How peer leadership improves student success

Insights - Peer leadership

Key takeaways

  • Peer leadership not only helps students, but the institution and peers themselves 
  • Investments in systems, technological and managerial, enable an integrated peer leadership program 
  • Peer leaders improve recruiting and retention, and develop their own valuable skills

The power of peer influence on human development is well documented. And higher education has been harnessing this power to improve student success for decades. Yet many peer leadership programmes are geared toward first-year students or are limited in scope. 

To realise the full potential for peer influence to improve student success, institutions need holistic, well-managed systems that integrate peer leaders at every stage of the student lifecycle. 

This white paper explores some of the latest research on the impacts of peer leadership; how peers improve students’ academic performance, retention, and satisfaction levels; and best practices for using peers to improve outcomes at every stage of the student lifecycle—from recruiting to early alerts to alumni engagement. 

Connecting students who need help with high-performing peers benefits everyone. The key is to create a comprehensive strategy that ties directly to your institution’s goals for student and institutional success. 

Looking forward, we see great opportunities for innovation in the area of peer leadership. Higher education institutions are getting more data than ever before, as well as new tools for integrating and sharing information campus wide. Applying these new capabilities to peer leadership holds exciting possibilities. Identifying at-risk students earlier, creating more tailored matches between student and peer, tracking outcomes and improving strategies over time, and developing and scaling best practices—can all lead to greater student success and retention.

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