Retention In Higher Education Research Articles

Retention Reimagined: Participatory Action and Positive Deviancy for University Student Success

About half of U.S. university students who start their degrees never finish — higher education retention is a pressing problem that has remained stagnant since the 1960s. This article highlights strategies for conducting research on undergraduate retention done by and with undergraduates themselves. This article’s context is a participatory action research project that encompassed the creation of informative videos, paper resource guides, an innovative app, and a comprehensive video-making training course, all designed to empower students in navigating the complexities of college life effectively. We highlight the importance of prior research methods training for undergraduates and offer methods for seamlessly integrating such training into existing educational structures. To address the sensitivity of student retention issues, we introduce a positive deviancy framework as a valuable perspective. Furthermore, we stress the significance of increased participation during the data analysis phase of participatory research, advocating for hybrid, in-person, and online approaches. The article also reflects on the political and ethical challenges associated with conducting participatory research in higher education, drawing insights from existing literature and our own experiences.

Can Peer-Mentoring be a Model for Retention in Higher Education?

Research highlights the benefits of peer mentoring in helping less experienced students understand their university roles and achieve academic goals. The current study aims to explore the perspectives of mentees and mentors, focusing on program expectations, challenges faced, and suggestions for improvement. This single-case study investigates a 12-week mentoring program at a foundation university using qualitative surveys, monthly reports, and focus group interviews. The findings suggest that both mentors and mentees have academic and social expectations, encompassing the enhancement of problem-solving, leadership, and communication skills and mentees’ adjustment to campus life. As for the challenges encountered, the key themes emerged, establishing boundaries/relationship, time management, meeting diverse needs and expectations and coping with a lack of information/miscommunication. Mentors and mentees reported that the effectiveness of the mentoring program was influenced by factors such as support from academic programs, a well-structured program, and the training provided to the mentors before the program started. The participants stated that they took advantages of the mentoring program, acquired personal, professional, and academic skills, facilitating a smooth transition to the campus life. The results are expected to inform future mentoring programs and promote peer mentoring in higher education.

Sense of Belonging and Retention in Higher Education: an Empirical Study across Chinese Universities

Sense of Belonging and Retention in Higher Education: an Empirical Study across Chinese Universities

The Testing Effect in the Lecture Hall: Does it Transfer to Content Studied but Not Practiced?

Background Practice tests have been shown to be an effective means to foster long-term retention in higher education, at least compared to restudying (i.e., the testing effect). Objective The present study replicated and extended prior research by examining whether and to what extent the positive effects of testing on long-term retention in a typical psychology lecture transfer to content presented only during initial learning (and not practiced). Method Using a within-subjects design, we alternated post-lecture multiple-choice practice tests and restudying opportunities in two psychology classes ( N = 67). One week after the final lecture session of a cycle of six weekly lecture sessions, retention of learning content was assessed by comparing performance on questions referring to content practiced via testing, encountered via restudying, or unreviewed. Results We found a testing effect for practiced content, whereas no transfer effect occurred for untested content from the same lecture sessions. Conclusion These results show that the testing effect is a powerful learning tool, but also suggest a possible boundary condition pertaining only to explicitly tested content. Teaching Implications Practice testing should be integrated regularly in higher education courses to foster long-term retention for a final test. However, educators should take care that important content is fully covered in practice tests.

Student Retention: An Integrated Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Campus Social Environment

The goal of this study is to contribute to the significant body of research focused on student retention in higher education, specifically by integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) with measures of campus place attachment and campus social capital. Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to analyze survey data collected at a mid-sized American college, our results show that TPB constructs (i.e., attitude toward major, attitude toward campus, perceived graduation-related norms, perceived behavioral control) were strong predictors of intention to re-enroll. Additionally, both emotional and functional institutional attachment significantly predicted TPB constructs, and bridging social capital significantly predicted campus place attachment. We discuss the potential implications of these results for both administration/policy and future research.

