Teaching Resources

Retention Strategies

Tags/Keywords

Overview

Student retention is one of the most difficult situations facing a university. On the academic side, lower graduation rates translate to missed opportunities for students. On the budgetary side, fewer students means less funding. According to the National Center for Developmental Education: "students fail to do well in college for a variety of reasons, and only one of them is lack of academic preparedness. Factors such as personal autonomy, self-confidence, ability to deal with racism, study behaviors, or social competence have as much or more to do with grades, retention, and graduation than how well a student writes or how competent a student is in mathematics." In order to increase graduation rates, students need tools to help increase their self-awareness, responsibility for learning, and self-motivation. The On Course program (link below) provides 8 guiding principles and tools that will help increase student retention.

MTSU Resources
Student Support Services
Study Skills Help Page

LTITC Resources

From our library--
Gaither, G.H. (2005). Minority retention: What works? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Swail, W.S. (2003). Retaining minority students in higher education: A framework for success. San Francisco: Wiley Company.

Online Resources: Tips and Strategies
On Course - Site for colleges and universities with tips and events to help increase student success and retention.

Online Publications: Viewpoints, Articles, Books...

Enrollment Expert Gives Top 5 Reasons Why Retention Strategies Fail
Tomorrow's Professor: Are your students on course for graduation?