The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand the experiences of adult graduate students who stop-out, or take a break from enrollment, but who ultimately persist by reenrolling. The participants in this study were enrolled in an online master's degree program. Symbolic interactionism was the theoretical framework for this study…

This dissertation measures and describes the factors that impact doctoral student persistence. Using a mixed methods cases study design, I analyzed institutional student record data, survey data on caregiving responsibilities, and data from semi-structured interviews with PhD students at a STEM-focused, public research university in the American…

Observers of education often assume measuring non-continuation -- or, more colloquially, "drop-out" rates -- among students must be straightforward. In fact, there are numerous different ways to measure the phenomenon of non-continuation that make it challenging to discuss. This paper addresses the following questions regarding…

In this dissertation, I study the relationships between financial aid, student characteristics, persistence, and completion in three separate chapters. In all three chapters, I use detailed, student-level administrative data from the UNC System beginning in the Fall 2013 semester. The first chapter is entitled "Tuition Reduction and Student…

This study explores the demographic/background, academic, and environmental factors that predicted student retention after stopping out at a large Hispanic-serving institution in Southern California. The results show that (a) gender, (b) academic background, experience, readiness, and performance, and (c) personal and financial issues predicted…

Retention, or readmission as it is commonly known in the case of the University of Dhaka--the largest public university in Bangladesh--has gradually been becoming more of an important educational issue as Bangladesh moves toward her development goals and the education system struggles to keep up. This study is an institutional departmental case…

More college students are reporting adverse mental health concerns that negatively influence their student success than in previous years (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2020; Xiao et al., 2017). Postsecondary literature lacks evidence to support the influence of adolescents' adverse mental health characteristics on future college enrollment…

This study sought to respond to the increased number of mature students in social work education and the understudied topic of their experiences. The research deployed semi- structured interviews and thematic analysis to explore the benefits, challenges, and needs of mature students (N = 19) over the age of 30 in a Canadian Bachelor of Social Work…

There are hundreds of recognized tuition-free college "promise" programs, but few are as generous or flexible as the Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise). Pre-COVID studies on KPromise have demonstrated effects on increased college attendance, credit completion, and persistence. Extending these findings to the COVID-19 pandemic context can help…

This report features selected research findings on student mobility in the British Columbia (B.C) public post-secondary system, using data from the most recent annual Student Transitions Project (STP) submission from Fall of 2022. All academic credit registrants in B.C.'s 25 public post-secondary institutions from 2002/2003 to Fall 2023 are…

The ubiquitous roadblocks to university graduation have been investigated, identified, and interrogated for 7 decades, yet the mystery of retaining students to graduation continues to elude even the most prestigious universities. This researcher's approach to increasing graduation began with the concession that increasingly, students may leave…

Low student success rates are widespread in American higher education. More than a quarter of freshmen do not return for their second year; at community colleges, it is 41 percent. In 2019, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center identified 36 million adults who had some postsecondary experience but had yet to earn any type of…

This report features selected research findings on student mobility in the British Columbia (B.C) public post-secondary system, using data from the most recent annual Student Transitions Project (STP) submission from Fall of 2020. All B.C. postsecondary registrants in B.C.'s 25 public post-secondary institutions from 2002/2003 to Fall 2020 are…

As the tenth in the Completing College series, this report updates the six-year college completion rates nationally and by state, by tracking the enrollment and completion outcomes for the fall 2015 cohort of beginning college students through June 2021. The national completion rate measures the performance of the entire higher education system.…

This set of Web Tables is the fourth in a series of four that together provide key information about 2011-12 first-time postsecondary students' characteristics and their 6-year retention, persistence, attainment, withdrawal, stopout, and transfer rates. The series draws on data collected for the 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students…