Why do college students persist with their education, especially when facing challenges? We answer this question by exploring the complexities surrounding college student retention, using the organizational research lenses of job embeddedness, normative pressures, and the unfolding model of turnover. We first developed a college embeddedness scale…

The transition from secondary to tertiary education varies from country to country. In many countries, secondary school is concluded with high-stakes, national exams, or high-stakes entry tests are used for admissions to tertiary education. In other countries, secondary-school grade point average (GPA) is the determining factor. In the…

The authors present a comprehensive study to identify factors that affect the retention rate of first-time freshman business students in a large four-year public university. Factors include background academic and demographic variables, current performance indicators, and course-taking patterns. Based on a logistic regression model and comparison…

In 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that agriculture baccalaureate graduates were only expected to fill two-thirds of the available job openings. To address this need, it has become critical for colleges of agriculture to retain high-quality students. In response, universities have attempted to determine the practices to…

Objective: We wanted to identify factors associated with pre-nursing student retention and success at a small, rural two-year institution in South Carolina. Method: Transcript analysis generated a dataset for pre-nursing students (N = 125). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze high school and university data. Results:…

In 2016, Hispanic students comprised 19 percent of all college students in the US, an increase of 11 percent over the last twenty years, representing the fastest-growing demographic in higher education. Latino students are half as likely as white students to gain a bachelor's degree, a gap that has been continuously widening since the 2000s. There…

In this study, retention and academic performance of students enrolled in four different versions of a first-year seminar at a large, public 4-year university were compared for a 2-year period. The first-year seminars examined were 3-credit courses with either traditional, global, community engagement, or leadership themes and were essentially…

The gap in supply (i.e., shortage) and demand of the STEM workforce have prompted extensive research on identifying factors that predict STEM outcomes and retention of students. Few studies, however, have examined the relationships between STEM outcomes and predictors in an integrated model, taking into account measurement errors in the…

First-year seminars (FYS) are courses "intended to enhance the academic and/or social integration of first-year students" (Barefoot, 1992, p. 49). In 2008, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) introduced a list of 10 high-impact practices (HIPs) that had been tested and found to have significant positive…

Despite the importance of obtaining a university degree, retention rates remain a concern for many universities. This longitudinal study provides a multi-domain examination of first-year student characteristics and behaviors that best predict which students graduate. Graduation status was assessed seven years after students entered university.…

This study examined areas of concern within the community college level of higher education affecting the retention and attrition rates of African American male first-year students at three community colleges in the state of New Jersey. It used a four-stage investigative design to identify variable factors that are correlated to retention and…

Purpose: This research examine participation in a dual enrollment program and a student's race and socioeconomic status. In addition to examining the college retention and graduation rates (student success) of dual and non-dual enrolled students, this study looked at potential race and socioeconomic disparities. Design/methodology/approach: A…

This study examined the influence of mathematics course-taking on Latina/o science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) major persistence utilizing data from first-year STEM majors at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). Findings indicated that students who passed a first-term college-level mathematics course had significantly greater…

This study examined the factors that predict the likelihood of a first-time freshman (FTF) student retaining and graduating in a timely manner at the University of Kansas (KU) based on their perceptions of the frequency and quality of student-faculty engagement, with an emphasis on exploring differences between underrepresented minority students…

Currently, roughly one-third of college students fit the federal government's definition of first-generation college student status, meaning neither parent has earned a baccalaureate degree (RTI International, 2023). This study utilized archival data at an access institution in the southeastern United States in a causal-comparative study using…