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In an effort to improve student success and thus retention, the College of Arts & Sciences at a highly selective MidAtlantic private undergraduate university in the United States developed a for-credit course titled "Psychology of Success." The course, grounded in positive psychology, adopts a strengths-based approach. Students who are on academic warning after their first semester are enrolled in the course, although not required to remain in the course. After four years of implementation, student outcomes for those who participated, across a variety of dimensions--including retention, persistence, and graduation--had better outcomes than those who did not participate. This practice report will share the philosophy, methodology, and implementation of the course as well as results from the first four years of implementation.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, universities were already exploring the potential of online education. Colleges and universities throughout the world became more reliant on online learning management systems (LMSs) and videoconferencing tools like "Zoom" and "Microsoft Teams" during the 2020-2021 campus' lockdowns. The transition from traditional face-to-face teaching to online learning presented significant difficulties for universities, particularly those that depended heavily on international students. The project reported in this paper was undertaken in Australia in 2021 at the request of a private higher education institution. A new student-centric version of the Moodle learning management system (LMS) was created to maximise the platform's pedagogical, communicative, and informational capabilities. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how online learning platforms that are flexible, utilise embedded interactive features and resources, and are freely available can enhance and support the delivery of quality online education. The paper discusses how well-designed learning management systems have the capacity to motivate, engage and retain students in online learning. Academics, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as those working in curriculum development and information technology at institutions of higher learning, may find this article to be of interest and value.

University and college leaders are tasked with enhancing student outcomes with fewer resources. Student retention is one such key outcome of interest for many policy makers as well as for university administrators. Over the years, administrators have turned to High Impact Practices (HIPs) such as Learning Communities (LCs) to aid in retention. This quantitative study explores the impact LCs have on student retention at a large R1 university in the Midwest. Additionally, the financial return on investment in LCs at this institution is measured via tuition dollars generated from students who are retained as a result of their participation in a LC at the institution. Two key findings of this study are that LCs are positively associated with increased odds of student retention, and that investing in LCs makes good financial sense. Our research contributes to the scholarship on retention attributable to LCs and provides researchers and practitioners with a "template" to evaluate the efficacy of specific retention initiatives in relation to their financial return on investments.

The Culling System in every higher education institution ensures that only students who meet specific academic or performance standards remain in the program, which helps uphold the program's standards and effectiveness. Thus, this study aims to delve into the lived experiences of the students who were culled out from the board programs offered by the Kapalong College of Agriculture, Sciences and Technology in which qualitative research utilizing a phenomenological approach was utilized. The participants were the 14 students who were culled out from the board programs being offered by Kapalong College of Agriculture, Sciences and Technology who were purposively selected. Further, there were five (5) participants for the in-depth interview and another five (5) for the focus group discussion. The data gathered were analyzed through the use of coding and thematic analysis. The study is deemed beneficial since it can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of culling practices in board programs wherein higher authorities can use this information to evaluate existing policies and programs related to student retention and support. It may lead to identifying potential flaws or areas for improvement in the current system.

Student retention is a critical issue for universities, and nearly half of the students who start degree programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) do not complete them. The current study tracks the progress of STEM students taking part in an entry-to-graduation program designed to build community, provide academic and social support, and promote engagement in academically purposeful activities. Although it had no effect on the number of students who changed their major, the program more than doubled the number of students who graduated in their original major. Black or Hispanic students taking part in the program also graduated at twice the rate of comparator students, largely attributable to the success of women in these groups. The results provide needed real-world insights into how to create an equitable environment that promotes the persistence and graduation of students, including those from groups historically underrepresented in STEM.

This longitudinal study examines (a) whether perceptions of ethnic discrimination during the first weeks of college predicted later school belonging among first-year college students of color (N = 638) attending a predominantly White institution (PWI), (b) whether school belonging, in turn, predicted retention to the second year, and (c) whether ethnic identity centrality buffered the effects of discrimination on school belonging and academic retention. Participants completed measures of ethnic discrimination and identity near the beginning of the first semester and school belonging at the end of the semester. Academic data from the fall of the second year were obtained from school records. Tests of moderated mediation revealed that perceptions of discrimination at the beginning of college had an indirect effect on retention in the second year of college, as mediated by lowered school belonging, but only for students with low and moderate (but not high) ethnic identity centrality.

