To Stay or to Leave: That is the Question
The retention and subsequent graduation of college students, arguably one of the most persistent and perplexing problems facing educators today (Braxton, 2000), is an important and enormously complex issue in higher education. College administrators have invested enormous amounts of resources in programs and strategies that purport to increase retention rates.
Despite these efforts, an unprecedented proportion of students drop out or “leave” their original institution or higher education in general. National statistics suggest that 40 to 60 percent of all students who enter college will leave before earning their degrees (Tinto, 1998). Of these, approximately 75 percent leave during the first two years of college—the greatest proportion in the first year (Fidler, 1991). Thus, more information is needed to understand the factors influencing retention during the first year of college. It is out of this context that the study, upon which this paper is based, grew.
RETENTION THEORY
The very process of studying student retention often conjures up words like “puzzle” (Braxton, 2000), “unraveling” (Kuh, 1999), and “dilemma” (Tierney, 2000), reflecting the complexity of the problem. To simplify the concept of retention, I offer Tinto’s (1993) explanation as it describes the process through which individuals make decisions about whether to stay in (persistence) or leave (attrition) school. Theoretically, college student retention is a function of the extent to which individuals are involved in the academic (formal) and social (informal) life of college, considering background traits, academic preparation for college, initial commitments to the institution, and one’s educational goals. Additionally, theorists have uncovered two important precursors or predictors of retention: satisfaction with college (Bean, 1980) and intent to leave college (Tinto, 1975).
METHOD
First year students at UT who are involved in clubs and organizations are more more sastisfied with college, thus, they are more likely to be retained.This study used an ex post facto survey design to elicit information about first-year students’ experiences at UT Knoxville. In addition, survey items elicited students’ satisfaction with their college experience and their intent to stay or leave at the end of the spring 2006 semester. Satisfaction is generally defined as students subjective evaluations of their college experiences. Most scholars agree that institutional success is directly linked to the degree of student satisfaction with experiences at the institution (Al-Habeeb, 1990).
Sample
The sample was drawn from the population of first-time, full-time freshmen (or first-year) students enrolled on the Knoxville campus. Records from the university registrar indicate that approximately 4,000 students fit the sampling criteria (excluding transfer, part-time, non-degree seeking students). Of these, approximately 3,000 individuals received an electronic invitation from the Provost’s Office to participate in the web-based survey (excluding “bounce backs”).
After removing missing cases, 755 responses to the First Year Assessment Survey (FYAS) were received. A majority of the sample were women (58 percent), reflecting the male to female ratio in the first-year cohort at the institution. Eighty-six percent of the participants were white (non-Hispanic), 7 percent were African American (AA), 3 percent were Asian Pacific Islander (API), and approximately 4 percent were Latino, American Indian (AI), or multiracial. Due to the small number of students in each non-white racial/ethnic category, race-based analyses will use the collapsed category of “students of color,” which includes AAs, APIs, Latinos, AI, and multiracial students. This is common practice in educational research (Rankin & Reason, 2005), particularly at predominantly white institutions. Similar to Astin’s (1993) study, this report highlights key findings from the FYAS with a particular focus on factors related to student satisfaction with college: relationships with faculty, student life, academic support services, and academic achievement.
Articles
Special Points of Interest
- In 2005, the first to second year retention rate at UT was 81.7%
- In 2005, approximately 13% of first-year students were placed on academic review after their first term
- Findings from the First-Year Survey suggest that, on average, UT students are “satisfied” with their college experience
- Findings are consistent with UT responses on the NSSE 2007; however, UT students are less satisfied than students at our peer institutions