Mass Instruction or Higher Learning? The Impact of College                     Class Size on Student Retention and Graduation

This paper measures the effects of collegiate class size on college retention and graduation. Class size is a perennial issue in research on primary and secondary schooling. Few researchers have focused on the causal impacts of collegiate class size, however. Whereas college students have greater choice of classes, selection problems and nonrandom sorting make it difficult to estimate causal impacts. Using unique data and exogenous variation in class size, we estimate the impacts of class size using a sample of nearly 60,000 four-year college students. Using an instrumental variables approach to control for selection bias, the results suggest an increase in collegiate class size leads to an increase in dropout rates and a reduction in on-time degree completion, but no change in long-run degree completion.

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MASLOW'S HIERARCHY AND STUDENT RETENTION

NACADA Journal ◽

10.12930/0271-9517-9.1.69 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 69-74 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

David M. Brookman

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Student Affairs ◽

Student Retention ◽

Higher Learning ◽

Faculty Members ◽

Hierarchy Of Needs ◽

Mentor Program ◽

Sense Of Purpose ◽

Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽

Teaching Faculty

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs offers a perspective on the motivation of college students and provides a rationale for retention programming in institutions of higher learning. The interventions of student affairs staff and faculty members which address the safety needs of students and engage students' sense of purpose tend to reinforce persistence. The result is improved rates of retention. The possible role faculty might play in a “mentor program” is discussed as a model of cooperative endeavor between the teaching faculty and the student affairs staff.

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Career development events as a predictor of fall-to-fall retention of first-year college students

10.32469/10355/79476 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Rodney K. Barr

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

High School ◽

Career Development ◽

Student Retention ◽

Agricultural Education ◽

First Year ◽

Full Time ◽

Study Results ◽

Career Development Events ◽

The Impact

Career development events (CDEs) play an essential role in agricultural education programs and the National FFA Organization. The competitive events are promoted as tools to develop career and college readiness of high school students. This study examined whether participation and performance in agricultural education CDEs in high school can predict retention of first-year, first-time, full-time college students enrolled in agricultural sciences at a regional, Midwest, public university. For the quantitative study, the predictive correlation design utilized chi-square tests and binomial logistic regression analyses. The study results indicate that a significant relationship exists between participation in CDEs and college retention. Also, results signal performance in CDEs has a minimal impact on student retention. Recommendations for further research include conducting the same study on a larger scale, including additional states and universities, examining the effect of CDEs on degree program selection, and the impact of nontraditional predictors for student retention.

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The Impact of Longitudinal Action Research on Doctoral Student Retention and Degree Completion

The Qualitative Report ◽

10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3736 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

James Olive

Keyword(s):

Action Research ◽

Student Retention ◽

Doctoral Students ◽

Degree Completion ◽

Doctoral Program ◽

Leadership Studies ◽

Action Research Project ◽

Theoretical Concepts ◽

Doctoral Student Retention ◽

The Impact

The impact of a longitudinal action research (LAR) project on the retention and success of students enrolled in a leadership studies doctoral program was the focus of this study. The purpose was to understand how the experiences obtained through an action research project, conducted over 12-15 months, affected students’ development while they completed the first two years of their doctoral coursework. Ten doctoral students, who were at various stages in their educational journey, were interviewed and asked to reflect upon their experiences while completing their LAR project. Findings indicated that the LAR project provided an opportunity to apply theoretical concepts and methodological tools obtained in their classes to real-world issues and concerns within their respective organizations. Additionally, students indicated that the experiences obtained through LAR projects increased appreciation for their doctoral education which, in turn, impacted their retention and success.

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The Academic and Social Impact of COVID-19 Among College Students: Perspectives from the United States of America, Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria

International Journal of Higher Education ◽

10.5430/ijhe.v11n3p1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Ernest Kaninjing ◽

Ivette A. Lopez ◽

Che Wankie ◽

Elizabeth O. Akin Odanye ◽

Roland N. Ndip ◽

...

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Online Learning ◽

Social Impact ◽

Sudden Change ◽

The United States ◽

Higher Learning ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽

Online Format ◽

The Impact

The novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) caused disruptions in the delivery of higher education around the globe. To understand how universities and students are dealing with the sudden change from in-person course delivery to online format, this cross-sectional mixed-method study aimed to (a) ascertain the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ ability to access online learning; (b) examine how college students adapted to changes in the learning/teaching environment; and (c) explore the students’ perspective on measures that institutions of higher learning could have adopted to ease the abrupt transition to online learning. Results indicate a majority of participants in the US reported access to internet and computers for off-campus learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. A little over half of participants from Africa reported internet access during the COVID-19 pandemic (82% of participants from Nigeria and 66.7% from Ghana). Participants from Cameroon reported the lowest percentage of access to online learning at 59.1%. Participants from Africa reported challenges in adapting to online format due to inadequate access to necessary technological resources such as a reliable internet and computer. Participants identified internal and external resources that could have been adopted to better deal with the transition to online learning. Institutions of higher learning can learn from their initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic to formulate and adjust policies that provide flexibility to effectively transition to online learning while catering to the social, educational and health needs of their students.

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Measuring the Effect of Student Loans on College Persistence

Education Finance and Policy ◽

10.1162/edfp_a_00342 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-60

Author(s):

David Card ◽

Alex Solís

Keyword(s):

Degree Completion ◽

Student Loans ◽

Bachelor's Degree ◽

College Completion ◽

First Year ◽

Secondary Schooling ◽

Post Secondary ◽

Socioeconomic Gaps ◽

The Impact ◽

Tuition Costs

Governments around the world use grant and loan programs to ease the financial constraints that contribute to socioeconomic gaps in college completion. A growing body of research assesses the impact of grants; less is known about how loan programs affect persistence and degree completion. We use detailed administrative data from Chile to provide rigorous regression-discontinuity-based evidence on the impacts of loan eligibility for university students who retake the national admission test after their first year of studies. Those who score above a certain threshold become eligible for loans covering around 85% of tuition costs for the duration of their program. We find that access to loans increases the fraction who return to university for a second year by 20 percentage points, with two-thirds of the effect arising from a reduction in transfers to vocational colleges and one-third from a decline in the share who stop post-secondary schooling altogether. The longer-run impacts are smaller but remain highly significant, with a 12-percentage point impact on the fraction of marginally eligible retakers who complete a bachelor's degree.

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