Sense of belonging plays an essential role in the retention and success of distance learning students. This study investigated the influence of a sense of belonging on the intentions to drop out among black and white distance learning students at a university in South Africa. A total of 831 participants were surveyed and constituted the sample of this study. The study was conducted using a quantitative research approach. The independent samples t-test results showed that there are racial differences in students' perceived sense of belonging towards the university, with black students (M = 3.26, SD = 0.84) scoring significantly higher on the sense of belonging compared to white students (M = 2.88, SD = 0.79). Additionally, multiple linear regression analysis results showed that a sense of belonging significantly predicts intentions to drop out of university among black and white students. The results suggest that minority students in distance learning institutions should be supported to enhance their sense of belonging towards their learning environment. Furthermore, the results indicate that distance learning institutions should consider multiple strategies to foster a sense of belonging among students and improve the rates of retention.

This article's authors use student transcript data to identify differences in the study of economics among Black students at HBCUs and PWIs. The data show that a higher fraction of Black students at HBCUs initially intend to study economics, relative to those at PWIs (4.0% vs. 1.3% of micro principles enrollees) and persist in the major (9.4% vs. 3.8%). Logit analysis suggests that (1) academically stronger Black students are less likely to persist to an economics degree at both institution types and (2) Black female students at HBCUs are as equally likely to persist to a degree in economics as their male counterparts while those at PWIs are less likely to persist. Additional research is needed to determine the causal factors responsible for these outcomes.

Approximately 30% of students who enter the postsecondary education system do so through 2-year colleges. The majority of these students intend to earn a bachelor's degree, but most leave college before earning a diploma from a 4-year institution. The discrepancy between bachelor's degree aspirations and degree attainment rates of students who enter through 2-year colleges suggests that vertical transfer students--those who transfer from 2- to 4-year colleges--face unique obstacles to academic performance and retention that affect their likelihood of earning a bachelor's degree. Similar barriers exist for economically disadvantaged students, who may be more likely to enter the postsecondary education system through 2-year colleges. This scoping review synthesizes the literature on factors influencing economically disadvantaged vertical transfer students' academic performance in the first year posttransfer and retention between the first and second year posttransfer. Implications for 2- and 4-year institutions and recommendations for future research are discussed.

While mindfulness intervention research is prevalent, it is limited in (1) relation to college students' grade point average (GPA) and retention and (2) minimum dosage recommended for the intervention. This repeated-measures quasi-experimental nonequivalent control groups study investigated differences in mindfulness, stress, flourishing, GPA, and retention between students (n = 248) in first-year experience seminars who received a brief mindfulness intervention and the comparison group (n = 125) who did not receive the intervention. The intervention consisted of three- to five-minute mindfulness exercises at the beginning of class that met once a week. In contrast to results of previous studies, this study--when controlling for class sections and gender--showed no significant differences in any outcome variable between groups. These results provide important evidence that a mindfulness dosing limit might exist. A post hoc binary logistic regression supported previous findings that GPA predicts retention. Implications are discussed in regard to college administrators, faculty, and student affairs professionals.

Research has yielded much evidence that investing in postsecondary interventions increases retention and success for Hispanic/Latinx undergraduates. This study examines one such intervention, funded by Title V and implemented at a large public Hispanic-Serving Institution, developed to improve semester-to-semester retention. Faculty and peer mentors facilitated a set of workshops for probationary students and students in a core university course that connected self-regulatory skills for college success to those for career success. Students participating in the workshop intervention were compared to a control group of students who did not participate. Findings showed that in comparison to the control group, students in the intervention had higher retention rates, regardless of probationary status or student classification, along with higher rates among students with lower GPAs. Implications of the study are discussed in relation to "servingness" at HSIs.

African American and Latino males' success in postsecondary education depends on several factors. Retention and persistence are one of the most studied factors for exploring the success of African American and Latino male college students. However, few studies focus on the influence of the major selection process on their persistence and retention. There are untold stories of resilient and motivated African American and Latino males and how they have overcome challenges to persist and ultimately graduate. This study took place during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and offers insight into the major selection process for six highly motivated African American and Latino males by highlighting their experiences through their stories.

