Student retention has received considerable attention recently, both nationally, through President Obama’s proposal to rate colleges on factors that include retention and graduation rates, and locally, with Nell Gluckman’s Aug. 23 BDN article and a subsequent OpEd column by UMaine adjunct faculty member Bruce Pratt. As the chief academic officer at the University of Maine, the state’s largest public university, I welcome a public dialogue about student success.
At the University of Maine, we have recommitted ourselves to ensuring every student we accept has the support needed to progress from matriculation through graduation. Improving student retention and graduation rates is a goal of our Blue Sky strategic plan.
Last academic year, I assembled a team of faculty, staff and administrators to examine issues related to student retention and graduation. Together, we explored a variety of questions: What are the characteristics of students who persist to graduation in four years? What do we know about students who drop out after one semester or two? What units within UMaine are particularly successful at supporting students’ progress to graduation? Nationally, what is the consensus about best practices? How do our policies and procedures compare with those practices? What can we do to improve student retention and graduation rates at UMaine?
Here’s some of what we learned:
— There is no silver bullet when it comes to student retention and graduation. A variety of personal, academic, financial and social factors impact students’ persistence. Consequently, improving student retention and graduation rates requires a multifaceted plan that provides the right types of support to the right students at the right points in time.
— The University of Maine’s first-year retention rate (that is, the percentage of first- time, full-time students who return to the university in the fall of their second year) is about 79 percent, which is on par with the rates at our peer institutions nationally.
— The percentage of students who start at UMaine and graduate from UMaine in four years (about 36 percent) and six years (about 58 percent) is also comparable to our peers. These rates, however, are somewhat misleading. If you look at students who start at UMaine and graduate with a bachelor’s degree from any institution, the four- and six-year rates are 41 percent and 68 percent, respectively.
— Universities that succeed at retaining and graduating students keep a focus on student success, and make sure retaining and graduating students is an ongoing institutional priority.
In other words, there are no quick fixes.
We were pleased to discover that we are doing many things right at UMaine. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement, so we developed an action plan to kickstart our renewed commitment to student success. The plan has several components, starting with a focus on early action.
The first three-weeks of students’ college experience can set the foundation for success or failure. Our plan calls for frequent and early extracurricular contact with students, identification of those who appear to be at risk and intervening with those students.
Students who immerse themselves in the college experience through academic, social or volunteer programs tend to persist. We’ll reach out to students and make it easy for them to get connected, as well as provide faculty and staff the support and professional development opportunities needed to ensure they know the best ways to connect with students. We will create mechanisms that make it easy for students to get the information and support needed when they are struggling. Finally, we’ll continue to evaluate our work, with a particular focus on moving students from the mid-point in their journey to the finish line and commencement.
Working to ensure that every Maine student who aspires to earn a college degree has the opportunity to do so requires a partnership among communities, universities and the state and federal government, as well as families and the students themselves. I welcome continued dialogue about how best to ensure that Maine students who come to college stay in school and graduate, and are prepared to be successful citizens.
Jeffrey E. Hecker is executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Maine.