2025 Student Engagement Highlights: A Year of Strong Growth

As we kick off 2026, we want to take a moment to celebrate an extraordinary year for student engagement. From soaring participation and stronger communities to major advances in how institutions support their students, 2025 was all about growth. Engagement grew, innovation accelerated, and campuses everywhere saw measurable impact. Here are the highlights.

Measurable Engagement and Growth

2025 was a year of remarkable growth across our client campuses. We welcomed over 2.3 million new users to CampusGroups, a 42% increase from 2024, including students, staff, and alumni. Among them, 6.1 million new group members joined clubs, organizations, and communities—a 15% increase year-over-year—building connections and fostering peer-to-peer engagement across campuses.

Campus life was buzzing with activity: 9 million event registrations were recorded, up 15% from 2024, while nearly 6 million event check-ins (+18%) ensured that attendance tracking was seamless and fully integrated. Engagement also extended beyond events, with over 2.5 million surveys answered (+12%), capturing feedback that helped institutions make data-informed decisions to enhance student success.

Communication remained central to campus engagement, with administrators and student leaders sending 154 million emails—an 11% increase over 2024—to share updates, reminders, and targeted messages tailored to students’ needs.

These results demonstrate how campuses are leveraging CampusGroups to drive meaningful engagement, streamline communication, and build vibrant, connected communities.

Key Milestones 

This year marked the 20th anniversary of CampusGroups, the all-in-one student engagement platform. What began at NYU Stern in 2005 has grown into a global platform supporting more than 7 million students across 25+ countries. We proudly partner with over 75% of the top 25 universities worldwide! 

We hosted our first in-person Ready Inspire conference, bringing campus leaders together to share best practices, build connections, and shape the future of student success. Their insights continue to drive our innovation. Denison University, Germanna Community College, and The American University in Cairo were presented Student Success Hero awards for transforming the student experience.

Another major milestone: 100 institutions have now switched from Anthology Engage to CampusGroups, including Spelman College, Knox College, University of Houston–Clear Lake, University of South Dakota, and Smith College. This momentum reflects a growing demand for platforms that deliver measurable ROI, strengthen student success, and build a deeper sense of belonging.

Why Institutions Choose CampusGroups

CampusGroups streamlines resources, reduces costs, and improves student outcomes.

“Instead of 17 different apps, students now have one place to connect, see what’s happening, and get involved.”

— Jeremy Mastin, Student Engagement & Experience Coordinator, St. Lawrence College

CampusGroups strengthens retention and belonging—key drivers of student success.

“At LSU, involvement is directly tied to persistence. Students who join at least one organization have a 90% retention rate, compared to 74% for those who don’t.”

— Josh Finch, Director of Campus Life, Louisiana State University

Product Innovations

2025 was also a year of exciting product growth:

• Financial Integrations: Real-time access to balances, holds, and payments directly within the platform, supporting financial wellness alongside academic and campus life.

• Data Export API: High-performance access to CampusGroups data, enabling teams to retrieve and use data seamlessly across institutional systems and tools.

• Departments & Connections: A searchable, mobile-friendly directory that helps students quickly find academic, career, and student support resources—each with its own dedicated page and feed.

• Desire2Learn (D2L) Integration: Expanded LMS support with seamless syncing of courses, assignments, quizzes, announcements, and rosters.

• Events Mobile Experience: Refreshed event listings, richer details, saved and registered tabs, and a redesigned Event Hub that streamlines discovery and participation.

• Enhanced Group Pages: A redesigned group experience across web and mobile, making it easier for students to explore missions, contacts, posts, events, and recent activity in one streamlined view.

• Updated Notification Center: A refreshed design and smoother experience with improved styling, hover states, refined buttons, and lazy-loading.

• Campus Table: Tools that help campuses address food insecurity, supporting a more holistic approach to student well-being.

These innovations reflect our continued commitment to empowering institutions with tools that enhance academic success, co-curricular engagement, and overall student well-being.

Looking Ahead

With Gary Ambrosino stepping in as our new CEO, we’re entering 2026 energized and focused on expanding the impact of CampusGroups. Expect continued product enhancements, deeper integrations, and AI-powered capabilities that help campuses deliver more personalized, proactive support—from orientation through graduation.

Coming soon, CampusGroups will introduce advanced data intelligence, including robust dashboards paired with AI-generated insights that allow teams to ask questions and instantly generate dynamic charts and summaries—making it easier to turn engagement data into action.

At Ready Education, we believe student success begins with connection. 2025 proved that when campuses invest in engagement, the results speak for themselves.

Learn more about CampusGroups and how it can help your institution drive engagement, retention, and student success: Explore CampusGroups