We combine administrative data from a regional public university with a novel revealed-preference indicator of student friendships to show that socially connected first-year university students are more likely to be retained into their second year. The impact of friends on retention is statistically and economically significant: each friend raises the probability of retention by about 0.6 percentage points, an effect size roughly equivalent to 66 SAT points. This effect occurs in the presence of a robust set of explanatory variables, including unique indicators of a student's prior commitment to the university, and applies to wide variety of student subgroups.

Student sense of belonging is a current challenge to higher education providers, with consistently declining ratings in national surveys. For universities globally, this is a concern linked to student attrition, student satisfaction, and student success. Importantly, low sense of belonging is typically associated with non-traditional learners, and building strategies to solve this challenge is essential for institutions to build equitable learning environments. This study seeks to understand the causal factors that predict when a student will belong using longitudinal data. Using the Australian national student experience survey data (n = 1,159,768 undergraduate and postgraduate students between 2013 and 2019), this study examines the predictors of a sense of belonging testing the accuracy of four machine learning models. The findings indicate overall educational experience, connection to students outside of class, and support to settle were key predictors, with skill development and curriculum supports a lesser predictor of a sense of belonging. Interestingly, identity and individual differences ratings seemed to have less importance than student experience factors. Implications for higher education policy developers and curriculum writers are considered.

This study contributes to applied and theoretical research for schools and districts by exploring data-based evidence of the relationships between the COVID-19 pandemic and student engagement with school. The paper features trend data on student orientation to school assessed via the multi-dimensional Student Orientation to School Questionnaire (SOS-Q). The SOS-Q was initially developed to better understand the reasons for school dropout and has expanded to explicate a wider range of student-school engagement dynamics. This study demonstrates how student orientation to school may be effected by major extraneous factors and demonstrates the value of integrating valuable non-cognitive or affective measures within comprehensive student information and assessment systems augmenting both individual and cohort psychological supports.

The COVID-19 lockdown in the UK during the spring of 2020 led to the closure of schools and school premises to most students, including complementary school pupils; yet while the lockdown in autumn 2020 allowed state schools to remain open, Polish complementary schools found themselves in an ambiguous position. This paper explores the experiences of eight Polish complementary school heads, focusing on their response to lockdown and the measures they took to provide online learning through the year. The paper also examines how changing lockdown policies impacted the running of their schools. Key findings suggest a creative approach was taken to learning, and that students were eager to respond. Meanwhile, there was increasing cooperation between different schools and support from external organisations. However, the challenges of online learning were also highlighted. Additionally, heads expressed concern about student retention and recruitment, and the potential long-term effects on their school. There was also discussion about the position of complementary schools within the broader education system. The paper argues that these findings highlight questions of inequality between the complementary and mainstream sectors, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Understanding the drivers of student dropout from higher education has been a policy concern for several decades. However, the contributing role of certain factors--including student mental health--remains poorly understood. Furthermore, existing studies linking student mental health and university dropout are limited in both methodology and scope--for example, they often rely on small and/or non-representative samples or subjective measures, and focus almost exclusively on main effects. This paper overcomes many of these shortcomings by leveraging unique linked administrative data on the full population of domestic students commencing undergraduate studies at Australian universities between 2012 and 2015 (n = 652,139). Using these data, we document that approximately 15% of students drop out of university within their first academic year. Critically, students receiving treatment for mental health problems are 4.3 (adjusted) to 8.3 (unadjusted) percentage points more likely to drop out of higher education. This association remains in the presence of an encompassing set of potential confounds, and is remarkably uniform across segments of the student population determined by individual, family, and programme characteristics. Altogether, our findings call for increased policy efforts to improve student mental health and to buffer against its deleterious effects on retention.

This paper describes a case study using quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate student engagement and retention within an online early childhood teacher education program at a regional Australian university. Two key interventions, the identification and support of disengaged students and the Embedded Tutors Program are described and examined. Initial findings on these retention initiatives, developed to support Early Childhood Education undergraduates studying in the online environment, are presented. Additionally, discussion of the findings through the theory of practice architectures highlights the practices and institutional arrangements that create the conditions to support student retention. This study is significant in planning for Early Childhood Education workforce quality and supply. It may offer guidance to institutions for their retention practices with early childhood teacher undergraduates studying in the online environment.