Improving Student Retention in Institutions of Higher Education through Machine Learning: A Sustainable Approach

Effective student retention in higher education represents a critical challenge to institutional stability and educational quality. This study addresses this challenge by integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques in the context of sustainability education. To achieve this, data are collected from a representative cohort of students undergoing extensive cleaning and pre-processing. Additionally, a pre-trained neural network model is implemented, adjusting key parameters. The model evaluation was based on relevant metrics and error analysis, demonstrating that integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence allows early identification of at-risk students and the provision of personalized interventions. This study addresses contemporary student retention challenges in three critical areas: the transition to online education, student mental health and well-being, and equity and diversity in access to higher education. These challenges are addressed through specific strategies based on data analysis and machine learning, thus contributing to overcoming them in the context of higher education. Additionally, this study prioritizes ethical concerns when applying these technologies, ensuring integrity and equity in decision-making related to student retention. Together, this work presents an innovative approach that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve student retention within the framework of educational sustainability, highlighting its transformative potential in higher education.

Exploring the factors influencing young adult carer students’ engagement with targeted support in Higher Education.

Young adult carers (YACs) face significant barriers to both access and retention in higher education. Accurate data on the number of YACs is unavailable, due in part, to students staying ‘hidden’ because of perceived stigma and/or lack of recognition of the label ‘YAC’. This paper focusses on the premise that universities fail to reach many YACs and explores what factors impact engagement or lack thereof with targeted support. It seeks to understand what factors influence students’ interaction with targeted support and whether this aligns with universities’ approach to promoting services and their reliance on students having awareness and self-agency to seek them. Research was conducted at a metropolitan, medium-sized UK university using a mixed-methods, explanatory, sequential design. Interpretative, phenomenological analysis produced four dominant themes: identity, mental health, processes, and student experience and support. The findings indicate that self-identity plays a pivotal role in how the YAC student and the university interact with each other in relation to support. The salient identity is likely to be ‘student’ unless specific support is required, therefore for universities to identify YAC students, processes will need to be adapted to find the student rather than the student being expected to seek out support. To achieve this, a holistic, horizontal support model across the student lifecycle is recommended. Universities should aim to champion YACs to promote acceptance and understanding, use student-friendly language when promoting services to avoid alienation, and offer flexible administrative processes to ensure an improved experience for YACs at university.

The Block: A catalyst for ongoing innovation

This paper will contribute to our understanding of the Block, its pedagogical rationale and value, and explain why, apart from pandemic conditions, these might constitute a compelling alternative to traditional academic calendars. Current research highlights the need for further research on the nature of the Block, driven by an increased global focus on student outcomes and retention in Higher Education. This paper offers five case studies from institutions that have adopted a version of the Block at some time over the last 50 years. The authors seek to define the features that comprise block courses whereas the nature and functionality distinguish blocks from other intensive formats. A survey of the limited literature on this topic was based on theoretical underpinnings offered by one-course-at-a-time delivery, scholarship of teaching and learning on compressed education, and experiential learning. Using the research question, “Other than scheduling alternatives, what does the block offer HE institutions?”, this project uses research that is qualitative in nature drawing on a controlled comparison of case studies which enables a cross-institutional evaluation. The case studies explain why each institution adopted the Block, how these schedules work, and discusses the challenges and affordances of teaching in this intensive format. First findings of this cross-institutional exploration suggest that blocks are unique in their delivery, often experiential in nature, and effective in their outcomes. The various versions of the Block described within, provide ongoing transformative models of teaching philosophy, curriculum, student success, and more.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Students’ Perceived Justice, University Support, Professor Support, and Intentions to Drop Out

Postsecondary education significantly contributes to individuals’ career opportunities, lifetime earnings, and social mobility; therefore, understanding the factors that contribute to student retention in higher education has positive economic and societal implications. In this study, with the purpose of contributing to student retention with actionable findings, we focus on factors over which universities exercise reasonable control. We collected data from 430 students in the college of business of a southwestern public university in the U.S. before and during the remote instruction period of the COVID-19 pandemic. We exploit the natural experiment created by COVID-19 to examine group differences in the relationships of perceived organizational support, professor support, fairness of treatment, fairness of outcome, and intentions to drop out. After conducting measurement invariance tests, both samples were fitted to a multi￾group structural equation model. Our data revealed that in contrast to the before-COVID sample, during COVID-19, students’ perceptions of professor support uniquely and strongly influenced their intentions of dropping out of their studies. Our findings have important implications for student retention.

Identifying the Trends and Consequences of Retention Rates among Bachelor Students in Makawanpur Multiple Campus

The prime purpose of this study was to successfully examine the trends of drop out in Makawanpur Multiple Campus students studying in bachelor and the consequential effects that would spoil the academic progress of the campus. The data collected from the campus were analysed descriptively from the sample size that included the drop out students of the Makawanpur Multiple Campus in three years. The research method used was analytical which typically use the correlation and regression due to its suitability to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables being studied. The results of this study provide valuable insights into exploring the trend of leaving study among bachelor students and may be used to reflect the consequence which may occur in the near future. It also suggests the strategies for improving retention rates in the different programs of the campus. Overall, this study contributes to overcome the issues that influence student retention and the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving retention in higher education.

