November 2009 Lawlor Focus

Paying Attention to Retention

As traditional-aged students head home for the Thanksgiving holidays, the dinner table conversation for many families of first-year students will inevitably turn, during these tough economic times, to the worth of their college experience—that is, whether or not the financial investment is justified. Even more importantly, these students will be talking with their hometown friends about their college experiences, contributing to word-of-mouth impressions about an institution’s value.

Private colleges often tout the personalized attention on their campuses as a competitive advantage over public institutions that drives student satisfaction. Yet when the retention data is disaggregated and two-year colleges are excluded, the average freshman-to-sophomore persistence rates have been declining at private four-year institutions at the same time these rates have been increasing at public four-year institutions, as Thomas Mortenson of Postsecondary Education Opportunity found. The disappearance of what was once a gap of 5.8 percentage points that favored private institutions is “simply stunning,” he wrote. “Although operating in parallel universes, public institutions made progress while privates slipped backwards.”

Recent studies are revealing ways that both private and public institutions can better optimize their retention practices:

• While 70 percent of four-year institutions report they collect midterm grade information for first-year students, only 53 percent report they regularly flag specific courses with high percentages of D’s, F’s or withdrawals, a 2009 survey by the College Board Study on Student Retention found.
• Spending on student services (such as student organizations, intramurals and health services) has more of a positive influence on first-year persistence and graduation rates than spending on instruction does, scholars at the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute found.
• The retention efforts of most four-year institutions are concentrated during students’ first two years. But unlike the transfer rate from one four-year institution to another, which levels off after the sophomore year, the dropout rate at four-year institutions increases steadily over time. About half of all withdrawals occur after the sophomore year, according to an analysis by the authors of the new book Crossing the Finish Line.

As the adage goes, it’s less expensive to keep a customer than to get a new one. So not only are retention efforts mission-critical in serving students’ needs, but they are also financially critical for higher education institutions during troubled economic times.

Lawlor Recommends

Getting retention programs up and running is only half the battle for colleges and universities. It’s equally essential to build in early warning tools that can funnel students into these programs—and to act on the warning signs delivered by these systems. A few examples:

• Survey not just students who withdraw, but current students, as well. Pay particular attention to first-year students around Thanksgiving break of the first semester. Find out levels of satisfaction, what the institution is doing right, and what areas deserve more attention.
• Survey parents, too. The simple act of asking and listening can go a long way.
• Follow up with survey constituents to discover what you may be doing to inadvertently contribute to potential or perceived problems.
• Monitor overdue or late payments and reach out to students who are vulnerable to withdrawing due to financial hardship.
• Ask resident assistants to flag students who spend most of their time off campus.
• Recognize the importance of good advising (and reward it). With so many students undecided about a major, advising goes far beyond helping students register for classes. Advisors should coach students as they sort out multiple interests or struggle with uncertainty.
• Make sure first-generation students have advocates who are pushing them to earn bachelor’s degrees.
• Develop a communication flow with all current parents, especially those of first-year students. Consider a segmented communication track using e-communication and social media.
• Don’t forget to highlight what you are doing right. Reinforce value and worth.

In the news

ith national unemployment rates soaring, The New York Times designed an interactive feature that allows users to calculate the jobless rate according to various combinations of demographic traits, including age, gender, race and education level. For example, while the unemployment rate is 8.6 percent for all men and women, it’s 8.4 percent for college graduates aged 24 and under.

Did you know?

The majority of college students will be taking classes online by 2014. A forecast shows only 5.14 million students will take all of their courses in a physical classroom, while 3.55 million will take all of their classes online and 18.65 million will take some of their classes online.

Source: Campus Technology