Enrolment numbers in online higher education courses have continued to increase over the last decade. The challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have further accelerated the growth in online and blended course offerings. The development of institutional support services, however, does not reflect this growth. Many students are not equipped with the skills or given adequate support to engage and succeed in their courses, leading to student disengagement and attrition. This study investigated the perceptions of students in online and blended subjects, regarding both the academic and institutional support they were provided. The research team collected interview data from 41 online and blended-learning students and then analysed these data using an iterative thematic analysis approach. This article introduces the key findings with two models: one presenting support strategies at multiple levels within this university; the other presenting three key elements of subject-level teacher support, which were identified by the interviewees as the most significant, effective, and relevant support mechanism in this context. The findings will inform higher education institutions who aim to engage and support online and blended students better, through an improved understanding of how support is perceived by this student cohort. This study was conducted at one Australian university; however, the findings are relevant to higher education institutions in other countries that strive to bring about positive experiences and enhance retention rates for online and blended students.

As the university student body becomes more diversified and students' lives less linear, student retention carries increased importance for universities, including the conversion of deferrers and the re-enrolment of leave-taking students. This paper is based on a broader research project which explored national patterns of deferral and leave of absence in Australia and the policies and strategies for re-engaging the students who defer or take leave. Through a mixed research design, the study explores the extent to which students are positioned at the centre of deferral and leave of absence policy, informed by relationship marketing concepts. This study suggests that many universities have moved towards greater consideration of student perspectives and individualised approaches to building a trustworthy and supportive relationship with deferral and leave-taking students, based on data analytics of individual students' information and circumstances. Despite such efforts, there remain both limitations and tensions within these approaches.

The need to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) efforts has reached monumental heights in the past decade as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and other DEIA efforts. This shift in thought has impacted recruitment and hiring practices in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. For years, universities have tried a variety of mechanisms to increase the pool of minority applicants in PhD programs as well as the faculty ranks. However, many of these efforts have not been sustainable. In this article, we discuss the results from a survey of graduate-level public affairs programs to discern specific efforts to increase the number of minority students pursuing graduate degrees and subsequently the number of minority faculty. In addition, we completed an extant review of the literature to determine additional practices that have proven fruitful in other graduate programs.

One heavily discussed and researched group throughout the literature on student engagement is Men of Color. Co-curricular efforts supporting this population are highlighted in the literature about Men of Color achievement (Brooms,2018); however, little is known about the impact of student affairs-led curricular experiences designed to center the needs of this population. This article seeks to fill that void. Studies highlighting co-curricular programs' impact on Men of Color help educational environments design and implement robust initiatives; however, such efforts cannot solely facilitate success for Men of Color alone. Academic environments should explore the classroom experiences of Men of Color and offer curricular based efforts that provide similar learning outcomes. The following describes one credit based effort to foster and sustain success among Men of Color collegians.

Purpose: Due to high demand for international talents and skilful workforces, many countries around the world, especially the ageing populations are now looking for new ways and strategies to attract more international talent. Drawing on push-pull factor theory, integrated with theory of reasoned action (TRA), this research examines international students' intention to stay or to leave the host country after completion of the students' studies. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual model has been proposed and evaluated aimed at understanding the factors that influence the decision-making of international students studying in Finland. Data were collected from a sample of 292 international students in Finland and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data and examine the relationships between various constructs in the model. Findings: The SEM results show that several factors influence students' decision to stay or leave the host country after graduation. Aspects related to host country, institutional and economic factors and social influence (norms) directly impact students' attitude towards staying. In addition, attitude towards staying not only has a direct impact on the intention to stay, but also mediates the relationship between different pulling factors and students' intention to stay in the host country. Moreover, challenges and barriers (such as local language, challenge of finding employment and challenge of assimilating into the community or making friends) have a negative impact on the decision to stay in the host country. Originality/value: This study uses push-pull theory in the Finnish context, contributing to the growing body of literature on international education policies and practices. The findings highlight the need for a more holistic approach to supporting international students, one that considers the students' unique needs and experiences in the host country and provides the students with the necessary resources and support to succeed.

