ATE Central - Identifying Factors Influencing Engineering Student Graduation and Retention: A Longitudinal and Cross-Institutional Study

Title:

Identifying Factors Influencing Engineering Student Graduation and Retention: A Longitudinal and Cross-Institutional Study

Url:

http://www.succeed.ufl.edu/papers/asee02/1619.pdf

Publisher:

University of Florida

Description: In this study, pre-existing factors are quantitatively evaluated as to their influence on student success. This study uses a database of all engineering students in the time period 1987 through 2000 and considers two definitions of success. The first, graduation, is defined as graduation in an engineering degree program as of the latest year in the study. The second, retention, is defined as either graduation or current enrolment in an engineering degree program as of the latest year in the study. A multiple logistic regression model was formulated to test for and estimate the predictive relationships between these measures of success and a set of six background variables that represent students' pre-existing demographic and academic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, high school GPA, SAT math score, SAT verbal score, and citizenship status). It is found that both graduation and retention in engineering for students whoenter in an engineering discipline depends significantly upon high school GPA and math SAT scores, while verbal SAT scores correlated negatively with odds of graduation for five out of eight universities. Gender, ethnicity and citizenship also showed significant effects for some Universities, but these were not consistently positive or negat ive preredictors. We also find that gender, verbal SAT scores, ethnicity and citizenship frequently appear as predictors of retention, but not as predictors of graduation. Target Audience: 2-4 Year College Faculty/Administrators

LC Classification:

Bibliography. Library science. Information resources (General) -- Subject bibliography -- Education -- Special topics, A-Z -- Engineering education
Education -- Theory and practice of education -- Higher education -- Public relations -- College publicity. Recruiting

GEM Subject:

Science -- Engineering
Science -- Instructional issues
Vocational Education -- Trade and industrial

Resource Type:

Instructional Materials
Reading Materials
Science Materials

Format:

pdf

Audience: