Identification of retention levers using a survey of engineering freshman attitudes at Oregon State University

Student retention is an ongoing issue for most engineering programmes in the United States. Although engineering continues to be regarded as a promising profession, many students beginning in an engineering programme will not successfully complete their engineering studies. In an attempt to understand student perceptions of issues that relate to retention, a research project was undertaken at Oregon State University. The current paper provides a description of a survey that was developed to help decision makers understand student concerns related to retention. The development of the survey is described along with previous research supporting the survey construction. Analyses of data from the initial administration of the survey are provided to illustrate how the survey can be used to develop programme-level recommendations.

Keywords:

• Student retention
• Engineering freshman
• Student attitudes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Engineering Schools of the West Initiative in providing the resources and funding necessary for this research.