This baseline study was designed to better understand non-withdrawing student leavers. An exploratory research design was utilized which consisted of pilot interviews and a survey. The pilot interviews in this study consisted of five on-campus Fall 2005 undergraduate student leavers. Leaver insight from the pilot interviews served as the foundation for the student leaver satisfaction survey. The student leaver satisfaction survey was administered to Fall 2005 non-withdrawing student leavers. Additionally, National Student Clearinghouse Student Tracker enrollment information was reviewed to determine whether the leaver respondents continued their education. A total of 30 non-withdrawing leavers provided insight of the reasons why they left the university. The average respondent was a traditionally aged (under 25 years old) White student leaver. Most of the leavers self-reported good grades during the Fall 2005 semester. Undergraduate students graduating in Fall 2005 served as a comparison group in this study. Sixty-three graduates responded to the survey. Both the leaver and graduate responses were analyzed. The results indicated that non-withdrawing leavers most often left due to employment reasons, attending another institution, and wanting to be closer to family. A Chi-Square analysis was employed for both leavers and graduates based on survey information related to university involvement. The Chi-Square analysis revealed that leavers were significantly less likely to be involved in university activities compared to graduates. Another finding in this study was that many of the leavers continued their education and some even graduated. Further, a majority of the student leavers in this study had not been contacted by university officials since leaving the institution. Recommendations were given to higher education practitioners for tracking and communicating with this leaver group.

This thesis explores the use of complexity theory in Physics Education Research as a way to examine the issue of student retention (a university’s ability to retain its students). University physics education is viewed through the concepts of nestedness and networked interactions. The work presented in this thesis covers two main aspects from a complexity theory perspective: (1) institutional action to enhance student retention; and, (2) the role of students’ in-course interaction networks. These aspects are used to reframe student retention from a complexity theory perspective, as well as to explore what implications this new perspective affords. The first aspect is addressed by conceptualizing student retention as an emergent phenomenon caused by both agent and component interaction within a complex system. A methodology is developed to illustrate a networked visualization of such a system using contemporary estimation methods. Identified limitations are discussed. To exemplify the use of simulations of complex systems, the networked system created is used to build a simulation of an “ideal” university system as well as a Virtual world for hypothesis-testing. The second aspect is divided into two sections: Firstly, an analysis of processes relating to how students’ in-course networks are created is undertaken. These networks are divided into two relevant components for student retention – the social and the academic. Analysis of these two components of the networks shows that the formation of the networks is not a result of random processes and is thus framed as a function of the core constructs of student retention research – the social and academic systems. Secondly, a case is made that students’ structural positions in the social and academic networks can be related to their grade achievement in the course.

At a local community college in Texas, student retention remained a concern as enrollment was increasing while online student retention was decreasing. The purpose of this study was to examine student retention in online courses at the college. The conceptual framework that guided the project study was Tinto’s integration model, which provided insight as to why students choose to leave or continue their educational journey. The overarching question that guided the study queried the factors influencing students’ decisions to take online courses at the higher education level. A qualitative case study was used to capture information on 10 students regarding their perceptions of online learning and retention issues within the programs. Interviews were used to collect the data, along with research notes from each 40 minute interview. All information was transcribed and member checked, the data and research notes were uploaded in Nvivo 11. Once analyzed the following themes emerged, personal, academic, and institutional. The results also revealed that student participation and belonging are key indicators of student performance online and seem to be the most significant reason for failure or withdrawal from online courses. To address the reasons, a professional development plan was developed for the local community college to increase student, faculty, and staff awareness, interaction, and to assist in creating a welcoming, learning, and supportive environment. The implications for social change include presenting the professional development to the local community college to increase student retention and success rates for online courses by understanding the student population and their needs to be successful, resulting in an increase for graduation.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology / Fred O. Bradley / This study investigated the impact of an extended orientation program, Wildcat Warm-up, on academic performance and retention. The study sought to quantify differences between students who participated in the program and those who did not attend in terms of grade point average and retention to sophomore year. Participants in the study were all domestic, full-time, freshmen undergraduate students enrolled at the institution in the fall semester (2004 to 2007). This study sought to provide descriptive and predictability data by comparing two groups of students. One group consisted of participants in Wildcat Warm-up while the second was a comparison group matched on ACT composite score, residency status, and gender. Institutional data were analyzed, including student self-report record information, institutionally generated grade reports from the end of each semester, and enrollment information. The participant group and comparison group were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The first two research questions provided a preliminary analysis of the overall impact of the extended orientation on the two measures identified for the study: freshman grade point averages and retention. The first research question and hypothesis were explored with a two-group independent samples Chi-square test with a dichotomous response variable. The second research question and hypothesis were explored with an analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) for both first and second semester grade point averages. The third research question and remaining hypotheses were explored through a logistic regression analysis using the forward stepwise method. This study found there was a relationship between retention to sophomore year and Wildcat Warm-up participation and slight significant differences between first semester grade point averages for the two groups. In both cases, the strength of the association was small, but significant. The logistic regression analysis allowed for the creation of odds ratios for the predictor variables of the study where it was discovered when all other variables remain constant, the odds of a Wildcat Warm-up participant being retained from freshman to sophomore year were 31% higher than for a non-participant. While statistical significance was found, practical significance considerations did not allow much, if any of the variance, to be attributed to Wildcat Warm-up participation.

