PART I: Introduction to Student Retention

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PART I Introduction to Student Retention
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This Retreat

• The Staff
• The Agenda
• The Worksheets
• The Networking/Collaboration
• The Follow-Up

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Retreat Rules

• Have Fun
• Meet and talk with your colleagues
• Ask questions
• Interact
• Think about what you can bring back with you (not
  something from the hotel)
• Enjoy the surroundings

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Our Objectives

• Are objectives during this retreat are to provide
  participants with
• A more comprehensive understanding of theoretical
  and practical reasons for student departure and
  success
• An understanding of the barriers to student
  success
• A framework for developing a comprehensive plan
  for improving student success at your
  institution
• Data on student success and persistence at the
  two- and four-year levels in Canada and the U.S.
• Strategies and best practices for improving
  student success on campus
• Information on how to track and monitor students
  throughout their education
• A perspective on leadership and campus change
  (continuous improvement) necessary to improve
  student success
• An opportunity to create diverse networks of
  professionals like yourself who are committed to
  serving students at a high level
• Motivation to go back to your college and improve
  services to all students

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R101 Online Survey
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Retention and student success are important
issues to me.
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Retention and student success are important
issues to the academic leadership.
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My president/CEO considers retention and student
success to be important issues.
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Our faculty/staff consider retention and student
success to be important issues.
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I am familiar with the literature that explain
why students leave or stay.
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I receive regular information from campus
leadership about the status of our retention/
persistence issues on campus.
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Who is in charge of student retention on your
campus?

• Dean of Academic Affairs and my area, the
  Department of Academic Success
• Under the direct supervision of the Board and CEO
  at ACCESS College Foundation, that would be me.
• I have recently been hired as the coordinator for
  student retention so I guess it would fall a
  great deal on me.
• Academic Support Services
• There is a Retention Specialist individual in
  each of our three campuses.
• A newly created position of "Director of
  Retention" that's me...thankfully there are
  several other new team members that are also
  actively involved and in on the groundswell of
  making a change in our student retention.
• Everyone that works at the college is responsible
  for student success and retention.
• There is shared ownership of the persistence
  (retention) initiatives on our campus.
• I am.
• Everyone
• No one is in charge however everyone at the
  college should be accountable for our student
  retention and success.

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Why do students leave your campus?

• - MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!
• Three quarters of our students leave voluntarily,
  one quarter leave due to academic failure
• Lack of preparation and awareness on how to
  survive college academically and financially both
  before college and during the first year.
• My position is in the System office. We do not
  have information on why students leave individual
  UW institutions.
• There are various reasons such as, financial,
  personal, grades, to persue other options.
  Simply put, because they are unhappy for one or
  many reasons.
• Financial reasons, personal/family reasons
• Personal issues Health issues money issues
• Lack of good advising on a regular bassis. Lack
  of orientation to a college environment. Students
  don't have a goal on what they want to acheive
  for themselves. Lack of campus life on two of the
  four campuses. Not enough involved faculty as we
  use many adjuncts. No central admissions for four
  campuses.

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Why do students leave your campus?

• Our recent research shows that half go into the
  local workforce and half transfer to other
  schools, of which many to college.
• Students leave because don't have money to get to
  school, they don't have childcare, they become
  sick or a family member becomes sick, they have a
  bad experience at the college, or they are not
  academically and socially ready for college.
• Students leave for a number of reasons. Some
  leave because they are not doing well in class,
  others leave because of personal issues
  conflicting with school obligations... and others
  leave because the school may not have met their
  expectations (i.e. service offerings, course
  offerings, etc)

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Why do students leave your campus?

• According to our research, there are just about
  as many reasons as there are people leaving.
  Because I can't go into too much detail here, we
  found there were two main categories for those
  students who did not have to leave because of
  academic reasons half of them went into the
  workforce (not necessarily because of student
  debt but also because the economy is healthy and
  they can make good without a degree at this
  time), the other half went into other
  post-secondary education (particularly those
  institutions that offer diplomas in applied
  programs) because they did not feel that our
  institution was adequately connecting their
  program of study with a career outcome. There
  were sub-categories with particular reasons why
  first-year students did not return and why upper
  year students didn't.
• Multiple reasons Academic preparedness being
  number one, transfer number 2 (which may have
  overlap with 1) and financial ability
• Finances, time issues, family matters
• 1. No money for tuition and books. 2. Family
  matters. 3. Employment matters. 4. Unable to
  juggle family, home,work, job and school.
• A number of reasons, I am unsure at this time.

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What do you think your campus does well in
support of students?

• Engage students (ie. campus recreation, fitness
  centre, University Life 101 Program) Realign and
  refocus our student services
• Maintaining ongoing contact with students in an
  outreach/referral/educational motivational
  capacity towards services in place on campus that
  encourage student success.
• At the System office, we do not have information
  on what campuses do well with regard to
  serving/keeping students.
• It is a smaller institution within a friendly
  city. There are many programs and services to
  meet the needs of just about any type of student.
  We try to do as much as we possibly can to make
  the student make connections with fellow students
  as well as the city.
• Academic Support (i.e., tutoring, etc.) Student
  Life (extra curricular activities such as
  organizations, entertainment, sports, choir,
  band, etc).

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What do you think your campus does well in
support of students?

