Perceptions of College Students on Social Factors That Influence Student Matriculation.

Abstract

This study analyzed undergraduate students' (n = 280) attitudes toward selected social factors that would influence and discourage student persistence at a four-year research university. Using a modified Delphi technique to construct questionnaire, researchers discovered that family encouragement, positive relationships with professors, and positive course experiences were most agreed social factors that encourage student persistence. Additionally, respondents agreed that burn out from school-related responsibilities, lack of time management skills, and inability to handle stress as negative social factors that would discourage student persistence. The article concludes with a discussion about role and importance of universities to invest in required amount of effort needed to ensure that students are experiencing academic success and social congruence. Introduction and Theoretical Framework Over past few years, student retention and persistence at colleges and universities throughout United States has become an important component for higher education. Although college enrollment numbers have steadily increased, far too many of these students never finish. According to latest reports by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), only 31% of students who began as first-year full-time undergraduates at 4 year public institutions in 2002 completed a Bachelor's degree within six years (Aud et al., 2011). In contrast, Raley (2007) reports that six out of every 10jobs require some form of postsecondary education. As such, United States, once a world leader in number of 25 to 34 year olds with college degrees, now ranks 12th among 36 developed nations with only 42% (Lewin, 2011). Even at private institutions (not-for-profit and for-profit), graduation rates remain similar to national trend (35% at not for profit and 13% at for profit institutions). As a result, growing concern of United States education deficit has invoked education leaders and policy makers to create new ways to bolster college completion rates. The President's initiative, Race to Top, has allocated over 193 million dollars in federal funds to assist states in increasing graduation rates (Lewin, 2011). The initiative's aim is meeting goal of having 8 million college graduates by year 2020 which will help United States again lead world in educational attainment. With almost 70% of high school graduates enrolling in post-secondary institutions every year, America's colleges and universities must continue to develop ways to retain its student population for degree completion. Though access to higher education has increased and gap in access between various race and ethnic groups has decreased, there is still much to do to translate access to college into college success (Tinto, 2010). The need to understand and improve college persistence is critical. As Carey (2005) states: the pressures of global competition, once limited to lower-skill jobs, are steadily moving up economic ladder as well-paying jobs require far more in way of knowledge, training, and skills than ever before (p. 2). As such, it matters now more than ever, for colleges and universities to examine what factors affect student persistence. Although student retention and persistence research has spanned many decades (Blanc, DeBuhr, & Martin, 1983; Carey, 2005; Pascarella & Terinzini, 1991; Tinto, 1975; 2010), there is still much that is unknown. Students and their reasons for persistence or not matriculating through college vary tremendously. As above mentioned research tells us, there in no one solution to graduation rate problem in addition to multitude of information yet to be uncovered. Even so, as college attrition has been examined on many student characteristics, current research tells us that students success is a function of both social and academic engagement (Carey, 2005). …