This literature review examines student retention in higher education institutions. Specifically, it looks at the background and history of student retention, three student retention theories, and current literature on student retention within the social system. The three theories are Spady's (1970, 1971) Undergraduate Dropout Process Model,…

Aim/Purpose: This systematic literature review investigates the underlying factors that influence the gap between the popularity of online learning and its completion rate. The review scope within this paper includes an observation of possible causal aspects within the non-ideal completion rates in online learning environments and an…

Academic libraries have always strived to be purposively involved in the university's mission attainment efforts. Today, the increase of retention levels is paramount, and, in many cases, it is at the center of higher education institution's strategic plans. For Andrews University, for example, the goal is to reach 80% in the next five years. In…

This literature review highlights barriers to persistence, retention, and graduation for students of color at institutions of higher learning. Successful strategies, approaches, and initiatives are discussed with consideration to deficit and strengths-based approaches. It is also highlighted that universities may need to address programmatic…

One of the major issues that concerns tertiary institutions around the world is the student retention rate. In general, higher rates of completion give more positive image about the academic, administrative and financial statues of these institutions. However, improving the student completion and retention rates can be a challenging task. One way…

The promise of higher education remains elusive for many Indigenous students in Australia. To date, institutional efforts to improve the persistence and retention of Indigenous students have been largely piecemeal, poorly integrated and designed to remediate skill deficits. Yet, market-led expansion of Australian higher education is driving…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been the subject of much polarised debate around their potential to transform higher education in terms of opening access. Although MOOCs have been attracting large learner cohorts, concerns have emerged from the early evidence base centring upon issues of quality in learning and teaching provision, and…

There is a long history of universities perceiving residences as pivotal in the learning process. Over the last 50 years, the nature and efficacy of residential environments as an educational tool have been extensively researched. However, within some sections of the tertiary residential sector, in the United States, the United Kingdom, New…

Student retention rate has been a major concern for tertiary institutions around the world since the establishment of formal education. Generally speaking, not every student completes his or her study program. Although students fail to graduate for different reasons, some of them choose to voluntarily withdraw from their study programs. This might…

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the available literature on student attrition in Saudi higher education context. Despite the reported low student retention rates in Saudi tertiary institutions, student attrition remains an under-researched phenomenon. Thus, this paper aims to trace and collect all the available studies that addressed…

This article explores the use of emotional intelligence (EQ) as a leadership characteristic to drive enrollment performance at colleges and universities in the United States. The next decade of higher education will present continuous, dramatic, and transformational change in higher education. New paradigms and educational delivery systems will…

Improving retention rates in post-school education has become a focus for policy-makers and researchers throughout the western world. Without doubt, any measure that helps students wishing to succeed in higher education is valuable. However, the dominance retention has achieved on a wide variety of educational fronts ranging from policy to…

There are 3.2 million Filipinos in the United States, arguably the largest Asian American ethnic group. Although 36.7% of Filipino adults have college degrees, which is much higher than their ethnic and racial counterparts, U.S. Filipino youth have fewer postsecondary opportunities. Filipino immigrant and second-generation youth exhibit high…

Over the past three decades policymakers have been seeking new ways to secure improved performance from higher education institutions. One popular approach has been performance funding, which involves use of a formula to tie funding to institutional performance on specified indicators. This report reviews findings from studies on performance…

In this paper we provide an overview of the literature on understandings of drop out/opt out from science, technology and mathematics (STM) higher education programmes. After outlining the literature on students leaving higher education programmes in general, we then explore the research on drop out/opt out from STM programmes in particular, with…