I’ve been interested in the issue of students who start college and don’t finish for a long time. I grew up as a faculty brat, and my father recurrently told me about students who started college, took the infamous Rhet 100 (I think that’s right), failed, and were bounced out — he claimed to the tune of over 25%. I wondered at the time about the human cost, about what happened to people who started college and didn’t complete. Some, of course, came back somewhere later; many doubtless did fine anyway; but the human cost nevertheless must have been considerable.
The problem haunts us still. While the numbers of Americans starting college have soared, a 50% noncompletion rate still preoccupies us. It’s now not just an issue of human costs, to the individuals who must feel some sense of failure, but global competitiveness. Because we don’t have a terrific system of precollege education, and because we don’t track students as most countries do, our failure rate is unusually high, and it now translates into a lower percentage of actual college graduates than many other countries have.
We’re all aware of the issue, if only because of the drumbeat of retention rate concerns that has sounded now for a couple of decades. Many of us work, at least occasionally, to try to make sure that students get warnings about academic performance, have available advising, and have access as needed to some tutorial help. But we clearly can and should be doing more, for example in providing better support to students, and instructors, in classes with high failure rates — not to soften standards, but to work for greater student success. It is no credit to any of us when students don’t make it. Obviously, we’re hardly in full control of the relevant environment, and economic factors loom large currently. But recognition of an academic challenge is crucial, and in a way most academics are not easily positioned to respond since (one assumes) most of us did pretty well in school. There are systems issues here, but issues of effective individual teaching as well.
This is a great blog on a subject that I’ve been concerned with most of my career as well. Part of the problem is health care on college campuses – both physical and mental.
For fifteen years, campus mental healthcare providers have been documenting an ever increasing crush of individuals who are coming to college with pre-existing difficulties. The percentage of students has been climbing as has the severity of their concerns. More students are experiencing mental health issues after beginning their higher education and again their concerns are growing in severity. Instead of counseling centers, colleges and universities are running campus-based community mental health centers.
Physical healthcare providers are also overwhelmed with students who are underinsured and are financially unable to secure off-campus medical assistance. The current push in the U.S. Congress to change health-care in our country will not take effect until 2013 at the earliest. Some university systems have decided to mandate their students carry health insurance – usually at a monthly cost very near that of a cell phone. While recently visiting the University of Maryland upon their announcement to require students to be insured, President Obama stated:
“Every day, the one in three adults — one in three young adults who don’t have health insurance live one accident or one illness away from bankruptcy. …Nearly half of these young people have trouble paying their medical bills. Nearly 40 percent are in debt because of them. I mean, think about adding the debt you already have for college — on top of that, another $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 or $50,000 worth of debt because you get sick.”
Uninsured students who become sick, whether for a physical or mental illness, are at great risk of dropping out and never returning. The University of North Carolina system has decided to mandate health insurance, the University of California already does, and Florida is looking into it and there are other examples.
One of the lessons learned from the roll-out of the BS in
Information Technology was that many, many students who were
previously failing could transition to the Dean’s list once
they found the right path. The key is advising and working
cooperatively with other units to make sure students aren’t
just foundering. How students feel about their progress is
an important ingredient in their performance. A little
encouragement can go a long way.
Great topic for discussion!
I was just in an Advising Chat with faculty, advisors and other university administrators and the conversation turned to transfer and returning students, many of whom fit the category of “non-traditional”. The communication aspect that often derails this group of students is the assumption that they can finish in…one or two semesters (or years), when the reality may be a much longer time commitment due to course availability or course sequencing (prerequisite issues). It is important that the returning or transfer student know this at the entry point, rather than coming to that realization after they have started.
We are using a great piece of software called “BecomeAlum.com” to provide the student the tool to plan out their remaining degree requirements with the constraints of semester offerings and prerequisites factored in.
We are finding increased ownership in their degree progress –coming to advising meetings NOT with questions of “What courses do I need to take next semester?” but rather more developed questions related to gaining field-related experience or an awareness that if they miss (or can not get) a specific class next semester it can negatively impact their graduation date.
This software has also been very helpful in the development of freshmen and current students exploring a change in major or the addition of a 2nd major or minor. Once created the plan is accessible from any networked computer.
The other neat aspect is that advisors can view a student’s plan on-line and post comments. We’ve seen these on-line interactions turn into meaningful face-to-face conversations. Rather than technology trying to replace an advisor BecomeAlum.com helps to foster the development of an ongoing relationship with advisor and student.
I’m heartened to see a Provost who is aware of and expressed concern for this at risk population.
Cheers, Christina