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“Care functions as a lever for engagement – once an institution invests in a caring culture, engagement becomes more authentic, deeper, and creates the conditions for student success,” CCCSE Executive Director Dr. Linda Garcia said. “Our report shows that when students feel supported, seen, and connected at their college, their engagement levels and GPAs are higher. Caring matters because it is a foundational condition that enables engagement.”
The report identifies five benchmarks for measuring student engagement: academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student effort, student-faculty interaction, and support for learners. Students who reported experiencing a “strong culture of care” at their institution showed substantially higher engagement across all benchmarks compared to those in “mixed” or “weak” care environments.
CCCSE also highlights five key components of caring – sense of belonging, self-efficacy, stigma and help-seeking behaviors, basic needs support, and mental health and well-being – and provides questions institutions can use to assess their own culture of care.
The report concludes with a feature on Caring Campus, identifying it as a leading framework that equips employees in higher education with practical tools and strategies to foster a welcoming environment and lead with care.
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