Retention In Higher Education Research Articles

Student retention in higher education: Folk high schools and educational decisions

Improving student retention in higher education is perceived as vital to the cost-effectiveness of educational systems. Research shows that clear educational goals may influence student retention, which suggests that helping students make more informed choices may improve student retention. In this article, we investigate whether a folk high school education prevents students from transfer and whether it makes students complete their first undergraduate education faster. The folk high school education is a 9-month program at a boarding school that among other things aims to help students find out what they wish to do in life. Contrary to our expectations, a folk high school education does not reduce transfer between institutions or between study programs. Nor does a folk high school education make students complete their first undergraduate program more efficiently than other students who postpone higher education. One policy implication of this article is that an academic break in itself does not make students more certain of their educational choices, not even at a school that aspire to provide an environment that facilitates greater reflection on where one wishes to go in life.

Beca nivelación académica: la experiencia de una política pública aplicada en una universidad chilena

This work corresponds to the systematization of the Accompaniment Program developed by the San Sebastian University in 2012 and 2013 as part of the allocation of the Leveling Academic Scholarship (BNA) granted by the Ministry of Education of Chile (Mineduc). We estimate that this study, which incorporates academic results with the beneficiaries own assessments, broadens the scope of a public policy that has oriented the efforts of the institutions to ensure equity in access and retention in higher education in Chile. After characterizing the beneficiary group, we describe the intervention and its impact on retention, curricular advancement and academic performance of the participants. These results are complemented by a qualitative assessment about the students’ experiences in the program. Finally, we reflect on the lessons learned from this intervention at the institutional level and the need for increased escalation of this public policy which recognizes students´ academic performance and potential in consideration of their socio-economic context.

Toward a New Predictive Model of Student Retention in Higher Education

Theoretical models designed to predict whether students will persist or not have been valuable tools for retention efforts relative to the creation of services in academic and student affairs. Some of the early models attempted to explain and measure factors in the college dropout process. For example, in his seminal work, Tinto defined retention as a longitudinal process incorporating both the academic potential of the student and institutional social systems, thus creating a directional model based on continual variance in social commitments that influence academic performance. Others expanded the earlier theoretical models to test the predictive capabilities of these models using logistical regression and structural equation modeling to project college retention rates. As public sectors push for performance-based accountability in federal and state agencies, higher education funding becomes directly linked to academic performance. Critics of performance-based accountability in higher education contend that these funding structures undermine the mission of the university system and negatively impact retention in higher education. As Astin suggested, the structure of the American college system is a great deal more complex than the elementary concept of supply side economics. Additionally, due to globalization and aggressive progress in information technology, a shift from labor-intensive, information-age economies to a knowledge-based economy has created competing forces between academic and social integration in retention efforts. As intensity increases toward developing global knowledge-based economies, latent functions providing the framework for the process of learning (social integration, social control, and social change) give way to the manifest functions that reduce education to a process in which individuals merely collect information for future dissemination. Decades of research indicate that the role of education is not merely transmission of information. Higher education prompts progressive social changes that are augmented not only by dissemination of knowledge but also by the interconnectedness of the college experience, socialization process, and discovery of self in terms of place. A new conceptual model, grounded in classical sociological theory, is necessary to accommodate a knowledge-based economy. Universities must incorporate protective factors that generate a resilient environment for student learning, adaptation, and retention. Expanding the retention models of Spady and Tinto enhances the predictability of conceptual models for a new paradigm that fully recognizes the relationships among external factors (national and educational climate), internal factors (institutional culture and climate), and adaptive factors (sense of place) that effect voluntary dropout decisions in higher education.

Scaffolding Complex Learning: Integrating 21st Century Thinking, Emerging Technologies, and Dynamic Design and Assessment to Expand Learning and Communication Opportunities

Enhanced ways of thinking about learners, learning, and communication in the 21st century across content areas coupled with technologies that can extend the outreach beyond text, time, and geography can accelerate learning and retention in higher education, professional organizations, and learning environments. However, many assumptions about time, situation, learning goals, and learner capabilities have been embedded in face-to-face and online approaches. Thus, when moving to the more dynamic designs available today, instructors, educators, and communicators must also carefully scaffold the environment to integrate effectively these emerging tools and understandings. Otherwise, what could be enriched learning can become confusion and frustration. This article outlines both ways to design and integrate content, learners, technology and communication tools, and assessment, thus enabling dynamic, 21st century learning and ways to scaffold and balance instructional supports, pacing, and interaction-planning thereby providing guidance for the rich learning that is possible in integrated, technology-supported environments.

Signals from the Silent: Online Predictors of Non-success in Business Undergraduate Students

Changes to student funding, in parallel with the introduction of new technologies into teaching and learning, and a blurring of traditional boundaries between full and part time study have brought an increased focus on retention in higher education. As more providers look towards offering online portfolio options, this is likely to increase; with some evidence that drop-out on online-led modules can be higher. As many classroom-based behavioural indicators of student retention are reduced or absent in the online environment, institutions can be slower to understand that students are considering dropping out, with the first indication of problems being when withdrawal takes place. This paper draws on data from online interactions among 3000 students studying an introductory Business Studies module at the Open University to identify early online indicators of potential drop-out. Findings suggest that both erratic interactions, and/or marked reduction in activity level from previously active students are predictors of subsequent withdrawal. Existing demographic data (on age, gender, etc.) used by the institution has historically allowed broad ‘at risk’ categories of student to be identified; coupling this information to some of the online behavioural indicators revealed through new tracking technology allows more precise targeting of individuals more promptly than historically. This may potentially change a student support model from reactive to proactive; allowing the institution to offer additional support as soon as such signs emerge which improve student retention. Universities seeking to increase student retention may find early warning of vulnerable students useful in targeting appropriate interventions.

Complementary Meta-Analytic Methods for the Quantitative Review of Research: 2. An Extended Illustration

In Figueredo, Black, and Scott (this issue), we presented the rationale for a complementary meta-analytic method to accompany traditional effects meta-analytic procedures. Here, we provide an example using Contents Meta-Analysis so that readers can become familiar with the application of the method and the implications of its use. This illustration will be presented in two major sections. First, we will describe an empirical example of a meta-analysis on retention in higher education where a Contents Meta-Analysis was conducted. Then we will show how the information gained in the Contents Meta-Analysis may be applied to address issues of generalizability.

Approaching the Challenge of Student Retention through the Lens of Quality Control: A Conceptual Model of University Business Student Retention Utilizing Six Sigma

Student retention in higher education is a major issue as academic institutions compete for fewer students and face declining enrollments. A conceptual model of applying the quality improvement methodology of Six Sigma to the problem of undergraduate student retention in a college of business is presented. Improvement techniques such as cause and effect analysis, process maps and failure models, and effects analysis are illustrated with representative student retention variables and outcomes from a large midwestern university. The use of Six Sigma in academic settings is rare and its utilization to improve student retention is a novel application.

Complementary Meta-Analytic Methods for the Quantitative Review of Research: 2. An Extended Illustration

In Figueredo, Black, and Scott (this issue), we presented the rationale for a complementary meta-analytic method to accompany traditional effects meta-analytic procedures. Here, we provide an example using Contents Meta-Analysis so that readers can become familiar with the application of the method and the implications of its use. This illustration will be presented in two major sections. First, we will describe an empirical example of a meta-analysis on retention in higher education where a Contents Meta-Analysis was conducted. Then we will show how the information gained in the Contents Meta-Analysis may be applied to address issues of generalizability. DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v4i2_figueredo

Complementary Meta-Analytic Methods for the Quantitative Review of Research: 2. An Extended Illustration

In Figueredo, Black, and Scott (this issue), we presented the rationale for a complementary meta-analytic method to accompany traditional effects meta-analytic procedures. Here, we provide an example using Contents Meta-Analysis so that readers can become familiar with the application of the method and the implications of its use. This illustration will be presented in two major sections. First, we will describe an empirical example of a meta-analysis on retention in higher education where a Contents Meta-Analysis was conducted. Then we will show how the information gained in the Contents Meta-Analysis may be applied to address issues of generalizability. DOI:10.2458/azu_jmmss_v4i2_figueredo

Faculty Retention in Higher Education

Criteria for retaining or firing a highly qualified faculty in higher education in many cases are vague and unclear. This situation is neither a comfortable, nor a healthy, both for the faculty and the administration. Stakeholders have enough reason to blame each other in the absence of transparent mechanism. This paper proposes a transparent point system for both faculty and higher education administration based on three most important categories – Teaching (T), Research (R), and community Service (S). This proposed transparent point system will present solution to resolve confusion among stakeholders. Faculty based on this transparent proposed point system may perform well and administration based on this proposed point system may decide to retain the faculty.

Tackling Transition: The Value of Peer Mentoring

This paper is aimed at those interested in the promotion of student retention in higher education; particularly those with an interest in peer mentoring as a means of student support. It critically discusses the results of an exploratory study analysing the perceptions of peer mentors and mentees within five universities in the United Kingdom. The aim of the study was to analyse how student peer mentoring can aid transition into university by focusing specifically on how senior students can support their junior counterparts in their first year at university. The paper discusses the results of a survey which was completed by 329 student peer mentors and mentees. Focusing on the benefits and outcomes of participation in Mentoring Programmes, the survey was distinctive in that it asked mentors and mentees similar questions. From a theoretical perspective, the paper contributes to debates about peer support in higher education showing that participation in such programmes can have positive outcomes from both social and pedagogic perspectives. Practically speaking, the results have important implications for Higher Education Institutions as the research highlights the importance of putting into place formally structured Peer Mentoring Programmes which facilitate student support at a time when new students are most at risk of ‘dropping out’.

Students’ Expectations About Their Grades Versus Course Expectations From Them

The paper presents a research study on the reasons for mismatch between students’ grade expectations and the actual grades they were awarded in the “Ethics” course at an engineering education institution in India. The paper also outlines how this event created the social and political stigmas among the authorities to opt for the re-evaluation of students’ answer sheets. After receiving the re-evaluated grade sheet from the re-evaluator, some meager and minor discrepancies were noticed which were liable to question, suspicion, and hence not impeccable. But by overlooking the reasons for trifling discrepancies authorities considered the re-evaluated grade sheet as the final one. In this context, the study examined the reliability and viability of criteria-based grading against norm-based grading model with the plausible impacts of authoritarian intervention in distorting the course instructor’s grade sheet, and its implications on quality retention in higher education.

Women's Perspectives on Retention in Higher Education in Jordan: Commute and Choice

Jordan is viewed as a country of social, political, and economic and advancement. It currently leads the region in literacy rates and is well on its way to achieving gender equity. However, some reports claim that Jordan maintains the widest gender gap in higher education completion in the region while others report that the percentage of females is higher than males. There is a body of literature on college student retention but no such work has taken place in the Middle East, and more specifically in Jordan, on the experiences of women in higher education and retention. This study explores the experiences of 18 women that, at the time of the data collection (2008–2009), were in their final year or semester of higher education and preparing to graduate (average age 22.3 years old) and 10 women, that were at one point formally enrolled but at the time of the study had departed from completing higher education (average age 22.8 years old). These women represented 13 different universities (7 public and 6 private) throughout Jordan. Interviews were conducted with each participant. In addition to interviews, visits with the women were conducted on the university campus and official university and ministry education records were collected to examine enrollment, graduation, and retention rates. These varied qualitative methods allowed for a holistic exploration of the patterns in the persistence of women in higher education. This study found that the main retention theories formed in the United States are not completely adequate in helping explain the situation of women in Jordan and this study alters and extends them, placing more weight on characteristics at the individual-level, rather than on the institutional-level, with more attention paid to the role of the commute and the inflexibility of the higher education admissions process, in order to make them more applicable to the context of women in Jordan.

Student Retention in Higher Education in Turkey: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this article is to investigate student perceptions of college departure in three state universities in Turkey. Since the beginning of the 1990s, higher Education System in Turkey went through a massification of higher education. The rapid growth brought enrollment and dropout issues in the system. A total of 58 participants were included in the qualitative study. Of the 58 participants, 35 students were later enrolled at various other programs. Twenty-three students did not drop out. Results indicated that student retention has been an uncharted territory in Turkey. High levels of dropouts lead to inefficiencies in the higher education system.

Crafting a Caring and Inclusive Environment for LGBTQ Community College Students, Faculty, and Staff

This article provides a framework for understanding and supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students in community colleges. It should be noted that many of the understandings and structural supports often apply to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) faculty and staff as well. The study is based upon several assumptions: First, environments play a key role in supporting attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors; therefore, attending to environmental influences is critical in institutional life and change. Second, people possess unique and diverse identities at the same time. Understanding the range of a student's identities, as well as the depth of them, is core to understanding students and their behavior. Also, there is a common core set of beliefs, generally acknowledged to be true, concerning student retention in higher education. By examining the community college environment, identity, human development over time, and retention, this article provides not only a theoretical basis for LGBTQ inclusion, but a source of practical information for those wishing to craft a more inclusive environment on community college campuses.

Academic success of nursing students: Does motivation matter?

Schools of nursing around the world, including associate degree nursing (ADN) programs, continue to be challenged by retention and recruitment issues. Many efforts have been made to address the variety of complex issues that nurse educators face to increase student retention and recruitment in nursing programs. Fortunately, enrollment in many of the nursing programs is on the rise, as the economic challenges in the United States continue to be unwavering. According to the National League for Nursing Annual Nursing Data Review, ADN programs “account for majority of growth in admission and enrollment” (2009). However, with an increase in enrollment comes an increase for the potential of choosing a career in nursing not only for the desire to help others but also for the sake of having a career with job “security.” The motivating forces for choosing a career in nursing, the changing demographics of nursing students, and the students' motivation to learn can all provide challenges for nurse educators. The one challenge that educators will face with an increase in enrollment is how to increase retention among a very diverse student population. One avenue to consider is the students' motivation for learning and how that could impact his or her retention. A review of the literature suggests that locus of control (internal versus external motivation) can be one predicator of success in higher education (L. Perrot, L. Deloney, J. Hastings, S. Savell, & M. Savidge, 2001). Furthermore, motivation has been positively related to learning outcomes, and positive learning outcomes have been correlated with increased retention in higher education.

Enhancing knowledge retention in higher education: A case of the University of Zambia

The purpose of this study was to investigate how knowledge retention may be enhanced at the University of Zambia (UNZA). A quantitative case study design employing a triangulation of data collection methods was used. Data were collected using interviews and questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to determine participants for the interviews whilst stratified random sampling was employed to select the respondents for the questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative data that was analysed using SPSS® indicates that UNZA lacked certain knowledge retention practices that might enable it to retain operational relevant knowledge. In view of the findings, the study recommends the adoption of a knowledge retention framework that could be embedded in UNZA’s knowledge management policy.

Traditional practice for non‐traditional students? Examining the role of pedagogy in higher education retention

The current agenda for widening participation (WP) promotes equal access to higher education (HE), yet it also implicitly requires institutions to develop support strategies to ensure a successful learning experience and good retention for different groups of students. The objective of this article is predominantly reflected in the latter goal and considers student retention, rather than recruitment. Specifically, it focuses on whether non‐traditional students’ experiences of teaching environments could potentially contribute to ‘drop‐out’, ultimately enhancing our understanding of what role pedagogy might play in WP retention strategies. Using a qualitative framework, the views of a group of non‐traditional students are presented, focusing specifically on their experience of teaching provision, and the extent to which it matched their expectations of HE. Consideration is then paid to the students’ views to garner an account of solutions they deem to be essential in tackling negative experiences and subsequent attrition. The present project should have wider appeal for those interested in understanding how student‐centred research can help deal with the challenges faced by WP students.

The Promotion of “Character” and its Relationship to Retention in Higher Education

With transition to university a strong focus across most higher education institutions, undergraduate teacher education programs have been increasingly scrutinised regarding their (in)ability to adequately prepare students for the challenging social contexts that they will meet. As a result, there has been a burgeoning of approaches which initiate beginning students. In the Education Faculty of a regional Australian university, the FYI (First Year Infusion/For Your Information) Program attempts to build capacity among pre-service students in a supportive learning community. In an intentionally created context, the program provides a Learning Circle approach to student support. Through consciously infusing the value of “character” into the transition program, there is evidence of tangible impacts upon students’ interactions in the learning process and their commitment to course completion. Data are presented that suggest that students’ high quality interactions with peers and academic staff in an informal context are vital to academic success, and that staff also benefit from this program. It would suggest that the development of effective partnerships between all stakeholders is paramount in helping to build capacity.

Do Pre‐entry Interventions such as ‘Aimhigher’ Impact on Student Retention and Success? A Review of the Literature

AbstractThis paper reviews the potential impact of pre‐entry widening access interventions on student retention and success in higher education. It thus addresses two contemporary policy concerns: What is the impact of pre‐entry widening access interventions; and how can we improve student retention and success? A review of academic and practitioner literature finds limited research about the impact of pre‐entry interventions in general and very little on the impact of pre‐entry interventions on students' retention and success in higher education. A review of the research, however, identifies the importance of factors which pre‐entry interventions address: pre‐entry decision making, expectations about higher education and academic preparation. To date, however, the impact of pre‐entry interventions on retention in higher education has been largely ignored. Thus pre‐entry activities, such as Aimhigher, should be evaluated for their impact on student retention. The paper offers an outline evaluation framework, including evaluation topics and suggested key performance indicators to bridge this gap.