Thomas Edison State University
Consistent engagement brings adult learners back
While committed to serving nontraditional students, TESU sought to enhance and support its efforts to re-engage learners who stopped out. Through partnership with ReUp, the university expanded its ability to outreach, offered personalized coaching, and leveraged data insights to drive learner success.
Since its founding in 1972, Thomas Edison State University (TESU), a four-year public university in Trenton, New Jersey, has been a pioneer in serving adult learners. Its entire model is built around flexibility, accessibility, and recognizing prior learning, a commitment that made them a natural partner for ReUp. This case study explores how TESU amplified its founding mission through a strategic partnership with ReUp, leveraging technology and personalized coaching to re-engage adult learners so they could finish what they started.
Partnership Overview
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A university built for adult learners
Thomas Edison State University was created by the state of New Jersey to serve a specific, often-overlooked population: adults who had started their educational journey but had not yet earned a credential. From its inception, TESU acted as a “credit aggregator,” skillfully combining credits from community colleges, four-year schools, military service, and professional training. As Dr. Juliette Punchello, Senior Director of Recruitment & Enrollment Services, explains, these learners had a unique need. “We used to call them shoe box students. They would come with their shoe box full of credentials from various institutions and say, ‘I just want to finish my degree.’”
Today, their student body is primarily made up of adults in their late 30s and early 40s, many of whom bring 60-90 credits from multiple institutions. With 99% of its programs offered online and a unique monthly term start, TESU provides the flexibility modern learners require to balance education with work and family.
“ReUp does the heavy load… They are the scalable organization that allows students who are inactive from 13 months to 10 years to come back and engage with Thomas Edison.”
Reaching more learners, more consistently
While TESU’s entire infrastructure was designed for adult learners, re-engaging those who had stopped out presented a significant challenge. The university understood the complex reasons adult learners pause their education—family responsibilities, work commitments, and financial pressures—but reaching them at scale was difficult.
Internal teams and existing vendors had limited capacity for the high-volume, persistent outreach required to bring these learners back. “Due to internal resource limitations, we were only able to use our vendors to engage with a small percentage of our stop-out students,” Juliette notes. This limitation meant that thousands of former students who were good candidates for re-enrollment were not able to be reached effectively. TESU needed a comprehensive solution that could manage a large volume of outreach while also providing the personalized support essential for adult learners navigating a return to college.
Partnering for scaled re-engagement
In April 2023, TESU partnered with ReUp as part of New Jersey’s statewide “Some College, No Degree” initiative, funded by the state’s Office of the Secretary of Higher Education. With an estimated 790,000 state residents in this category, the opportunity was immense. The partnership allowed TESU to combine its deep understanding of adult learners with ReUp’s powerful blend of data, technology, and one-on-one success coaching.
The solution focused on three key areas:
- Scalable, high-touch outreach: ReUp provided the capacity to connect with a vast pool of adult learners who stopped out. “ReUp does the heavy load… They are the scalable organization that allows students who are inactive from 13 months to 10 years to come back and engage with Thomas Edison,” says Juliette. Since the partnership began, ReUp has initiated over 305,000 touchpoints—including calls, texts, and emails— with TESU’s list of stopped-out adult learners.
- ReUp Success Coaching: ReUp’s Success Coaches offered holistic support that went beyond academics. They empowered learners to identify and overcome personal barriers, from time management to childcare. This human-centered approach was critical. According to Juliette, “That really sophisticated level of knowing the student and being able to re-engage with them each time specific to what their needs are is what ReUp is doing for us.”
- Data-driven insights: The partnership provided valuable data that helped TESU refine its own strategies. By analyzing outreach effectiveness and learner behavior, the university gained a deeper understanding of what it takes to bring a student back.
Delivering results through scalable outreach and coaching
The collaboration between TESU and ReUp yielded significant results, showing the power of combining institutional flexibility with targeted, empathetic outreach.
Increased re-enrollment and new insights
Right from the beginning, the school saw an uptick in re-enrollments as well as increased interest in returning. The partnership validated the need for high-volume outreach.
“The single biggest takeaway for me…is the volume of contact points required to re-engage a student to return. I now see the nuance and volume of outreach that is required to bring a student back”
The data also revealed a new segment of the stop-out population. While many transfer students arrive at TESU with 60-90 credits, 85% of learners who re-enrolled through ReUp’s outreach had 30 or fewer credits. This shows that the partnership successfully reached learners who had stopped out earlier in their journey and required more support to return.
The impact of success coaching
ReUp’s coaching model proved to be a key driver of learner persistence and belief. This personalized support from re-engagement through graduation, was a resource the school had not been able to offer returning learners before ReUp. It’s become a vital way for adult learners navigating real-life challenges to feel seen and understood and for the school to foster trust. Juliette emphasizes its importance: “The coaching model that ReUp provides really helps our students stay engaged and believe in themselves.”
Data-informed institutional improvements
The insights gained from the partnership have already led to meaningful changes at TESU. The university realized it needed to extend its engagement timeline for prospective adult learners well beyond the initial few months. “We now know that we need to extend that life cycle of a prospective student much longer than 3 to 6 months,” Juliette says.
This data-driven approach is a core part of TESU’s philosophy. The university removed barriers for returning learners and integrated a focus on retention into its strategic plan. They are now proactively monitoring course progression to offer support before a student falls behind. As Matthew explains, “Rather than waiting until a student fails a course…if I see a student is not engaging with a course…we can start proactively reaching out to them.”
TESU’s recommendations for supporting adult learners
The partnership between Thomas Edison State University and ReUp has illuminated what’s possible when institutions invest in outreach, flexibility, and individualized support for returning adult learners. The combination of consistent outreach, success coaching, and data is also impacting retention. In recent terms, retained learners re-engaged through the partnership made up approximately 50% of TESU’s term enrollments.
Drawing on their experience and success, TESU offers these recommendations to help other institutions support adult learners on their path to completion:
- Be available when learners are ready: Extend your engagement lifecycle and ensure support is accessible whenever an adult is ready to return.
- Use learner-preferred communication channels: Meet learners where they are—adapt outreach to the methods they use most.
- Proactively address barriers: Identify common obstacles, such as scheduling, finances, or self-doubt, and offer clear solutions from the outset.
- Offer maximum flexibility and convenience: Embrace credit aggregation, multiple start dates, and online options to enable learning that fits busy lives.
- Continuously improve through feedback: Regularly survey returning learners to identify evolving needs, and refine processes accordingly. “Always revisit your processes,” Matthew notes. “Regularly survey students to find out what their needs and expectations are and then move your processes in alignment with student needs.”
ReUp Education is revolutionizing the enrollment to graduation journey for all adults seeking higher education. Built upon the belief that with the right support, resources, and people in your corner, anything is possible we partner with future-facing institutions and state systems to bring equitable success in higher ed to all.