This web-based toolkit provides curated resources and case examples to help university personnel craft high-impact student employment opportunities on campus. Research shows that on-campus employment is correlated with student retention and success when crafted to advance the academic enrichment, social engagement, and financial capabilities of students.

The aim of this site is to help universities leverage student employment as an emerging high-impact practice by creating employment experiences that improve student retention, completion, and career outcomes.

Who should use this site?

Supervisors of student employees, program staff, and university leaders.

Why focus on student employment?

Low-income students face mounting pressures to work on an hourly basis to fund their college education. These students often perform work not connected to a career or academic goals. The need to work more hours limits available time for academics and engagement in high-impact practices on campus. A 2019 report from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) refers to these challenges as the “working student dilemma.”

One way to address this challenge is to develop on-campus student employment experiences that are aligned with career readiness competencies (for example, the NACE Competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce).

What is a high-impact practice?

High-impact practices are a set of teaching and learning practices demonstrated by educational research to have a positive impact on all students, and especially those who are underserved by higher education. Although student employment is not currently defined as a high-impact practice, emerging evidence suggests that on-campus employment may confer similar benefits. Internships and service-learning experiences are high-impact practices but, if unpaid, may remain out of reach for low-income students.

This list of curated resources was created as part of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Powered by Publics initiative, a national network of universities dedicated to increasing degree completion and closing equity gaps for low-income, minoritized, and first-generation students.

Have a student employment resource you’d like to share on this website? Please complete the brief form below to have your resource reviewed and considered for inclusion: Submit a Resource

For more information about APLU’s Powered by Publics initiative, please visit http://www.aplu.org/pxp

 Who developed this site

This list of resources was developed by the following universities through APLU's Powered by Publics initiative:

• Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

• Old Dominion University

• Portland State University

• The University of Texas at Arlington

• University at Albany

• University of Cincinnati

• University of Houston

• University of Illinois at Chicago

• University of Louisville

• University of Missouri-Kansas City

• University of New Mexico

• Wichita State University

Special thanks to the following expert reviewers:

• Lolin Martins-Crane, Director of the Career Development Center at The University of Texas at Arlington

• Janna McDonald, Director of the Office of Student Employment at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

• Bill Fletcher, Director of the University Career Center, University of Louisville