Measuring Student Pathways in Knowledge-Based Societies: Indicators, Observatories, and the Political Construction of Success and Well-Being

Over the last decade, higher education Institutions and systems have increasingly invested in data infrastructures and student observatories aimed at monitoring academic trajectories, progression, and completion. These instruments are often presented as key policy tools to promote student success, prevent dropout, and support student well-being in massified and increasingly diverse higher education systems. At the same time, they are embedded in broader knowledge politics in which indicators, benchmarks, and dashboards play a central role in institutional positioning, accountability, and competition. This paper critically examines the growing use of indicators to monitor student pathways, focusing on the dual role of student observatories as both instruments of support-oriented governance and technologies of metric-driven institutional performance. Drawing on policy analysis, comparative perspectives, and a specific example of data gather by a Portuguese Higher Education Institution the paper explores how indicators related to academic success, retention, engagement, and well-being are selected, operationalized, and mobilized at institutional and system levels. A particular attention is paid to the underlying assumptions about students, learning, and well-being that are embedded in these measurement practices. The analysis highlights a central tension in contemporary higher education governance: while student observatories have the potential to enable early identification of risk, inform targeted interventions, and support more inclusive and caring institutional practices, they may also reinforce reductive understandings of success and well-being when primarily aligned with reputational, managerial, or competitive logics. The paper argues that the political significance of student indicators lies not only in what they measure, but in how they shape policy priorities, institutional strategies, and the very meaning of success in higher education. By situating student observatories within broader debates on knowledge-based societies and evidence-informed policymaking, the paper contributes to ongoing discussions on the promises and limits of indicators as policy tools in higher education, research, and innovation.