This research will be of interest to global higher education policy makers, researchers and practitioners engaged in student retention, widening access and managing strategic interventions to deliver step improvements in performance. Widening access policies continue to have contemporary relevance. Effectively and efficiently reducing student non-continuation rates, without compromising widening access performance, remains a challenge for many HEIs. A new system level Management Model for Improving Student Retention Performance and its supporting performance framework is derived from empirical data gathered from a longitudinal instrumental case study and informed by the literature. They have specific validity for HEIs with strong widening access performances and general applicability to others. The dominant theoretical model informing the research is Tinto's longitudinal model of institutional departure (Tinto, 1993). The Management Model for Improving Student Retention Performance is presented around three primary categories: students, faculty and institution. Each interacts with each other and operates within individual and mutually inclusive environmental systems. There is also a supporting Improving Student Retention KPI Framework and Improving Student Retention Performance Monitoring Information System to provide the mechanisms and tools that influence the effective and efficient application of the model to deliver a step improvement in student retention. Evidence of considerable improvements [50%] in student retention performances1 for widening access students is evidenced by the case institution which is not shared by comparable HEIs in Wales. Two new performance indicators are also derived: the Specific Widening Participation Indicator (SWPi) and the Multiple Widening Participation Index (MWPi). These support a new paradigm for understanding widening access and student non- continuation performances and challenge the algorithm used to calculate institution non-continuation benchmarks. They are included in the new performance framework and inform the third primary research contribution which exposes the significant discrepancies between the funding allocations made by HEFCW, the demands on HEIs relating to widening participation policy and the extent of their MWPi>0 and retention performances. Incongruence between HEFCW funding methodology and Welsh policy is evidenced.

