It’s a statistic so jaw-dropping it almost seems like it can’t be true, but one half of students who enroll in college or a university leave without getting a degree.

That’s because colleges simply aren’t designed for student success, argues Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, in a recent article for EdSurge.

Burns, who was recently a featured speaker on the SXSW EDU, is an outspoken advocate for students. (You can also see her in the upcoming documentary film Unlikely, which addresses the opportunity divide in higher education.) She says that very few education officials understand the students’ point of view, and don’t realize how daunting the process of getting a degree is.

The University Innovation Alliance was designed to bring together 11 major public research universities. The ideas they have created are implimented at scale, eliminating time and resouce drains. And it’s working: Though the initial goal was to produce and additional 68,000 graduates over a 10 year period, they’re on pace to beat that goal with a current projection of 94,000. Burns has three suggestions for changing the current education system to increase student success:

– Untangle the Journey

Process mapping can help administrators understand how students experience each facet of college, from registration to financial aid. O

– Bolster Planning Capacity

Sometimes, there simply aren’t enough bodies to get things done, so the UIA hired what they called “innovation fellows,” to work between campuses and implement ideas.

– Sharing the Good and the Ugly

In order to ultimately succeed, it’s important that learning institutions share their failures as well. There can be a reluctance to be vulnerable among peers, but that’s a key factor in learning, Burns says.