There has been a notable increase in the number of first-generation students pursuing a college degree. However, there is a mismatch between the number of first-generation students entering college and the number of them continuing their mission through college. Given the college completion disparity for first-generation students, it is essential…

Increasing graduation rates continues to be a high priority for administrators at community colleges nationwide. While several factors affect graduation rates, many researchers focus on how a student's status as declared or undecided may impact their likelihood of graduating. This study aims to examine the potential relationship between…

During the past several years, the federal and state governments have adopted a college completion agenda using graduation rates as evidence of student success. With the demand for increased accountability on colleges and universities to ensure student success, institutions of higher education are searching for more effective ways to help students…

Data in this report reflect responses from 86 four-year private institutions that collectively enroll approximately 261,189 undergraduate students (according to data reported to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)). Respondents participated in the Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL) national electronic poll of "Effective…

Community colleges across the nation face many challenges in terms of institutional funding. As legislators in the Southeast continue to define metrics for funding mechanisms that define the amount of funding an institution receives legislators have used performance-based funding to channel funds into higher education institutions since 1979.…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover the college graduate experience of a junior officer who decided to finish their bachelor's degree despite any temptation to drop out of school; participants were selected from a midwestern military installation. The guiding theory of this study was Duckworth's grit theory; the study…

The problem addressed through this study is that the completion rates of doctoral programs in the United States range as low as 40%. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of higher education leaders (HELs) on their successes and challenges in increasing completion rates in their doctoral programs. The list of values…

Psychological grit has gained substantial interest among traditional higher education practitioners, with many seeking the link between grit, academic performance and retention. The literature pertaining to distance education cohorts is scant, however, especially within the South African context, which holds unique challenges for accessing and…

Transfer students face many challenges transitioning to a four-year institution, yet support for transfer students can be less comprehensive than for their first time-in-college (FTIC) counterparts. Three four-year universities established the Learning Environment and Academic Research Network Consortium to address this need. They developed and…

The lived experiences of Black/African American male students at a suburban community college in North Carolina were explored in this qualitative narrative study. Institutional data from the North Carolina Community College System revealed these students had the lowest percentages of persistence toward degree completion and of graduation. In an…

This report contains college enrollment, persistence, and completion outcomes of high school graduating students based on the data submitted to the National Student Clearinghouse on graduating classes of 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. High school diploma data are submitted to the Clearinghouse by schools and districts that participate in the…

First-generation college students face internal and external obstacles impacting their persistence and degree completion. This study examined what positive and negative factors and to what degree these factors impact first-generation college students' persistence and degree completion at the Appalachian institution based on academic classification…

There was a recognized high rate of students enrolled in technology programs who did not graduate college. Scholars who had studied predictors of college completion surmised there were several behavioral traits associated with a student achieving their college objectives through graduation; one of those factors was persistence. Persistence, the…

This dissertation was a multiple case study research project designed to identify whether the "Men of Merit Program" (MOMP) met its goal of increasing persistence, retention, and graduation rates of African American male students at a Western New York Community College. Earlier statistics reported that other American colleges had shown a…

Successful completion of a college degree is a growing necessity in the United States of America. Concerns about workforce readiness and the cost of postsecondary education make completion of a college degree a burdensome necessity for individuals and society. Important implications from higher education research have been integral in establishing…