At EU level there are no homogeneous mechanisms to track students in Higher Education lifecycle(Entry, Education, Exit)nor models to anticipate students’ needs that take into account subjective elements.Seldom HEIs assess relevance and impact of their student support services. Such gaps are best captured by“Report to the EU Commission”2013 High Level Group on Modernisation of HE“a still underdeveloped area in EU is the tracking of students”. The report urges HEIs to“establish counselling, guidance, mentoring and tracking systems to support students”.The EU Commission“Report on Progress in Quality Assurance in HE”2014 confirms that better tracking of students and anticipating their needs is a priority, but that“at present only 40% of HEIs do so”.The“Agenda for Modernisation of EU HE Systems”identifies the answer to those challenges in“tailored guidance to inform study choices and reduce drop-out”. Against this background WISE aims at enhancing the welfare of students as a means to improve their performance, personal and professional development through improved tracking systems and student support services.The objective of WISE is to develop an innovative methodology to track students in the educational lifecycle taking into account both objective and subjective elements so as to better assess their needs and provide tailored support services. Six partners representing HEIs, HEIs associations and student support service providers bring together complementary experiences and knowledge to devise innovative student tracking and needs’identification mechanisms.The partnership is representative of EU HE ecosystems, reflecting the various connotations of EU’s diversity:large and small Member States; Eastern, Nordic and Mediterranean realities;various size of HEIs and student bodies.Directly and indirectly, the partnership represents 15 universities (3 as partners, 12 as members of P1 and P2) in 4 countries.WISE will involve directly at least 600 students in the pilot stage, ensuring the student-cantered approach of the innovative model.WISE immediate target groups are the students (on the demand side of tracking and support services) and the support service providers within HEIs (on the supply side).The long term beneficiaries of project results are primarily the students enrolled in the HEIs represented in the partnership, amounting to a total of 340.000.Other potential beneficiaries are students enrolled in other HEIs throughout Europe who will be specifically targeted by the Valorisation Plan, which includes activities for at least two more years after EU funding. Partners will carry out research and analysis to identify drivers and inhibitors in the area of student tracking and needs identification.The research results will allow partners to pinpoint indicators, variables and response mechanisms that in the modelling activities will be embedded into the multidimensional WISE model and matrix.The partners will run pilots of WISE model and matrix in real-life case scenarios to test and validate with the target groups of users (students) and providers (HEIs’ support service providers) of tracking and needs identification mechanisms in higher education.The pilots will be crucial to fine tune and validate the WISE model and matrix that in its final version will be disseminated and exploited at EU level by the partners. WISE main results: - report on “Students’ Welfare and Social Dimension of HE: Demand and Supply Side Perspectives for Improved Tracking” will detail the research approach and consolidate findings and analysis on the various dynamics of students’ tracking, needs anticipation and welfare - Validated WISE Model and Methodology:will allow to track more accurately HE students, assess and anticipate their needs taking into account also subjective elements, and provide more relevant, timely and appropriate tailored support services. Specifically,WISE will produce the following impacts 1. HEIs are better equipped to properly track students throughout the entire educational lifecycle 2. HEIs can assess students’ needs taking into account also subjective factors 3. HEIs are able to anticipate students’ needs with more relevant support services 4. Students – especially disadvantaged groups – have better access to education 5. Increased educational attainment, performance and retention WISEis poised to achieving long-term benefits in terms of students retention and performance and quality assurance at HEI levels.The partnership is strongly committed to long-term benefits of WISEand its deployment across EU and other HEIs.The WISE model/matrix will be embedded in partners’ management practices and operations.The innovative multidimensional tracking and needs assessment methodology can be flexibly adjusted to other EURealities. Tanks to the structure of the consortium and to existing networks,and to sound Valorisation Plan,project results will be disseminated to more than 340.000 students and more than 130 HEIs.