This study examined the relationships between 1. institutional expenditures on academic support as measured by total amount and student persistence; 2. institutional expenditures on academic support as measured by amount per student FTE and student persistence; 3. institutional expenditures on student services as measured by total amount and student persistence; and 4. institutional expenditures on student services as measured by amount per FTE. It also explored the relationship between student engagement as measured by the five benchmarks (Academic Challenge, Active & Collaborative Learning, Student Faculty Interaction, Enriching Education Experience, and Supportive Campus Environment) and student persistence. Finally, it explored relationships among institutional expenditures, student engagement and student persistence. The study is a non experimental quantitative study utilizing two data sources, NSSE 2005 survey data and IPEDS data source. The study utilized data from 71 public Research Institutions Extensive and Intensive on the 2000 Carnegie Classification of institutions. The findings showed that institutional expenditures on academic support are positively significantly related to persistence. Institutional expenditures on student services are also positively significantly related to persistence. The variance in persistence attributed to difference in total academic support is higher than that attributed to by student services. Likewise, the variance attributed to student support total amount is higher than variance attributed to by student support per student FTE. Examination of the relationship between Student Engagement and Retention showed that four of the student engagement benchmarks were significant. Academic Challenge was not significant. Active and Collaborative Learning and Student Faculty Interaction were significant but both had negative coefficients. Results also showed that there were significant relationships among institutional expenditures, student engagement and persistence through partial mediation in the structural equation model. One benchmark in the model, Student Faculty Interaction was however not significant.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-2652 |
| Date | 04 December 2008 |
| Creators | Lawal, Ibironke |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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