New year, new approach to Student Accounts?

Student Accounts teams are in the middle of a real shift—from rigid, manual, disconnected workflows to a more modern, student-centered financial experience.

And that shift is showing up everywhere: in tuition billing communication strategies, in how institutions design payment plans, and in the technology and processes required to drive on-time tuition payments.

Over the past year, Meadow spoke with leaders across higher education and captured what’s changing on the ground.

The result is our Student Accounts Trends & Predictions report—grounded in over 200 structured discussions and engagement data across channels.

TL;DR: 5 shifts to watch this year

• Multi-channel communication is the new baseline—student response rates have dropped below 10% at many institutions, and email alone isn’t cutting it.
• Tuition payment plans are becoming a retention tool, with an emerging target of 20%+ student participation.
• Automation is moving from “nice-to-have” to necessary as teams face staffing constraints and volume.
• Students expect real-time clarity + mobile-first experiences—and poor mobile experiences can directly impact payment timeliness.
• AI is showing up as a practical catalyst, starting with low-risk workflows like drafting communications and summarizing policies.

Below is a quick look at what these trends mean for tuition billing and payment outcomes, and what Student Accounts leaders can do next.

Tuition billing communication is now a multi-channel strategy

If your tuition billing strategy still relies primarily on batch emails (or worse, “one reminder fits all”), you’re swimming upstream. In the report, leaders shared that student response rates have dropped below 10% in many cases, and texting and targeted mobile alerts are setting the engagement benchmark.

Why it matters: when students don’t see (or trust) the message, you don’t get the action (logins, payment plan enrollment, or an on-time tuition payment)

What to do next:

• Audit your channels (email, SMS, portal/app notifications) and clean contact data
• Pilot one new engagement method (ex: SMS for “bill ready” + “deadline” moments)
• Segment by scenario: “bill ready,” “payment due,” “past-due,” “payment plan option,” “registration holds”

Payment plans are becoming a lever for retention and on-time payments

Payment plans used to be treated as an add-on. Now they’re increasingly viewed as a core strategy to keep students enrolled and reduce drop-out risk due to finances. The report notes an emerging benchmark: institutions should aim for at least 20% of students participating in a payment plan. And leaders are seeing demand for:

• Longer terms
• Different down payments
• Schedules that don’t align neatly to semesters
• Modern payment methods (e.g., Apple Pay)

Reality check: one institution shared that only 2.8% of students used payment plans last semester—partly because bills weren’t calculated until the first day of classes, making it “too late” for payment plans.

What to do next:

• Offer payment plan enrollment earlier (before the crunch moment)
• Align installment dates to real pay cycles (including weekly/biweekly where feasible)
• Make “plan vs pay in full” comparisons simple and mobile-friendly

Automation is now essential for scaling tuition billing and A/R workflows

Resource constraints (especially staffing shortages) are pushing leaders to treat automation as essential to handling volumes and maintaining service standards. Leaders described extremely manual processes (payment plans managed via spreadsheets, drop-list processing that can take weeks of staff time). That workload both makes personnel people out and makes it harder to improve payment compliance at scale.

What to do next:

• Pick the most time-consuming manual workflow and automate one step this year
• Start with “high-frequency” moments: bill-ready notifications, payment-due reminders, past-due outreach, and payment plan nudges

Students expect real-time clarity and mobile-first payment experiences

Students and families increasingly expect the same clarity they get from consumer banking apps: real-time balances, itemized charges, and clear payment status. And the truth is blunt: poor mobile experiences directly impact payment timeliness.

What to do next:

• Try paying a bill on your phone, start to finish, like a first-year student
• Identify where confusion happens (unclear charges, outdated balances, friction in login/payment)
• Prioritize fixes that reduce “I’ll do it later” moments

AI is showing up as a practical catalyst

Most offices aren’t running AI everywhere yet, but leaders are increasingly asking how AI can make work more impactful and efficient and university leaders are focusing on how AI can be responsibly implemented at their institution across functions. The report recommends starting small with low-risk use cases like drafting student communications, summarizing policies, or analyzing routine data.

What to do next:

• Create a “communication draft library” (friendly reminders, payment plan explains, past-due scripts)
• Summarize policy language into student-friendly FAQs (with human review)

Download the Student Accounts Trends & Predictions report

If you’re planning for the year ahead, the report is built to spark ideas and guide action—with insights drawn from 200+ discussions and channel engagement data.

Download the 2025–2026 Student Accounts Trends & Predictions report here.