome. It provides hard evidence that speaks to decision makers: in a 150-student gateway unit, recovering just 10 students before census lifts pre-census persistence by 6.7%. The value is captured inside the term and then compounds into continuation and completion.
Onboarding is not a single event; it’s an arc. The first four weeks are where belonging and clarity take shape in your specific context. The question for higher education leaders is not “if” they should invest in student experience, but “how” they should invest in tools that make a big difference.
James Holder is the account executive at Kahoot!, a Norwegian online game-based learning platform.