A working adult learner finds registration info with an easy search on her lunch break. A university welcomes 4,000 freshmen through orientation in just 45 minutes. The first Generation Alpha students connect with fellow incoming freshmen through their school’s safe, secure mobile app.
Higher ed is changing rapidly. These glimpses show what’s possible when institutions listen to students and respond with modern digital strategies.
Student experience took center stage at Pathify’s 2025 Campus Experience Summit with three sessions focused on real student feedback, Gen Alpha’s expectations and how institutions are already innovating to meet the moment. Higher ed holds the opportunity — and imperative — to transform the way it supports student success. With Gen Alpha only three years from entering college, innovative institutions can lead the change now.
The 2025 Campus Experience Summit provided four clear takeaways, offering a practical roadmap for institutions ready to meet this shifting landscape and redefine the student experience.
Insight #1: Invite Students into the Process
Students aren’t demanding the impossible — they’re asking for technology to meet their needs. Andrea Rojas, for instance, is a returning adult learner at Montgomery County Community College and sits on the school’s usability board, which lets students provide “honest and candid feedback” on campus technology. She notes how usability board discussions on AI and tutoring led to visible changes — “you can see the college acting on that specific feedback.” Chris Mancini, student and IT Help Desk Assistant noted, “students may not always know the solution, but we’re really good at diagnosing the problem.” Lindsey Aarum, who successfully advocated for a Campus Experience Platform like Pathify as student body president at Moody Bible Institute, encouraged administrators and students to work together to accomplish their common goals.
Here are some of their ideas to help your institution engage students in modernizing technology:
- Create forums for student feedback — a board encourages students to get involved directly, while feedback surveys ensure all voices are heard
- Show how feedback drives decisions. Involving students (and listening to them) builds trust and engagement
- Consolidate resources into a single platform with an intuitive user interface
Insight #2: Build Seamless, Modern Technology Experiences
Gen Alpha, arriving on college campuses in 2028, expects seamless cross-platform experiences like the ones they’ve grown up with — including a modern, personalized, accessible experience. According to Pathify’s Student Survey, 95% of students want a single centralized platform. Yet, the reality is most students manage 3-6 different tools for routine tasks. This push for frictionless experiences is widespread: 68% of current students would reconsider enrollment based solely on the quality of digital systems — an eye-opening statistic especially as the enrollment cliff approaches.
With a unified hub, like Pathify’s Campus Experience Platform, adult learners like Andrea get weather alerts and save commute time when class is canceled. Students of all types find community through safe, secure groups and events. Lindsey noted many of her peers missed out on opportunities because they “simply didn’t know about them.” When institutions offer a smooth digital experience, both current and prospective students see that the school values their success. Technology sets the tone for how students interact with their institution, and they know when the experience proves thoughtful and seamless.
Insight #3: Increase Access and Enhance Personalization
More often than not, institutions offer a plethora of resources to support student success — but non-centralized digital platforms cause stress”often or “very often” at over twice the rate of unified platforms. Nearly half of students using non-centralized platforms say this stress affects their ability to learn or succeed. The solution? Making sure students know where and how to find them. Chris highlighted the search function in MontCo Connect, his Pathify hub, saying, “It gets me where I need to go 100% of the time.” Andrea recalled how timely alerts, individualized to her persona and journey, help her stay on track.
Meanwhile, Roger Nichols, UX and Web Development Manager at BYU Idaho, and Ellie Kates-da Silva, Senior Manager of Marketing Technology at UVA McIntyre, encouraged institutions to bring tools and resources — like tasks, grades and groups — into one unified hub. At BYUI, Roger and his team checked 4,000 students into orientation in 45 minutes with custom dashboards, personalized to each student. Innovative solutions like a WiFi quick link helped students connect to and “staved off a bunch of calls” to the support team.
At UVA McIntyre, Ellie’s team moved from “thousands of pages” to focused, role-based groups, easing access to info and community for students, staff and faculty. Additionally, they moved away from overwhelming email blasts in favor of targeted mobile push notifications, taking a mobile-first approach to meet students where they are.
Insight #4: Create a Unified Digital Front Door for Your Entire Campus
When tech works, campuses thrive. Andrea explained the power behind good technology, saying, “It helps organize my life so I can have a better experience as a student.” Offering students clear pathways enables them to participate in campus life, reducing the “I wish I had known” moments. When communications reach their intended audience, campus members form real connections and a strong community.
Success extends beyond students. Making Pathify the front door for everyone simplifies and streamlines the entire campus experience. With role-based access, advisors pull accurate data from a single system, making their job easier and more efficient. Kates-da Silva explained faculty became “way happier” with bite-sized messages rather than the long emails and clunky webpages they used previously. Highlighting the intuitive ease of the Pathify platform, Nichols noted staff needed minimal training — just a two minute video — to get up and running.
Both Nichols and Kates-da Silva emphasized the value of in-platform analytics. Whereas email open rates provide limited insights, tracking mobile adoption and group participation gives institutions a meaningful understanding of student behavior and engagement. UVA McIntyre also relies heavily on focus groups to understand what’s working and make improvements over time. Only two semesters in, they’ve seen positive shifts in participation. And according to Nichols, introducing a front door to everything users need increased traffic and engagement naturally.
The Path Forward
Three energizing conversations point to the same conclusion: Higher ed faces an inflection point where student needs, technological solutions and institutional readiness can align to create a better path forward. Students like Andrea, Chris and Lindsey do more than identify problems — they partner with their institution to solve them. Gen Alpha isn’t arriving with impossible demands — they’re pointing to a north star beneficial to all learners. And leaders like Nichols and Kates-da Silva prove transformation isn’t just possible — it yields success at innovative institutions.
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