Higher education faces many hurdles, but guiding students from prospect to graduation is particularly challenging. Amid changing perceptions about the value of education and the rising costs of completing a qualification, many students choose to drop out. Without persistence, there is no retention, leading to significant financial challenges for your institution.
Today’s college students face unique challenges, and 24 percent have seriously considered leaving school or are at risk of dismissal. Knowing how to support student persistence can prevent any impact on retention and engagement at your institution.
Student persistence is a metric that quantifies the determination and activities that propel students forward to degree completion. It measures a student’s ability to continue to the next term or phase of their education. Students who persist directly impact retention rates. They are more likely to stay until they achieve their goals.
About 40.4 million people across the U.S. have completed some college without earning a credential. Persistence rates may be involved in this discrepancy. Students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in business have around a 56.3 percent persistence rate, which means the remaining students are falling behind. Understandably, higher education institutions constantly seek methods to address the remaining 43.7 percent.
Some of the many benefits of improved student persistence and retention include:
Student persistence faces several challenges. You can only address retention when you have addressed persistence. However, students from different backgrounds face challenges that could distract them from their studies. Higher education institutions of various types face attrition risks, especially from students with outside pressures, like families and jobs. Barriers to student persistence include:
In understanding these challenges, you can take tips to improve student persistence and retention. The following tips outline a clear action plan to achieve your persistence goals:
Students perform well when they understand your expectations. When you define student success, you give students actionable goals to chase. Establish clear objectives for students. Explain the relevance of these objectives to each student’s future career. The more students understand and relate to their goals, the more they feel connected to the course material. When they know how their current tasks affect their long-term goals, they often become more persistent in completing them.
Developing a welcoming and supportive community for students can create feelings of fulfillment and connection in and outside the classroom. You can host events for students, which provide them with opportunities to connect with like-minded peers. You could also host a club fair at the beginning of each semester, so students know how to get involved.
Social events are one part of the equation. The other is giving them career development education. Hosting job fairs and bringing in local employers deepen the connection between students and their potential careers. You can also engage specific groups on campus with events, like working student groups or first-year student get-togethers.
Retention statistics only tell you that students are leaving, but you need to understand why to make meaningful changes. Student and faculty feedback allows you to pinpoint improvement opportunities in your coursework and campus community. Ask students how they feel about their classes and community. You can also gain insight into their struggles and design support programs to address these challenges.
Feedback helps you understand student expectations and adjust your strategies to meet them.
One of the best ways to improve persistence and retention is to be aware of risks before they happen. Predictive analytics is the ultimate proactive approach. It’s a preventive measure that calculates student risk levels and uses that to drive engagement and motivation. Identifying at-risk students and providing targeted support can get them back on track with their academics and see them through graduation.
You can make specific outreach efforts for students who need it most. For example, you can find students with lower test scores and send them information about student success services before their grades get too low. Targeted and timely interventions can mean the difference between retaining students and losing them to other institutions or jobs.
A student’s sense of belonging involves being academically and socially connected to their community. The student experience should include positive interaction with peers, faculty, and academic staff. Belonging is invaluable for student persistence and retention, especially among students from diverse backgrounds who face additional barriers to connection.
Inclusive campus environments also significantly enhance student success and motivation. One way you can foster a sense of belonging among students is to establish groups that meet the needs of specific communities. These groups facilitate connections between students and support the different communities that your institution serves. Faculty can also support this inclusivity by exploring different viewpoints in class and allowing students to express diverse opinions without judgment.
Students from diverse backgrounds who learn from diverse faculty are more likely to persist with their academics. Many higher education institutions thrive with diverse student groups but have yet to mirror this in their faculty and leadership. A diverse faculty leads to diverse perspectives and deeper connections with students — the cornerstones of persistence.
While it can take time to hire diverse faculty, you can take steps immediately. Hire from a diverse pool when filling new teaching and administrative positions. Collect faculty data to identify their demographics and consider the diversity of your leadership positions.
Financial burdens are one of the primary reasons for student attrition, so connecting students with relevant financial resources makes sense. First-year students often need help applying for financial assistance during enrollment. However, economic challenges extend far beyond that. As students progress through their studies, their financial needs change. Keeping them informed about scholarships, grants, and employment opportunities can increase their motivation to complete their qualifications.
You can also reduce the administrative burden by setting up student self-service resources. For example, you can post job boards on campus. You can also implement technological solutions that allow students to easily access their account information, manage loans, and meet scholarship requirements.
In addition to expanding or promoting financial support services, you can consider ways to help students afford the basics, like food, housing, and health care. For example, you can offer free health services, food pantries, and child care services to alleviate additional financial burdens.
Students are often more motivated to persist when they see the future job market payoff for their learning efforts. They should see the link between what they are learning now, and their ability to progress in their future careers. Implementing clear curricular pathways to employment and ongoing skills development helps you maintain that connection.
Curriculum mapping is invaluable for aligning the student experience with industry needs. The progress helps faculty better understand how their courses fit into the big picture of each student’s educational experience. Outlining outcomes introduced in one course and then reinforcing them later in an advanced course creates continuity. You can develop specific knowledge and skills students need for successful careers.
Every student faces a unique set of challenges. A combination of life struggles, such as mental health challenges, financial setbacks, and family responsibilities, can cause students to leave school. Implementing comprehensive, personalized student support programs can help them manage external stressors while keeping up with their academic responsibilities.
In addition to these programs, student mentors can work one-on-one with students to set educational goals and sharpen their coping skills.
Students will only complete their studies if they’re motivated and engaged. Student engagement in learning and other activities is vital to increasing persistence. Students also need positive relationships with faculty, peers, and administrators to benefit from their higher education experience.
Any interventions that boost student engagement in the learning experience will likely improve persistence. Faculty should create an active learning environment and connect the curriculum to real-world situations. A massive 80 percent of college students view career readiness as a key indicator of student success. Allow them to ask questions, share their experiences, and discuss the course content in small groups.
Higher education must cater to students of all ages and walks of life. The nontraditional student population is now more extensive than the traditional. Today, 75 percent of students are nontraditional, meaning higher education institutions must adjust to accommodate them. They have jobs, children, or other adult obligations, and offering flexible schedules removes the barriers that could lead to a lack of persistence in this group.
Consider offering weekend and evening classes and expanding your virtual learning course options.
Students disengage and fall behind for many reasons. These risks can be significant enough to make them abandon their studies altogether. However, innovative technology addresses these issues, helping you boost persistence and retention. Integrated student success software is crucial for getting the complete picture of your institution’s performance. It stores your data in one centralized hub, allowing you to identify patterns and trends.
Purpose-built software lets you support the unique needs of each student, boosting persistence and retention with proactive support. It provides early alerts when students veer off course and provides predictive models for persistence and course completion. You can use these tools to intervene and get them back on track before it’s too late.
Software solutions allow you to collaborate with students, monitor their progress, and plan for success. The system will notify you if your student’s goals change or they face barriers to persistence.
Every higher education institution wants persistent and engaged students. When you support persistence with data, you improve retention by giving students the tools to stay motivated. Watermark Student Success & Engagement is an integrated tool that offers you predictive analytics, early alerts, and intuitive reporting so you always have the complete picture.
This solution is part of the Watermark Educational Impact Suite (EIS), a unified platform that helps you maximize your impact through continuous, data-driven improvement. Cultivate a learning environment where every student thrives. Request a demo and experience the power of our solutions today!