This program of research had two related aims: (1) to explore the problem of student attrition in the context of an Australian higher education institution, and (2) to investigate the efficacy of peer-mentoring as a retention strategy. Participants in this program of research were students commencing first-year studies in the School of Applied Psychology across two cohort years: 1996 and 1997. In 1996, a classic pre-test/post-test experimental design was adopted, with students (N = 118) randomly assigned to either a peer-mentoring treatment group or a control group. In 1997, while a classic pre-test/post-test design was also adopted, all students from this year (N = 162) participated in the peer-mentoring program. Thus, it was intended that the 1996 control group would be utilised for comparison with both the 1996 and 1997 treatment groups. Students were surveyed pre- and post-intervention across a number of personal, demographic, and academic achievement (e.g., tertiary entrance rank, and grade point average) variables. Students’ academic integration, social integration, institutional commitment, and goal commitment were measured using the Institutional Integration Scales (adapted from Pascarella and Terenzini, 1980). Students participating in the peer-mentoring program also completed a range of measures in order to evaluate its efficacy. The first part of the research program focused on the measurement and prediction of student retention and academic performance. The results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a six first-order factor solution provided the most parsimonious explanation of students’ responses to the Institutional Integration Scales. The six Institutional Integration Scales demonstrated moderate to good levels of reliability, with results being comparable to those achieved in previous studies. The results of structural equations modelling analyses suggested that students’ peer group interactions influenced their interactions with faculty, and both of these factors, along with their faculty concern for student development and teaching, influenced students’ academic and intellectual development, which in turn influenced students’ institutional and goal commitments. These results were taken to indicate the potential value of peer-based processes in aiding students’ institutional and goal commitment and subsequently reducing levels of student attrition. Given that significant differences were found between the 1996 and 1997 cohorts on a number of pre-test measures and other key indicators, investigations regarding significant predictors of students’ re-enrolment into second year and their first year grade point average were conducted separately for the two cohorts. The results of logistic regression analyses indicated that students’ first year grade point average was the only consistent and significant predictor of their re-enrolment into the second year of study across the two cohorts. Multiple regression analyses revealed that students’ tertiary entrance ranks and previous university attendance were consistently significant predictors of their first year grade point average across the two cohorts. Equipped with a better understanding of the factors that affect student attrition and academic performance, as well as the relationship between those factors, the second part of the thesis focused on the efficacy of two formal, group-based peer-mentoring relationships in assisting first year students make a successful transition to university. However, given that significant differences were found between the 1996 and 1997 cohorts on a number of pre-test measures and other key indicators, it was not possible to evaluate the efficacy of the 1997 peer-mentoring program relative to either the 1996 peer-mentoring program or control group. Nevertheless, the 1996 treatment and control condition groups were found to be equivalent on pre-test measures and indices, and thus were able to be compared. Overall, the results of a series of one-way ANOVAs revealed that the 1996 peer-mentoring program was found to have a positive effect on enhancing students’ re-enrolment into second year, persistence intentions, academic performance and self-reported adjustment, which was consistent with the direction of findings in previous studies. However, for a range of reasons, the effect of the 1996 peer-mentoring program on a number of these variables was not strong enough to reach statistical significance. Although there were trends towards significant differences between the 1996 treatment and control groups on a number of variables (i.e., students in the 1996 peer-mentoring program evidenced higher grades in PB11002: Introduction to Cognitive and Biological Psychology; and PB11008: Research Methods and Statistics; as well as higher scores on the Peer Group Interactions scale than students in the control group), the only significant positive difference of the 1996 peer-mentoring program was the improvement of students’ academic performance in one first year subject (i.e., PB11006, Introduction to Research in the Behavioural Sciences). Finally, exploratory factor analyses and reliability analysis of a mentoring functions scale revealed strong support for the presence of one, highly reliable, general mentoring function. Both the 1996 and 1997 program participants’ ratings of the performance of this general mentoring function were significantly and positively correlated with their self-reported academic and intellectual development. In addition, the 1997 program participants’ ratings of the performance of this general mentoring function were significantly and positively correlated to their self-reported peer group interactions, institutional commitments, goal commitments, and persistence intentions.

This qualitative study sought to describe and understand the experiences of female students attending engineering colleges in Mexico and the sources of support and strategies that helped them persist in their programs. The participants were 20 women engineering students enrolled in at least their third year in selected colleges of engineering in Mexico, in both public and private universities, and pursuing a variety of engineering majors. Findings focus on the experiences of female students that helped them stay in their programs. Participants described their experiences in college as very challenging and perceived the environment as hostile and uncertain. In addition, patriarchal Mexican cultural values and stereotypes were identified by students as influencing and helping shape the engineering environment. However, in this context, participants were able to find sources of support and use strategies that helped them remain in their majors, such as a strong desire to succeed, a perceived academic self-ability; and support from their families, peers, institutions, and?most importantly?their professors. Furthermore, the fact that participants were able to persist in their programs gave them a sense of pride and satisfaction that was shared by their families, peers, and faculty. In addition, participants experienced contradictory forces and were constantly negotiating between rejecting traditional gender norms and upholding the norms that are so deeply engrained in Mexican society. Finally, as the students advanced in their programs and became ?accepted to the club,? they tended to reproduce the maledominated value system present in engineering colleges accepting their professors? expectations of being ?top students,? accepting the elitist culture of engineering superiority, and embracing the protection given by their male peers. Retention of Mexican female engineering students is important for all engineering colleges, but cultural factors must be taken into consideration. The dominance of machismo attitudes and values in Mexican culture present specific challenges to achieve an environment more supportive of women in Mexican engineering colleges. Institutions need to be proactive and creative in order to help faculty and administrators provide an environment in which female engineering students can be successful.

