Sustaining Student Support Amid Shifting Budgets
Across the country, colleges and universities are grappling with a difficult truth: even as the need for student support intensifies, the financial resources available to provide it are shrinking. Institutions are being asked to meet ambitious goals around retention, equity, and graduation—often with fewer tools in their toolbox.
While many of these pressures aren’t new, recent federal budget proposals have reignited concern across higher education. Proposed funding reductions target everything from the Department of Education to the National Science Foundation, placing programs like TRIO, Federal Work-Study, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants on the chopping block (source). These programs have long served as lifelines for first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students.
The potential loss of these supports raises critical questions: What happens when the programs proven to help students persist are no longer available? And how can institutions respond in a way that centers student needs and preserves mission-driven impact?
Understanding the Stakes for Student Success
Academic support services—tutoring, advising, writing centers, mentoring—are often the first to feel the squeeze during budget cuts. Yet, these services are also among the most effective strategies for improving student retention and graduation rates. Numerous studies have affirmed the value of academic support, particularly for students who are navigating college systems for the first time or balancing additional responsibilities outside of school.
Unfortunately, funding gaps don’t just delay projects or slow down innovation; they interrupt the day-to-day supports that students rely on. When academic help becomes harder to access, it’s students from historically marginalized backgrounds who are most likely to be affected—and least likely to recover without institutional intervention.
This isn’t just a financial issue. It’s a matter of equity, outcomes, and long-term institutional resilience.
Empathy for the Leadership Challenge
It’s important to acknowledge the position that college and university leaders are in. Most are navigating significant challenges: declining enrollment, public scrutiny, performance-based funding metrics, and rising demands for personalized student experiences. Adding large-scale federal disinvestment to that list only increases the pressure.
There is no easy path forward. And for many institutions, the choice isn’t between good and bad—it’s between difficult and impossible. That’s why creativity and collaboration are becoming more essential than ever.
Reimagining the Academic Support Ecosystem
In response, some institutions are starting to look beyond traditional models. They’re asking: How can we continue to provide robust academic support in a financially sustainable way? How can we supplement our in-house services to ensure students aren’t left behind?
This is where reimagining academic support—through flexible delivery models, cross-campus coordination, and even public-private partnerships—can offer real promise.
For example, some universities are partnering with external providers to scale tutoring or mentoring programs, extend hours of service, or better match students with peer support that aligns with their identities and needs. Others are collaborating regionally to share resources across institutions, or leveraging technology to make services more accessible and efficient.
These approaches aren’t about outsourcing responsibility. They’re about building capacity—strategically, ethically, and with a student-centered lens.
A Call to Think Differently
As the economics of higher education continue to shift, one thing remains clear: supporting students through graduation must remain a top priority. That means exploring new ways to fund, deliver, and sustain the services that help students thrive—not in spite of financial pressures, but because of them.
The need for academic support hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s grown. What’s changing is how we deliver it—and how creative we’re willing to be in making sure students don’t fall through the cracks.
Curious how peer-powered models and external partnerships can support your goals for student success? Explore how Knack is helping institutions extend academic support access in sustainable ways.
