RETENTION

Institutional Goal:

• Increase retention rates in all undergraduate programs.
• Increase graduation rates (A Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Performance Indicator)



Commentary:




The tables show the status of students one and two years later and historic continuation and graduation rates.



• The number of first year students who are no longer at Carleton one year after initial registration has been declining steadily since 1993 and now stands at 21%. At the same time, the progression rate of students being promoted to second year in any program has increased steadily and stands at 60%.
• The number of students who are no longer at Carleton two years after initial registration has also been declining steadily and now stands at 35%. The corresponding progression rate into the third year at the university stands at 60%. If we restrict the cohort to first-time first year undergraduates, the one year attrition rate is 15.5% and 29.2% after two years.
• The provincial definition of the 'graduation rate' is the proportion of students graduating who start their program as full-time students and who graduate with a degree in any discipline at the same university within seven years. The attached data show that the overall rate was 47.8% for students starting out at Carleton in 1993. All other factors being equal, this percentage would have increased to 58.6% if the student body of 1993 had resembled (in terms of entrance average and program mix) that of 2000. Of course, students continue to graduate after the seventh year and the graduation rate is 57.3% (1986 cohort) which is expected to increase along with the rise in the incoming high school entrance average.
• Due to the changing nature of the incoming first year class and changes in policy to encourage higher retention, the first year retention rate continues to improve while, at the same time, the seven year graduation rate declines.