This report studies the retention practices of over 60 North American colleges and universities, exploring the most critical factors to retention success as cited by the survey participants. The comprehensive data in the report covers a wide array of statistics and trends essential to any administration's assessment of its own retention policies, including detailed retention rates for first-year and part-time students, institutional spending on consultants and conferences, overall tutoring efforts, and the perceived impact of various student services on retention success. How does the current economic climate affect financial aid and tuition, and how do these, in turn, affect student retention? What roles do exit interviews play? What about academic advising and counseling services, or childcare services, or peer mentoring?
The 116-page report presents data broken out by enrollment size, public or private school status, and type of college, offering end users a look at the strategies and practices of a broad range of institutions. Now administrators can see which schools track retention rates by gender, or by declared academic major, by race or ethnicity, and more. Participants share their success stories as well as the pitfalls of student retention and their expectations for the future.