Student Retention in Higher Education Post-COVID

Noel Fernandez

Higher Education Administration and Leadership, California State University, Fresno

HEAL 228

Dr. Hernandez

March 18, 2023

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How has COVID-19 affected student retention?

The main priority for every institution is the retention and success of every student. Being

an academic advisor at the higher education level at a public four-year institution has allowed me

to see firsthand some of the many challenges students face that can affect their success. It has

become more evident how COVID-19 played a role in the decline of student retention and led to

the introduction of a holistic approach to support students. It took effort from everyone in the

higher education system to find ways to help students during that transition period of going

entirely virtual. Now that everything is slowly going back to the "new normal." The elephant in

the room is, will we go back to our old ways to improve student retention, or will we continue to

move forward with the innovations made in the higher education system that made it more

accessible for students?

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report for the annual year of 2021

found that the retention rate for students who started college for the first-time in the first fall

during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was Fall 2020, a retention rate of 66.4% nationwide

(Gardner, 2022). Institutions such as community colleges and private for-profit four-year

institutions saw increased persistence and retention, while other institutions, such as four-years,

decreased. The persistence rate for first-time students starting at public four-year institutions has

dropped for two years. Of the 1 million students starting at a public four-year institution in the

Fall 2020, 83.5% persist and re-enroll at any institution, while only 75.4% return to the same

institution (Gardner, 2022). This means that 8.1% of these students enrolled in different

institutions, and this affects the retention of institutions.

The decrease in student persistence and retention is an enormous concern influencing

universities to seek different methods to enhance first-year students' academic success and
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retention rate as there is a potential reputational loss. This would include financial loss over the

lifetime of a student in an institution and money being spent recruiting students if students leave

after the first year. This would stain an institution's reputation as it will be known that students

cannot succeed at their institution, which can lead to a decrease in student enrollment. When

students leave the university, it could be a negative experience that will impact their well-being

and self-worth. Students enter higher education feeling accomplished after completing their

secondary education and go in with the same expectation they had when in reality, higher

education is a whole different system.

First-year college students who feel alienated from the college experience often have

negative encounters that affect their decision to persist or voluntarily withdraw from higher

education. First-year college students want to feel like they are part of the institution they attend

socially and academically. External factors such as encouragement from family and friends,

financial support, and the motivation to want to do well in the institution play a vital role in

student retention. Several institutions face withdrawals and transfers because of poor faculty-to-

student relationships and large class sizes. Institutions do not have control over external factors

but do have control over internal factors such as institutional culture and climate that can lead to

student adaption.

Faculty members in higher education had to make the most significant adjustment during

the COVID-19 pandemic as learning online became the required form for educators to engage

with students. It was a tough time for students to adapt to all these changes. However, educators

knew that students were not prepared for eLearning, so they took a holistic approach when

working with students to ensure student retention was not affected as drastically considering the

circumstances. Faculty would provide this support by addressing students' emotional, social,
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ethical, and academic needs in an integrated learning format when working with a student to

support them holistically. While faculty did acknowledge challenges such as engaging students,

catering to student's needs, and providing opportunities for holistic learning, they also recognized

the various opportunities such as flexibility that enables independent learning, chances to reflect

upon and improve practice, and to lower some barriers to student-teacher interactions (Müller et

al., 2021).

There is a more balanced view for eLearning as blended and hybrid classes allow

students to not miss out on class when they feel sick or unable to make it to campus due to

transportation issues. Many students commute to their institutions, and professors letting students

zoom in when they cannot attend in person allowed the student to attend class and stay caught

up. This allowed students to earn better grades and feel like they mattered because the professor

cared about their well-being. By professors incorporating the hybrid approach, the learning

activities during live sessions have received increased attention recently, and research highlights

promising results (Müller et al., 2021).

Students having access to hybrid classes and services from an institution makes it more

accessible for students to access all the resources they pay for in tuition. The institutions would

only be functional with students, so there must be an evaluation of what resources students need

the most and how they can be accessible to them. The primary goal of each institution is to

improve the retention rate and student success. COVID-19 has taught us many life lessons,

including the fact that we can be successful in a virtual world. Although it took some

adjustments and preparation to understand a whole new system, it was still beneficial for

students. It saved student retention from plummeting and helped students stay caught up instead

of shutting down the institutions completely. The hybrid model should be implemented in all
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institutions as it makes it more accessible for students to utilize their campus's resources. We

must adapt to change if our goal is to serve students to the best of our abilities.
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References

Gardner, A. (2022), Persistence and Retention Fall 2020 Beginning Postsecondary Student

Cohort, Herndon, VA: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Müller, Goh, C., Lim, L. Z., & Gao, X. (2021). COVID-19 Emergency eLearning and Beyond:

Experiences and Perspectives of University Educators. Education Sciences, 11(1), 19–.

https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11010019