Advancing South Carolina’s Ascend 60×30:
Grow Re-Enrollment. Retain Your Revenue. Increase Completion.
Updated October 2026
South Carolina’s Ascend 60×30 initiative sets a clear goal: increase the proportion of residents with high-quality postsecondary credentials to 60% by 2030, while closing socioeconomic educational achievement gaps. Reaching that goal requires institutions to help more students enter college, return after an interruption, and complete a credential.
As a South Carolina–based company, Education Connex is committed to supporting Ascend 60×30. We help colleges and universities reconnect with former students, grow re-enrollment, and retain tuition revenue—advancing credential completion and strengthening the workforce in the state we call home.
For South Carolina colleges and universities, re-engaging former students offers a practical opportunity to advance this goal while growing enrollment and tuition revenue.
These students have already invested in higher education. A focused re-enrollment strategy can help them build on that investment—and see a realistic path to finishing. With Education Connex, institutions can grow re-enrollment while retaining their tuition revenue through a service-fee model rather than a tuition revenue-sharing arrangement.
Progress Toward 2030—and the Opportunity Ahead
In an August 2025 announcement, the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) cited a statewide attainment rate of 50.1%, based on 2022 data. That historical measure sits 9.9 percentage points below the 2030 goal; it should not be interpreted as a current 2026 attainment rate.
CHE’s Ascend framework identifies engaging near-completers as a priority and references nearly 450,000 South Carolinians with some college credits but no credential. This planning figure includes students at different stages of completion, from those with a few earned credits to those close to finishing.
The institutional opportunity is to understand which former students can return, what stands in their way, and which programs provide an achievable route to completion.
That’s where Education Connex can help. We work on behalf of your institution to reconnect with your former students and help them return to your programs. Our U.S.-based team combines personalized, one-to-one coaching with coordinated voice, text, email, and social retargeting to understand each student’s goals, identify barriers, and support the next steps toward re-enrollment. Your institution maintains control of its programs and student relationships while retaining the tuition revenue generated by returning students.
Former Campus Students Are Today’s Adult Learners
A student who left a traditional campus program several years ago may now be working full time, raising a family, or managing other responsibilities. Returning to the same academic schedule may be difficult.
An online or flexible program could create a viable path forward. But former students need clear answers:
- How many of my credits will apply?
- What will it cost to finish?
- Can I balance coursework with work and family?
- Are there outstanding balances or other barriers to returning?
- Who will help me take the next step?
Effective outreach connects students with people who can answer these questions and help them move forward.
Build an Ongoing Re-Enrollment Strategy
A single email campaign provides limited insight into a former student’s readiness to return. Institutions need a consistent process that combines personal engagement, coordinated follow-up, and practical assistance.
1. Identify and prioritize former students.
Segment records by credits earned, academic standing, time away, program fit, and known barriers. Create distinct approaches for near-completers and students who need a longer pathway.
2. Reconnect through voice, text, email, and social retargeting.
Use personalized, one-to-one coaching and persistent outreach to understand students’ goals, circumstances, and interest in returning. Coordinate voice, text, and email follow-up around each student’s needs, and reinforce that engagement through ongoing social retargeting.
3. Make the completion pathway clear.
Coordinate with institutional teams to clarify credit applicability, program options, costs, deadlines, and remaining requirements.
4. Help students move from interest to enrollment.
Support the steps between a productive conversation and registration, including readmission, advising, financial aid referrals, and timely handoffs.
5. Measure progress through completion.
Track engagement, applications, registrations, persistence, and credentials earned. Evaluate the cost per re-enrollment and resulting tuition revenue to understand the financial contribution alongside student outcomes.
Grow Re-Enrollment. Retain Your Revenue.
Re-enrollment should strengthen both student opportunity and institutional financial sustainability.
Education Connex’s service-fee model allows institutions to retain the tuition revenue generated by returning students while paying a defined fee for our services. Our compensation is not a percentage of student tuition. This gives institutions a clear basis for evaluating their investment, cost per re-enrollment, and resulting net revenue.
Retaining that revenue gives institutions more resources to support instruction, advising, student services, and their broader mission. Students gain a supported path toward completion, and institutions strengthen their ability to serve them.
How Education Connex Helps
Founded in 2008 to serve working adults, Education Connex helps institutions turn enrollment opportunities into coordinated action.
Our U.S.-based team provides the outreach capacity, one-to-one coaching, personalized nurturing, and performance reporting needed to reconnect with former students and support their return. We work alongside your admissions, advising, and student support teams, representing your institution and helping students move from renewed interest to registration.
Our approach helps institutions:
- Expand outreach without adding permanent staff.
- Re-engage former students through one-to-one coaching and coordinated voice, text, email, and social retargeting.
- Identify barriers and connect students with appropriate campus resources.
- Grow re-enrollment and retain tuition revenue through a defined service-fee model.
- Measure enrollment results, costs, and financial contribution.
- Establish re-enrollment as an ongoing enrollment strategy.
Turn Prior Credits Into Future Credentials
Advancing Ascend 60×30 requires sustained attention to students who have already started college and still have a credential to earn.
For institutions, that means building a repeatable process for reconnecting, removing barriers, and supporting progress. For former students, it means having someone help them see—and take—the next step.
As a South Carolina–based partner, Education Connex can help your institution grow re-enrollment, retain your tuition revenue, and contribute to our state’s attainment goals.
Contact us at 877-434-1828 to discuss your former-student population and opportunities for the next enrollment term.