The importance of student engagement is long recognised. Students who are more engaged will be more motivated and inclined to complete their studies. The aim of this study is to understand barriers to engagement for first-year computing students, a cohort that traditionally have high non-progression rates. A qualitative descriptive design was…

College student retention theorists have suggested that improving students' financial literacy may improve student retention and completion rates. Before this important line of inquiry can be thoroughly examined, it is first important to understand if and how major state universities in the United States currently provide students with financial…

Eight years of data from Grand Valley State University Libraries show a positive correlation between in-class library instruction and student reenrollment the following fall semester. Using consistent statistical methods over time, controlling for confounding factors, and using a large population (N>16,000 annually) and strict protocols that…

The phenomenon of high school dropouts is a silent epidemic that has been plaguing the United States. This study examined the effects of online education on mental health and student retention of online students within the scope of secondary education. The data for this mixed methods study was collected through anonymous online questionnaires sent…

Retention for online learners is declining so much that higher education institutions are graduating more learners than they are enrolling. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to find ways to improve retention for first-term non-traditional learners in an online undergraduate program. Fourteen non-traditional learners participated in the…

Online education has become an integral part of higher education with the ever-increasing demand for online doctoral programs. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to explore the nature of student success and contributing factors to improving student success for nontraditional students in an online doctoral program. Relationships between…

Digital competencies have become an essential skill set for most professions. The University of Delaware (UD) needs to recognize and give credit for the digital skills students bring to their graduate studies, and for digital skills learned while in graduate programs. The current structure of humanities graduate programs at UD does not offer this.…

Undergraduate STEM retention has been a longstanding concern. Specifically, majors such as engineering have experienced a high dropout rate consistently in the past several decades. This study is aimed at understanding factors contributing to making the engineering major challenging, and individual factors that help first-year engineering students…

Education Northwest conducted a landscape analysis to support the Region 16 Comprehensive Center in gathering information about promising practices and innovative strategies for recruiting and retaining Indigenous educators in teacher education programs (TEPs) and the workforce. This landscape analysis included a review of the literature; a review…

Despite the rapid increase of students' enrolment in online courses, higher education institutions in Malaysia face the problem of high dropout rates of students before completing their studies and earning a degree. With a view to addressing the issue, this study focused on critical factors to evaluate the effectiveness of distance learning…

Principals and superintendents operating in high-choice environments are often faced with enrollment challenges as they compete for students. This case study examines the experience of a principal at Crossroads Elementary--a high-performing, culturally responsive, and innovative traditional public school that struggles to retain many of its older…

Objectives: Responding to Tinto's call for studies of retention that center on "the students' view of their experience" (p. 11), this research project reports findings from telephone interviews of 131 students who stopped out at our home institution, a large open admissions community college in the northeast. Our objective was to find…

The popularity of distance learning has increased among higher education students owing to its flexibility and convenience, as it enables learning from any location and at any time. Despite the substantial number of enrollments, distance learners are experiencing high attrition rates, leading to low completion rates compared to students enrolled…

This study investigates the influence of K-12 STEM education on the retention rates of Black women pursuing STEM majors in higher education institutions in Texas. The problem addressed in this study is the unknown influence of K-12 STEM education on Black women majoring in STEM in Texas higher education institutions. This research aims to describe…

As higher education faces challenges in low enrollment, soaring prices, and individuals who question the need for a degree, these institutions must transform into flexible-minded and innovative centers of excellence. The purpose of this study is to explore how empathetic and collaborative practices inherent in design thinking methodologies can…