General College Persisters and Leavers: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Research and theory on student retention suggests that it is a complex process influenced by both personal and institutional factors. Since retention and graduation rates are important benchmarks used to evaluate educational institutions, administrators at the University of Minnesota (U of M) are questioning why these rates are lower at the U of M than would be expected given the characteristics of the student body (Improving our graduation, 2001). Research by the U of M office of Institutional Research and Reporting (IRR) suggests that for most U of M freshman admitting colleges, including General College (GC), the predicted graduation rate for students is higher than the actual rate.