• Low cost small campus
• Good online teaching for students. The full time
  faculty are very dedicated to serving their
  students. Two campuses are new and modern with
  their own libraries.
• Decent orientation program with available career
  councilling during degree. Improving teaching
  skills training available to professors.
• We do a lot of early intervention.
• Our campus is very communicative with the
  students. Each semester, our president conducts
  an open forum with our students to assess the
  climate of the campus. Viable suggestions are
  returned to the management team, and we must
  offer feedback on progress made. This feedback
  is then displayed to the students.
• We have a Campus Representative program at the
  four universities in Cleveland where enrollment
  of CSP recipients is highest.

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What do you think your campus does well in
support of students?

• The program provides peer mentoring for CSP
  recipients by matching upperclassmen with
  freshmen. It also offers monthly workshops
  geared towards academic success and a successful
  transition to college life. We are really aiming
  to boost retention initiatives this year, so I'm
  looking forward to learning strategies from
  others at this conference.
• For the most part, our faculty and staff really
  do care about the success of our students and our
  students say that our faculty is our biggest
  asset in terms of developing relationships with
  students to help them succeed. On the other
  hand, our students say that our faculty is our
  worst asset because they don't develop good
  relationships with students...
• Good academic support center services. Either
  not enough staff or not enough awareness of its
  services
• We care and we respond to students' concerns well.

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What do you think your campus does well in
support of students?

• 1. Students attend freshmen orientation class.
  2. Students are assigned academic advisor. 3.
  Students are encourged to attend self-help and
  student success seminars.
• we can do much better.

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Who do we serve?
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Number of Institutions Attended
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Initial Degree Goal
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Attendance Intensity and Continuity
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Delayed Enrollment
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Degree Goal vs. Degree Attainment
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Degree Attainment and Persistence
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Question 1

• Why is Retention an Important Issue?
• Retention stable at 50 percent
• Issues of cost and quality
• Federal and state intervention

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Dropout and Defaults
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Question 2

• When does student dropout/departure occur?

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The Ongoing Retention Challenge

• One quarter of all students who enter
  postsecondary education for the first time end up
  at another institution before attaining a
  postsecondary degree.
• Almost half (46 percent) of first-time students
  who left their initial institution by the end of
  the first year never came back to postsecondary
  education.
• Students who attend full-time or whose attendance
  was continuous were much more likely to achieve
  their degree goals than other students. However,
  only about two-thirds of students were
  continuously enrolled.

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The Ongoing Retention Challenge

• 50 percent of four-year students who did not
  delay entry into PSE earned their degree at their
  first institution, compared to only 27 percent of
  students who were delayed entrants.
• 42 percent of students whose first-year grade
  point average was 2.25 or less left postsecondary
  education permanently.

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Question 3

• Why do Students Leave?
• Academic Preparedness
• Campus Climate Poor Fit
• Weak Commitment to Educational Goals and/or
  Institution
• Failure to Socially and/or Academically Integrate
• Lack of Financial Support/Aid

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Question 4

• Why should institutions care?
• Loss of revenue to the institution
• Poor business model
• Lower prestige and morale
• Its the right thing to do its in the mission

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The Cost of Departure

• The Individual, the Institution
• and Society

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Impact on Students

• Self-Concept
• Decline in confidence, perceived incompetence
• Desire to Graduate
• Loss of motivation feelings of helplessness lead
  to consideration of options
• Perception of Institution
• Less positive view of college

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Student Outcome Types
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Inst. commit
Ed. commit
Confid
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Student VoicesSource of Pride this Semester

• Achieving a higher average than in high school
• Achieving above average marks for me
• Achieving an 80 in my courses
• Achieving an A on an essay
• Achieving better grades.
• Achieving dean's list status
• Achieving good marks.
• Achieving high grades
• Achieving high grades in Math it was always my
  weakest subject.
• Achieving high grades, and being able to tutor
  fellow students.
• Achieving high marks
• Achieving high marks are on first group of tests

• Achieving my goals and receiving amazing grades,
  as well as realizing that I have a definite
  passion for what I am studying
• Achieving my marks. I am pretty proud of them.
• Achieving my semester goals academically and
  personally, maintaining my sanity and really
  learning to relax and enjoy my life and the lives
  I influence.

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Cost to Institutions

• Lost income
• leavers x (tuition govt. funding) M
• Wasted
• Recruitment, admissions, registration,
  orientation, instructional time etc.
• Impact on Key Performance Indicators
• Student satisfaction, graduation rates
• Impact on Image
• Prospective students, trustees, legislators,
  public

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Cost to Society

• Economic Benefits
• Human Capital
• Productivity
• Wealth generation
• Human Condition
• Health costs
• Social order

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This is what a 1 increase in student retention
looks like.

• This is what a 1 increase in student retention
  looks like. While 'student retention' may sound
  like administrivia, it's far from it. It's about
  individual students, their potential and their
  future...and ours. For each of the past five
  years, the University of NebraskaLincoln has
  done 1 better in student retention than the year
  before. That means 36 more students 'hung in
  there' to move toward graduation...180 more since
  2000.

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Best Practices at UNL

• RETENTION IS OUR JOB.
• GIVE THE RED CARPET TREATMENT.
• CHECK IT OUT AT MID-SEMESTER.
• GET TO KNOW OUR STUDENTS.
• TELL THEM HOW THEY'RE DOING.
• BE PERSONAL.
• DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS.
• ENCOURAGE RE-ENROLLMENT.

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PART I Introduction to Student Retention