Best Practices in Student Retention, 2012 Edition

Primary Research Group, December 2011, Pages: 116

This report studies the retention practices of over 60 North American colleges and universities, exploring the most critical factors to retention success as cited by the survey participants. The comprehensive data in the report covers a wide array of statistics and trends essential to any administration's assessment of its own retention policies, including detailed retention rates for first-year and part-time students, institutional spending on consultants and conferences, overall tutoring efforts, and the perceived impact of various student services on retention success. How does the current economic climate affect financial aid and tuition, and how do these, in turn, affect student retention? What roles do exit interviews play? What about academic advising and counseling services, or childcare services, or peer mentoring?

The 116-page report presents data broken out by enrollment size, public or private school status, and type of college, offering end users a look at the strategies and practices of a broad range of institutions. Now administrators can see which schools track retention rates by gender, or by declared academic major, by race or ethnicity, and more. Participants share their success stories as well as the pitfalls of student retention and their expectations for the future.

Just a few of the report's many findings are that:

- In the past year, the colleges surveyed spent an average of $16,453 on consulting services (excluding spending on conferences) to aid in student retention, or $3.37 per full-time enrolled student.
- From Fall 2010 to Fall 2011, the colleges in the sample retained an average of 71.86% of first-year students.
- 46% of community colleges reported that access to tutoring services had a dramatic impact on retention.
- Childcare services are offered to those students with children in 24.19% of the schools in the sample.
- 31.75% of the colleges sampled maintain records that enable the college to pinpoint students who are not engaged in any or very few extracurricular activities.
- Colleges sampled report that 53.41% of students who start at the college as fall term freshmen ultimately graduate from the college at which they started.

LIST OF TABLES
THE QUESTIONNAIRE
SURVEY PARTICIPANTS
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE
SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS
1. Spending on Student Retention
2. Perception of Critical Factors in Retention
3. Exit Interviews
4. Maximizing Student Participation in College Life
5. Information Literacy
6. Student Services
7. Identifying the High-Risk Student
8. Tutoring
9. Student Advising and Counseling
10. Financial Aid
11. Training a Retention-Minded Staff
12. Strategies for Special Populations
13. Retention Rate Trends
14. Retention in Distance Learning and Adult Education

- Azusa Pacific University
- Bethany College (Kansas)
- Biola University
- Brandman University
- California Maritime Academy
- Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine
- Carleton University
- Cazenovia College
- Coastal Carolina University
- Colby Community College
- Community College of Rhode Island
- Concordia University Texas
- Delta College
- Drury University
- Emmanuel College
- Endicott College
- Evergreen Valley College
- Fielding Graduate University
- Gannon University
- Georgia Gwinnett College
- Graceland University
- Green River Community College
- H. Lavity Stoutt Community College
- Harvey Mudd College
- Heidelberg University
- Iowa State University
- Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington
- John Brown University
- Lamar University
- Le Moyne College
- Lindsey Wilson College
- Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley
- Mount St. Mary’s College
- Northeastern State University
- Northern Illinois University
- Pikes Peak Community College
- Point Park University
- Point University
- Reading Area Community College
- Roanoke College
- Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- St. Bonaventure University
- St. Cloud Technical & Community College
- Stevenson University
- Temple College
- Texas Southern University
- Texas Woman’s University
- Thomas More College
- University of Alaska Fairbanks
- University of Arkansas
- University of Cincinnati-Blue Ash College
- University of Georgia
- University of Guelph
- University of Idaho
- University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma
- University of the Arts
- University of Wisconsin-Superior
- Villa Maria College
- Washington & Jefferson College
- West Virginia Junior College-Morgantown
- Westminster College (Missouri)
- Wilson College
- Wyoming Catholic College

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