The U.S. Department of Education on Monday awarded Georgia State University, in partnership with the University Innovation Alliance (UIA), a grant of $8.9 million as part of the department’s First in the World program to drive innovation and keep higher education within reach for all Americans. 

Georgia State is leading the project, Monitoring Advising Analytics to Promote Success (MAAPS), which will study 10,000 students at the 11 institutions of the UIA, who will be supported with an array of proactive, analytics-based advising over a four-year period. 

“Over the next four years our institutions will produce groundbreaking evidence illustrating the impact of predictive analytics on student success that will have national significance,” said Dr. Tim Renick, vice provost and vice president for enrollment management and student success, and the project lead. “We are delighted to lead this project on behalf of eleven large public universities enrolling more than 400,000 students collectively.”

The university is sharing its nationally recognized expertise in data-driven advising, known as the GPS Advising System. With the university’s early warning tracking system, struggling students get the timely interventions they need to get back on track for success in their college courses and programs of study.

The GPS Advising System uses 10 years of data to analyze and detect when a student is in danger of falling off track academically, such as when the student receives a bad grade, or is taking a class inappropriate to his or her major.

The program, along with other student success initiatives, has led Georgia State to achieve one of the most dramatic graduation rate increases in the nation and has helped to eliminate the graduation rate gap among students of different racial and economic backgrounds.

The 11 member institutions of the UIA include Georgia State, Arizona State University, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, Oregon State University, Purdue University, the University of California Riverside, the University of Central Florida, the University of Kansas and the University of Texas at Austin.

The alliance is dedicated to sharing advances, research and experiences to help students of all backgrounds succeed.

For more about Georgia State’s student success programs and initiatives, visit success.students.gsu.edu.