Despite the benefits of a PhD for degree-holders as well for society as a whole, doctoral student attrition is a common phenomenon. Unfortunately, the empirical literature on dropout from doctoral education is scant, especially for non-US countries--an omission we address in the current study. Building on Tinto's model of student attrition and…

Despite the growing popularity of online education, online schools have lower retention rates than their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Student retention is affected by multiple factors including the characteristics of the students, the characteristics of the educators, and the characteristics of the schools. However, there is a lack of…

Peer coaching is a formal program whereby successful students support their peers in attaining academic and social goals. Survey results unveiled that 90 percent of coachees felt peer coaches enhanced learning, and 100 percent felt peer coaches engendered a sense of community and belonging. More than 85 percent of coachees planned to persist in…

Computer programming is a skill of increasing importance in scientific and technological fields. However, in introductory computer science (CS1) courses in higher education, approximately one in every three students fails. A common reason is that students are overwhelmed by an accelerated and inflexible pace of learning that jeopardizes success.…

Community colleges face enrollment declines, student performance, and accountability metrics, the need to support nontraditional students' career paths, and constraints imposed by limited resources. Community college leadership would benefit from empirical data on students with nontraditional GED credentials and the effects of remedial education…

Not all students who enroll in college complete their degree. Students who drop out of college and fail to graduate represent a dilemma for higher education administrators. Determining factors that may lead to attrition has been a topic of discussion amongst educators. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are any relationships…

It is common for graduate programs to be plagued by delays in on-time student completion or to experience student attrition. Students have experienced such delays in a local program at the University where I am employed as a lecturer. Therefore, this dissertation was undertaken with the aim of supporting university students at the graduate level…

Online courses are popular in community colleges among students of different backgrounds. However, compared to community college students who take face-to-face courses, those who take online courses earn lower grades and are less likely to receive a diploma or transfer to a four-year institution. Designing courses to facilitate social presence, as…

STEM undergraduates navigate lengthy sequences of prerequisite courses covering volumes of science content. Given that these courses may contribute to attrition and equity gaps in STEM, research is needed to test the assumption that prerequisite content benefits students in their future studies and careers. We investigated the relevance of…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are now well-established as a highly effective, flexible and large participation capacity distance learning tool. They have enabled unprecedented access to educational material for millions of people worldwide, however, still suffer from significant student non-completion. Various theories have been proposed but…

Attrition is one of the main concerns in distance learning due to the impact on the incomes and institutions reputation. Timely identification of students at risk has high practical value in effective students' retention services. Big Data mining and machine learning methods are applied to manipulate, analyze and predict students' failure,…

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the perspectives of All-But-Dissertation (ABD) students who are currently enrolled in an ABD completion program after failing to complete their dissertations with their initial institutions of higher education and to then inform the higher education community about what ABD students need to be…

Attrition is one of the main concerns in distance learning due to the impact on the incomes and institutions reputation. Timely identification of students at risk has high practical value in effective students' retention services. Big Data mining and machine learning methods are applied to manipulate, analyze, and predict students' failure,…

STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) are a key source of economic progress in many countries. As the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia works toward an innovative and knowledgeable economy, more qualified national professionals in STEM are needed. Nevertheless, the problem of STEM attrition is still insufficiently explored in Saudi…

Although student academic support programs have dated back to Early Colleges in America, the way we service our students' populations has had to evolve. Various student support programs have been utilized over the years, and while at that current time may have indicated benefits, are now outdated. One service that is demonstrating success is…