Nontraditional students in Nebraska colleges have lower graduation rates than traditional students. Approximately 40% of nontraditional students at a private college withdraw before completing a degree. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover barriers preventing nontraditional students from completing a degree. The conceptual…

Black male community college students have the lowest retention and completion rates among any racial group (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2017). During this dissertation, I examined the root causes of Black male community college students' low graduation rates through a systematic literature review, and then identified mentoring…

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to understand how leaders at two community colleges that participated in Guided Pathways used early momentum metrics (EMMs) to change institutional policies or practices to improve student success and degree completion rates. By focusing on EMMs as short-term indicators, leaders could track…

The purpose of this phenomenological was to identify and understand how Black Male Initiative programs contributed to the completion of an undergraduate degree for Black males at HBCUs. The study's central research question was: What role does the Black Male Initiative (BMI) play in Black male undergraduate degree completion at HBCUs in the U.S.?…

In light of the current discourse around the alleged discriminatory nature of the SAT and ACT exams against underrepresented minority students, and the increase in American institutions of higher education choosing to adopt test-optional freshman admission policies, this study sought to identify weather these policies are associated with changes…

Most research on the effects of participation in career and technical education (CTE) in high school has looked exclusively at labor market outcomes, overlooking potential educational benefits. In this study, we capitalize on rich statewide administrative data and a change in graduation requirements in Arkansas to understand how increased CTE…

This study examines the influence of varying levels of online enrollment on community college students' likelihood of degree completion, with a particular focus on completion outcomes among traditionally underserved subgroups of students. Using institutional transcript data from a high-enrollment community college and a propensity score weighting…

The Biomedical Freshman Research Initiative (BFRI) is a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), a hispanic-serving institution. Our analysis showed that BFRI participation was associated with retention in the BS in Biomedical Science program and at UTRGV. No significant difference…

Doctoral students' program non-completion continues to be a worldwide phenomenon. Given the challenges across the globe following the 2020-22 pandemic, we need scholarly and skilled PhD and education (EdD) doctoral program graduates. A place to look for retention improvement is by studying what students learn and how they are taught in their…

Objective: Six-year cohort completion rates calculated for California community college students--who declared their goal to obtain a certificate, associate degree, or become university transfer ready--averaged just below 50% for cohorts entering the fall semesters between 2007 and 2011. The range of this completion rate varied from 23% to 67%.…

This article uses Yosso's (2005) framework of cultural capital and Matos's (2011, 2015, 2019) findings on cultural capital to examine how these frameworks can be used to recruit and retain Latinx college students. The article discusses the engagement of Latinx parents in higher education and offers suggestions on how higher education professionals…

Prior research in student retention emphasizes that building students' connections with the institution and their peers is key. Students from underrepresented populations often lack these connections, making them more prone to dropping out or transferring majors, especially in high-pressure engineering and polytechnic programs. In this article, we…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a parsimonious but rigorous model to assist decision-makers to determine critical factors which can lead to higher graduation rates amongst higher education institution (HEI) participants. It predicts the odds of dropout amongst university students, using HEI data from a developing country. This is used as a…

This article reports on the self-perceived impacts of service-learning experiences from the perspective of alumni who graduated from a technical university in Taiwan. Drawing on the alumni responses in a focus group interview, the study investigated how the respondents perceived the impacts of participation in a service-learning project. Findings…

Higher education institutions are increasingly relying on funding from the private sector (Council for Aid to Education, 2013) as state funding to higher education has decreased in recent years. Bridging the gap between university financial needs and available funding has become a high priority. In the process, higher education institutions have…