Dropouts From Higher Education an Interdisciplinary Review and Synthesis
College enrollment has been on a downward tendency for the past decade, and the pandemic has only exacerbated this situation. With more than schools vying for fewer students, higher ed leaders are focusing more attentively on what information technology takes to keep students engaged and – ultimately – enrolled. What has been born from this endeavour has since sparked efforts to help influence institutional approaches to student persistence.
The model for student retention is shifting
With a changing student trunk and boosted disruption in the realm of course delivery, student persistence models accept evolved. It is no longer enough to build a bright and lively campus with dedicated program support centers. Mod students need to connect their educational feel with their career, engage in real-world practice and complete work according to their ain schedule. Students who find their needs unmet are also finding it easier to simply transfer or drop out.
As the pupil population modernizes and changes, so too must each institution'south approach to persistence. This is not to say that traditional models accept gone sour; in that location are still plenty of uses for those models where traditional students are concerned. Notwithstanding, in today's digital and competitive landscape, the schools that can offering both volition take the greatest reward, being able to retain their students through graduation – and potentially keep them engaged beyond that.
In this article, we'll provide a high-level review of traditional and gimmicky student persistence models, besides as actionable strategies to help higher ed leaders retain contiguous and online students – at both the bachelor's and graduate level.
Traditional persistence models
Below is a brusque overview of several influential models that have informed the manner schools historically approached student persistence efforts.
The Undergraduate Dropout Procedure Model
One of the first major models that emerged from the early days of student persistence enquiry came from William G. Spady'sDropouts from Higher Education: An Interdisciplinary Review and Synthesis. In it, he surmised that institutions had a large part to play in student persistence, and that rather than just ane, there were 2 variables, or systems, that could affect whether a student would stay at the institution: academic and social.
Moreover, Spady noted at that place were at least two factors in each of those systems that influence a educatee. Where academic factors were concerned, Spady broke them downward into grades and intellectual development. As for factors to support the social organization, he identified friendship and normative congruence. The factors he recognized accept since been expanded, contorted, stretched and changed a number of times, simply his largest influence was in giving the establishment responsibility for persistence. Later on, Spady's model would serve as a launching point for other educational theories, namely Tinto's Model of Institutional Departure (1975, 1993) and Edible bean's Student Attrition Model (1980, 1982).
Effigy 1: Spady's Undergraduate Dropout Procedure Model (Aljohani 2016)
The Institutional Divergence Model
Vincent Tinto's Institutional Departure Model, which was drafted in 1975 just did not reach its concluding version until 1993, builds on Spady'south, only ultimately places a scrap more accountability on the student equally they build a relationship with the school. Co-ordinate to Tinto's theory of student departure, the social aspect of persistence is demarcated by the student'south ability to interact with the social and bookish systems at the institution.
What Tinto realized is students bring associations and expectations with them in their first year. He mapped out a process that begins with the student'southward prior associations but allows for those to be weakened or strengthened based on the way the student is incorporated into the institutional community. Successful incorporation might find those goals changed past the time the pupil has shed their connections to old communities in lieu of their new community. In the case that educatee associations and expectations are less malleable, students may observe themselves at a higher risk of dropping out.
Effigy two: Tinto's Institutional Divergence Model (Aljohani (2016)
The Student Attrition Model
In 1980, John P. Bean put forth his ain model for pupil persistence that he called The Synthesis of a Theoretical Model of Student Attrition, or more succinctly, the Student Attrition Model. He, also, built on the work of his predecessors, but differentiated himself by arguing that the motivations for difference are similar to those seen in an employee unsatisfied with their career or employer. Where obvious differences occurred between educatee and employee, such as pay, Edible bean constitute information technology useful to substitute equitable variables from the collegiate experience, such equally GPA, educatee evolution and career relevance.
Afterwards, in a revised version of his student attrition theory, Edible bean would include a set up of four instrumental variables: background, organizational, environmental and attitudinal, and outcome variables. What he ultimately found was that these institutional factors played the largest role in pupil persistence, and that past remixing the variables, his model could be made to use to nearly any industry.
Effigy 3: The Student Attrition Model (Aljohani 2016)
Contemporary/online student persistence models
Beneath is a short overview of several evolving and emerging models that are showtime to inform the style schools approach student retentiveness efforts in a digital age.
The Nontraditional Undergraduate Student Compunction Model
Before long afterward publishing the Educatee Attrition Model, Bean revisited student persistence with aid from Barbara Metzner and developed a model for nontraditional students, and more specifically, "commuter" students. What they understood was that the institutional integration and civilisation-edifice importance is not elevated to the aforementioned importance as it would be with traditional students. For the commuter pupil, environmental and external factors were the main forces acting against persistence.
Like Bean'due south previous student compunction theory, the Nontraditional Model outlines four sets of variables: academic operation, intent to leave, background and ecology factors.