Honours programmes have successfully provided academic rigour, special scholarships, and better career prospects over a century. However, recruiting and retaining these exceptional students -- the key to creating a successful honours programme -- becomes more challenging when the national college enrolment declines significantly every year. Hence this study investigated the factors affecting honour student recruitment, retention rate, and their satisfaction level at a private university in Northern Taiwan, expecting the results to help higher education administrators develop effective strategic plans. Quantitative and qualitative data from fourteen undergraduate honours students were collected using questionnaires and interviews. The results showed that important factors affecting students' selection process include deeper learning and supplement opportunities in academics and community, followed by scholarship and connection with faculty. Additionally, academic advising and opportunities serve as predictors of freshman satisfaction scores in the honours programme.

The various empirical models built for enrollment management, operations, and program evaluation purposes may have lost their predictive power as a result of the recent collective impact of COVID restrictions, widespread social upheaval, and the shift in educational preferences. This statistical artifact is known as model drifting, data-shift, covariate-shift. Succinctly, these events drove changes in the stationarity of the target variable and the predictors. The result is a student body with unknown performance qualities entirely distinct from previous cohorts. This study explains and illustrates: (1) how to test for academic model drift in academe; and (2) sets forth two methods used to repair vitiated student-body performance properties. Formally, it frames the data-drift outcome as a One Class problem which allows the deployment of two well-known One-Class algorithms: Support Vector Machines and Isolated Random Forests. The study shows their use in reconstructing a representative sample of the student-body

Schools have implemented the high-impact practice of first-year experience (FYE) courses to assist students with the transition to college. These courses help connect new students to the school with the goal of improving retention. While students in computing majors face the same challenges as other new college students, they also face some challenges specific to computing fields. Additionally, computing fields face ongoing concerns about enrollment and diversity. This work discusses the implementation of an information technology (IT) specific FYE course combining content from a university-wide FYE course with content focused on helping students gain a better understanding of the IT curriculum and IT career paths.

Studying STEM Intervention Program (SIP) retention, particularly what distinguishes those students who remain in the program from those that leave, may be a key to better understand how to keep students on track towards STEM degree completion. This study focuses on the participation of Latinx and other underrepresented racial/ethnic minoritized (URM) groups in a STEM intervention and support program. Applying London, Rosenthal, Levy, and Lobel's (2011) STEM Engagement Framework on five cohorts of participants in a SIP, this study found that maintaining higher levels of scientific identity was related to program retention. Therefore, intentionally designing programs that address systemic inequities and celebrate and affirm minoritized groups' experiences can facilitate adjustment and success. Moreover, women-identified participants were also more likely to remain in the SIP relative to their men-identified counterparts. For practitioners and institutions alike, these results indicate the need to create and implement support programs for women in STEM that go beyond the traditional components of academic support.

A quasi-experimental investigation assessed the impact of multiple factors, including financial aid and proactive advising, on retention of undergraduate students at a small, private university that primarily serves online learners. In-house proactive advising over three academic years was positively associated with increased retention semester-to-semester and fall-to-fall. In addition, students who received Pell Grants plus at least one other form of financial aid, completed math remediation, and transferred 30 or more credit hours persisted at higher rates semester-to-semester. Individuals identifying with historically underrepresented groups tended to persist at rates lower than their White peers' semester-to-semester retention. These findings support the efficacy of proactive advising and financial aid, even with a population that exhibits lower retention for persons from historically underrepresented groups. Findings also suggest that students who transfer more than two full-time semesters of credit have a strong motivation to complete their course of study.

An Engineering Success Centre was formed with the long-term goals of providing targeted first-year support, increasing retention, and developing leaders. The novelty of the Centre is that the priorities and activities were defined by the students that were employed to run it in a shared leadership model. Student leaders were in various years of undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees, which provided multiple years for leadership opportunities and organizational memory. The priorities identified by the student leaders were to: (1) guide students through their time in engineering, (2) connect students with campus resources, (3) impact the overall experience for students in a positive way, and (4) assist students with educational needs such as tutoring, writing support, and CAD development. Between the drop-in hours and professional development programs, 145 students (55% of engineering students) interacted over 400 times in formal Centre activities throughout the year, and at least 77% of students engaged in online or asynchronous platforms. This paper was written by two of the student leaders and the faculty coordinator to document the motivations, successes, and challenges of the Centre in its inaugural year and promote shared ownership in academic support centres. Goals were derived, and a model was developed to map Centre activities, priorities, and goals to assess the success of the Centre.