Expanding Expectations: Faculty Perceptions on Student Retention

The shift in the political environment calling for greater student retention in higher education is changing the work dynamics of higher education faculty. Despite many initiatives, the research indicates that faculty have the greatest impact on student persistence. The demands for faculty time continues to increase and to broaden. No longer do faculty just teach courses, engage in research, and perform some service; today many faculty are also expected to help in student retention. This descriptive survey looks at faculty perceptions of their roles in retention efforts and the impacts on faculty expectations. Results show a general trend of faculty having increasing responsibilities for student success. Particularly, the expectations of faculty have shifted more towards having faculty provide mentoring and building more personal relationships with students.

Predicting Retention in Higher Education from high-stakes Exams or School GPA

ABSTRACT The transition from secondary to tertiary education varies from country to country. In many countries, secondary school is concluded with high-stakes, national exams, or high-stakes entry tests are used for admissions to tertiary education. In other countries, secondary-school grade point average (GPA) is the determining factor. In the Netherlands, both play a role. With administrative data of close to 180,000 students, we investigated whether national exam scores or secondary school GPA was a better predictor of tertiary first-year retention. For both university education and higher professional education, secondary school GPA was the better prediction of retention, to the extent that national exams did not explain any additional variance. Moreover, for students who failed their exam, being held back by the secondary school for an additional year and entering tertiary education one year later, GPA in the year of failure remained as predictive as for students who had passed their exams and started tertiary education immediately. National exam scores, on the other hand, had no predictive value at all for these students. It is concluded that secondary school GPA measures aspects of student performance that is not included in high-stakes national exams, but that are predictive of subsequent success in tertiary education.

Improving return on investment in higher education retention: Leveraging data analytics insights


 
 
 This article describes data analytics action research initiatives that have gained traction at a university in Western Australia, with a focus on the return on investment of improving retention. In this report we focus on how actionable data can be provided and insights supported to the right stakeholders at various levels of the organization. The article will detail experiences with three levels of initiatives that have been implemented at the university: high level insights being delivered to faculty staff, the provision of integrated reports for lecturing staff, and the curation of ‘at-risk’ student lists for triage by student support staff. In conclusion, higher education institutions may consider five dimensions of learning and teaching operations: finding and selecting students; knowing learners and their expectations; just-in-time services, content, mentoring and support; anytime, anywhere accessibility; and global connectivity.
 
 

Are local students disadvantaged? Understanding institutional, local and national sense of belonging in higher education

AbstractResearch on inequality in higher education (HE) is often dominated by class‐based assumptions about traditional and non‐traditional students. This binary distinction emphasising students’ socio‐economic status tends to oversimply the complexity of educational inequality, neglecting crucial factors which affect the perception of social position. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the understanding of inequalities in HE with new data on the meaning of locality, using evidence from comparative studies of institutions. Locality is interpreted as an inclusive concept capturing place identity as well as local attachments based on language, culture and the natural environment. The qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 192 participants in three distinctly different HE institutions, which were deliberately selected according to their socio‐economic, cultural, and institutional status. This mixed methods research confirms the importance of different types of belonging at institutional, local and national levels, and their different effects on student groups. The study captures to what extent geographical mobility is associated with social class, by examining students’ sense of belonging and their interpretation of locality in universities across Wales. It challenges the notion of disadvantaged background, and poses a critical question about cultural and geographical familiarity. This study therefore enriches the current debates about the impact of social inequality alongside social class on students’ belonging, success and retention in HE.

Student retention in higher education: the influences of organizational identification and institution reputation on student satisfaction and behaviors

PurposeUniversities worldwide struggle to retain students, so it is important to identify the factors that may improve retention levels. The research investigates key factors that have an impact upon student satisfaction and students' staying and supportive intentions. Of particular interest is the extent to which organizational identification and institution reputation influence student satisfaction and behaviors.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model was developed and tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling. The data were obtained from a survey of 419 first year full-time undergraduate students in the United Arab Emirates.FindingsPerceived quality of teaching, organizational identification and institution reputation were found to be significant predictors of student satisfaction in our model, with student satisfaction having both direct and mediating influences on students' staying and supportive intentions.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that universities should undertake activities that strengthen student-university identification and institution reputation, as these may strongly influence students' attitudes and behaviors. The paper discusses strategies that institutions may implement to develop and maintain organizational identification among students.Originality/valueThe research highlights that although perceived quality of teaching has an influence on student satisfaction, the influences of organizational identification and institution reputation are stronger.

The impact of human resource practices on employee retention: A study of three private higher educational institutions in the United Arab Emirates

Orientation: Human resource (HR) practices have a significant impact on building the perceptions that define the relationships between employees and employers. Hence, it is imperative to develop further knowledge on how these HR practices impact employee retention within the higher education context.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between various HR practices and employee retention in an organisation. The article also investigates the effect of HR practices across employees of various demographic backgrounds, such as citizens and expatriates.Motivation for the study: The limited research was conducted on employee retention in higher education despite the fundamental role that higher education institutions play in driving innovation, developing knowledge capital and research and development.Research design: Descriptive statistical analysis and multiple regression analysis with a sample size of 270 employees working across three higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAEs).Main findings: The findings showed that HR practices can improve employees’ retention, with moderate positive perceptions amongst UAE citizens, but an unsatisfactory level of perception and effect of human resource practices amongst expatriates.Practical implications: The results indicate a difference in the effects of HR practices across various demographics within the same the section. Hence, HR management should be looking at a unification of HR practices to obtain unified results in loyalty, commitment and employee retention.Contribution: However, the results also indicated that this gap in employees’ retention can be minimised by improving on empowerment and compensation and benefits, with even more enforcements of training.

Impact of strategic management practices on employee performance in higher education sector

This article aims to assess the impact of attributes of strategic management practices on employee performance in the higher education sector”. The article applies Reliability Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Multiple Linear Regression on a sample of 413 respondents drawn from the higher education sector in Telangana and condenses a set of 15 items of Strategic Management Practices converted into four attributes. The current study proposes a model of the impact of attributes of strategic management practices on employee performance. The research found that environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and evaluation & control are impacting significantly the employee performance. Therefore, higher educational institutions should focus on the above factors to increase employee performance. The study investigated the impact of attributes of strategic management practices on the employee performance retention in higher education concluded that strategy implementation had the highest impact on the employee performance followed by environmental scanning, strategy formulation and evaluation & control.

Student Perspectives on Barriers to Timely Graduation

This study examines the barriers preventing students from graduating college in four years and proposes strategies for enhancing student academic completion and retention in higher education. To explore contemporary perspectives, Appreciative Inquiry was employed. The findings revealed the personal and institutional level of challenges as well as the need for a support system to ensure timely graduation. Addressing students’ biggest barriers to timely graduation require campus-wide engagement and deep collaboration across institutional functions. Specifically, higher education institutions need to provide adequate academic, social, and cultural assistance to embrace international, minority, low-income, and first-generation college students.

Study environment factors associated with retention in higher education

ABSTRACT There is a substantial body of research concerned with student retention in higher education. However, in regard to factors related to study environment, existing research is described as incomplete. Based on Tinto’s institutional departure model and a literature review of recent international articles on dropout in higher education, this article suggests a revised model for understanding dropout processes. The model envisages study environment as a concept consisting of overlapping domains of a social system, an academic system, and teaching. The article distinguishes between factors related to each of these three systems and discusses how they can be used to understand and prevent dropouts.

How COVID-19 Has Exacerbated Inequality in Higher Education in Brazil

Drawing on educational census data and a review of news articles and higher education policies in Brazil, this article examines the impact of COVID-19 on the access and retention of the low-income Brazilian population in higher education. Guided by the question, “What is the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable population in Brazil in terms of access to, and retention in higher education?”, the paper is structured in two sections: the first offers a short historical overview of Brazilian higher education; the second examines the impact of the pandemic on student retention in higher education, looking at factors such as social isolation, job and income precarity, use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), internet access, and technological resources. I argue that distance education offered by private higher education institutions benefits the privileged students and that the effects of the pandemic are detrimental to the socially disadvantaged students since those who are in public universities do not always have access to technology, and those who study in private universities feel the impact of not being able to pay tuition fees, besides the loss of several jobs in different sectors. In conclusion, I recommend policy initiatives to improve access to higher education.