Systematic Literature Review of Persistence of Engineering Transfer Students

Background: Increasing the number of engineering graduates continues to be a national priority and influences the need to understand persistence of all student pathways. Few studies have focused on engineering transfer student pathways and their success post-transfer, suggesting a need for a more comprehensive analysis of existing research to advance this area. Purpose: A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the factors found in the literature that most significantly affect engineering transfer student persistence, discuss themes that span the factors, and identify the frameworks used in the literature to understand engineering transfer student persistence. Scope/Method: A systematic literature review method was used to capture a broad range of publications. A thematic synthesis approach was used to analyze the results of the final publication set. Results: The systematic review identified 76 publications in this research area, and analysis of these publications resulted in 33 unique factors and 3 overarching themes. Additionally, 13 persistence frameworks were identified as being used to understand engineering transfer student persistence. Conclusions: Findings from this work suggest that the primary methods institutions can use to increase persistence in engineering of this population are increasing pre-transfer academic requirements, increasing student integration, and providing an inclusive institutional culture. This review also supports the need for an updated persistence framework that considers the characteristics of engineering transfer students. Gaps in the literature were also identified and indicate a need to differentiate vertical and lateral transfer students as well as extend the review of post-transfer academics beyond the first post-transfer year.