No abstract available. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to examine the peer counseling/mentoring experiences of African American students involved in a formal undergraduate Peer Counseling/Mentoring program at Mississippi State University. This study specifically examined the Peer Counseling/Mentoring experiences of undergraduate African American students at a predominantly White institution to determine if a relationship existed between peer counseling/mentoring, retention and academic performance. The research design for this study was descriptive, correlational and casual comparative. A pilot study was conducted to detect any problems that should be remedied before conducting the actual study. Based on information gathered in the pilot study, no revisions were required for the survey instrument. Participants in the research study completed a three-part survey instrument. Part I of the survey instrument collected demographic and enrollment data with one question pertaining to participants’ utilization of their peer counselor/mentor. Part II, the Racial and Mentoring Experiences Scale, collected data that examined the participants’ peer counseling/mentoring experiences, the factors that contributed to their persistence, the relationship between grade point average and academic performance, and the difference in grade point average of those who did or did not utilize their peer counselor/mentor. Part III of the survey instrument, an open-ended questionnaire, gathered information regarding the participants’ experiences. The survey instrument was completed and returned by 177 African American seniors from Mississippi State University. According to the findings in this study, Peer Counseling/Mentoring programs support the persistence and retention of African American students at predominantly White institutions. A statistically significant difference was found to exist between participants who utilized their Peer Counselor/Mentor and those who did not. The results indicated that those who utilized their Peer Counselor/Mentor had a higher self-reported grade point average than those who did not utilize their Peer Counselor/Mentor. The Peer Counselor/Mentor program provided participants with a peer who understood their challenges, contributed to their persistence and strengthened their confidence and connection to the university cultural/climate. The research revealed that if administrators desire their African American students to graduate at rates on par with their Caucasian counterparts strong consideration should be given to the implementation of Peer Counselor/Mentor programs.

The role of community colleges is to provide educational opportunities to all segments of a population regardless of academic proficiency or economic ability. This openess admissions policy is meant to allow equal admission to academic and career-technical programs for all students. Due to openess admissions, economically disadvantaged community college students find themselves being admissible to community colleges with uncertain financial ability to pay for community college even though it is at a lower cost than 4-year institutions. Community college students historically face more financial and social barriers than 4-year students in attaining higher education and thus have a greater need for federal financial aid assistance. Students attending community colleges participate in federal grant-in-aid and student loan programs at a higher rate than any other type of institution. With this greater need for financial aid assistance, community college students are still held to the same federal financial aid academic standards. Students receiving federal financial aid must meet the same grade-point average, completion rate, and eligibility limit requirements as their university counterparts. These standards impact students at the community college level at an even higher rate than those at the university. The purpose of this study was to determine if students who do not meet federal financial aid academic standards and are placed on financial aid probation can be retained at the community college level using an online intervention course. The knowledge obtained from the course could facilitate the selection of optimal and cost-effective intervention strategies. Determination is necessary in order to eliminate current online intervention, adapt the intervention methods, or continue supporting intervention through allocating resources to the program that may allow for expansion and outcome inference to future student populations. This study specifically explored the retention of students who do not meet corresponding Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) indicators through the inclusion of an online intervention course. Student data were obtained from online course outcomes over multiple semesters from a community college in the Southern Region of the United States, yielding quantitative data for analysis. Educational opportunities tend to be viewed in a dramaturgical or symbolic perspective and viewed as successful based on student outcomes. It was assumed that student outcomes are tangible, and the link between means and ends are clear, meaning student outcome attainment equals employment and life success. In this instance, a return on investment study is not intended, but rather program effectiveness in influencing student outcomes. This program can be considered effective as it provides causation for increased performance, subsequent retention, and positive impact on financial aid status. The addition of an online intervention course supports causation linkage. It also supports the correlation of predicting post-semester cumulative grade point average (GPA), and the performance within the course provides inference to the participant’s future status.