Figure 4: The Nontraditional Undergraduate Student Attrition Model (Aljohani 2016)
The Self-Determination Theory of Student Persistence
Using student motivation as the research driver, Kuan-Chung Chen and Syh-Jong Jang applied the theory of self-conclusion to persistence in online and distance learning. The underpinning of the self-determination theory — which has found its way into politics, organized religion, healthcare and similarly influential parts of society — is that individuals have three basic needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. When these needs are satisfied, nosotros experience a heightened sense of self and increased potential for personal growth. Information technology is not hard, so, to see how this might be adapted to online student persistence.
These iii pillars of self-decision tin can exist applied to the elements of distance education, such as flexible learning, computer-mediated advice and social interaction, and technical proficiency. What Chen and Jang eventually conclude is that supporting an online educatee's three bones needs positively afflicted their self-conclusion. Additionally, online student persistence tin be influenced by form factors and support services.
Figure 5: The Hypothesized Model of Self-Determination Theory (Chen & Jang 2010)
four central factors that impact student persistence
Each of the previous models uses specific factors to mensurate persistence among students. These factors might be broadly categorized equally social, bookish or background. Each of these factors can be more narrowly defined by carving out individual influences. In the case of Spady's model, the academic category is broken into influences such as grades and intellectual development. Fifty-fifty now, Spady'southward initial classifications are consequent with the influences seen in contemporary models, albeit somewhat unremarkably, given their wide nature.
What has emerged recently are new technologies and modalities that disrupt the theoretical models synthetic by Spady, Tinto and Edible bean. Today'south students accept dissimilar expectations of their education besides every bit different financial and social concerns relevant to their schooling.
The categories that follow evangelize a high-level view of the four most common persistence factors and influencers from the major models.
| Academic | Social | Circumstantial | Personal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grades | Normative Congruence | Financial | Motivation |
| Intellectual Growth | Friendship | Ethnicity | Self-Perception |
| Uneven Skills | Institutional Fit | Geographic | Behaviors |
| Academic Plan | Institutional Back up | Demographic | Problem-Solving Skill |
| Time |
i. Academic
The genesis of the bookish model lies in Spady'south initial research simply has widened to include uneven skills and academic planning. In his inquiry on student retention, Robert Sternberg surmised that students who enter higher without a well-rounded education (especially in Stem areas) face an uphill climb from day one. Part of the issue is a reliance on standardized aptitude tests, which he notes only serve every bit authentic success forecasters 25 pct of the time. The knowledge needed for success at a particular institution, therefore, is not known.
Similarly, the lack of an academic plan contributes to a feeling of academic displacement for many students. This is made most clear with students who fail to recognize the connection between their coursework and a future career. In the instances when such a plan is formalized, students take been establish to exist significantly more than likely to persist.
As for grades and intellectual growth, Spady's initial findings band true: A pupil who achieves high marks and experiences intellectual growth is more likely to keep.
two. Social
Where face-to-face students are concerned — and in the traditional campus setting — there is significant data to propose that social factors are a leading influence on educatee persistence. Spady'southward idea of normative congruence fits well with more recent research into how friendships and student communities help learners locate their identify within the institution.
Institutional support itself comes in two forms. The offset regards the relationship between students and faculty. In many cases — especially in graduate settings or with freshmen — this human relationship has a fundamental role in supporting student persistence. Creating these types of institutional bonds should be a primary goal for schools concerned nearly attrition.
The second comes from the way schools support student goals and lifestyles. Those could come in the class of either defended learning centers or extracurricular clubs. Both are instrumental in forging a sense of community and addressing the need for students to feel supported.
Equally for institutional fit, research suggests that when accurate educatee profiles can be built (most likely by the admissions staff and managing director of admissions), institutions can ameliorate support the needs of the student and promote persistence.
3. Circumstantial
Unsurprisingly, a student's personal circumstances influence student retention quite a bit. Background information such every bit ethnicity and geographic and socioeconomic indicators continue to evidence ties to student persistence. Bean used groundwork as a category to wrangle these factors together simply made no mention of financial constraints.
With financial factors leading the pack, challenging personal circumstances can place meaning strain and additional stress on students. What is most discouraging is that, in the face of financial difficulty, penny-wise students may brand the decision to drop out — even when taking on debt and persisting would likely exist a pathway toward long-term fiscal improvement. Fortunately, many colleges are finding creative ways to alleviate some of the financial burden by offering online or alternative pathways to a degree.
4. Personal
While it is true that more accent has been placed on each educatee'south individual indicators in recent years, their presence has been acknowledged since the early days of persistence research. Certainly, in Spady's as well equally Tinto's early models, information technology is axiomatic that some of the personal concerns – which include demographic or individual characteristics similar age, gender, race, income, cognitive skills, cocky-subject area, motivation and more – overlap into social concerns. By carving out a new category for these concerns, though, schools can assistance address them in a more artistic and effective way.
Educatee persistence benefits students and universities
Creating learning experiences and environments – both in-person and online – that evangelize the iv factors that influence student persistence is not like shooting fish in a barrel. But it's worth the actress work to avert losing students before they graduate.
For help developing courses and programs that accommodate an always-growing variety of life situations and learning styles, Collegis Educational activity offers kinesthesia and course development services, learning engineering science consulting and content licensing to help promote educatee success.
Let our experts assist you find the solutions to overcome your pupil persistence challenges.
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