Persistence & Retention | National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

June 27, 2024

The Persistence and Retention report series examines first-year persistence and retention rates for beginning postsecondary students. The persistence rate is measured by the percentage of students who return to college at any institution for their second year, while the retention rate represents the percentage of students who return to the same institution. Students attaining a credential in their first year are accounted for in persistence and retention rates. The report is designed to help institutions understand trends and patterns in this important early success indicator, and identify disparities by institutional type, state, degree level, starting enrollment intensity, major field, and student demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and race and ethnicity. The report includes a data dashboard to enable viewers to analyze, visualize, and interact with the longitudinal data, which are also available for download.

Highlights

Overview

The national persistence rate for students who started college in the fall of 2022 rose to 76.5 percent (+0.8 percentage points [pp] compared to the fall 2021 starting cohort), and the national retention rate was 68.2 percent (+1.0pp). This marks the second straight year of improved persistence and retention, with both rates higher than they have been at any point in the last decade.
All main institution sectors saw higher persistence and retention rates compared to the fall 2021 cohort except for private nonprofit 4-year institutions where rates slipped (-0.3pp for both persistence and retention).
Community colleges have seen the highest gains in retention rates over the last decade, with the retention rate for entering community college students rising 3.7pp from 51.3 percent for those who started in the fall 2013 term to 55.0 percent for fall 2022 starters.
Public 4-year institutions have also had large retention rate gains since 2013, with the retention rate for fall 2022 starters (78.0%) standing 3.1pp higher than the rate for fall 2013 starters (74.9%).
Both full-time and part-time starters in fall 2022 saw persistence rate gains of +0.9pp and retention rate gains of over 1pp compared to starters the previous fall. Full-time starters had a persistence rate of 82.9 percent and a retention rate of 74.5 percent. The comparable numbers for part-time starters were 52.3 percent and 45.7 percent, respectively.
Since 2018, public 4-year institutions have consistently surpassed their private nonprofit 4-year peers in retaining full-time students, with a 1.7 pp higher rate for the 2022 cohort (Public 4-year: 80.9%; Private non-profit 4-year: 79.2%). Prior to 2017, the pattern was reversed with private nonprofit 4-year institutions retaining more full-time starters.

States

Most states saw stable or positive growth in their persistence and retention rates. Students starting in North Carolina (78.8%, +3.4pp), Washington (72.9%, +3.0pp), and Multi-State/Primarily Online institutions (49.2%, +4.9pp) made particularly large gains in persistence.

Major Field

Persistence and retention rates increased for students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in the top 10 most popular major fields, with Computer Science (persistence: 85.7%, +2.1pp; retention: 77.7%, +1.7pp) and Health (persistence: 87.9%, +1.1pp; retention: 77.1%, +1.4pp) reporting notable gains. Outside the top 10, bachelor’s starters in Communications and Journalism saw more limited gains (persistence: 90.2%, +0.4pp; retention: 81.5%, +0.9pp), while both rates declined slightly for entering bachelor’s students in Mathematics and Statistics (persistence: 91.9%, -0.4pp; retention: 84.6%, -0.3pp).
Starters in the top 10 most popular associate degree major fields also saw gains in persistence and retention except for those pursuing Psychology and Multi/Interdisciplinary studies, for whom both persistence and retention rates held steady compared to the fall 2021 cohort.
Among starters pursuing undergraduate certificate programs, trade-related programs in Mechanic and Repair Technologies (57.5%), Precision Production (60.0%), and Construction Trades (61.5%), along with Computer Science (57.7%) and Business (56.3%) certificates, have some of the highest persistence rates among the ten most popular fields of study.

Student Characteristics

Younger entering students continue to persist and be retained at much higher rates than older starters. The persistence rate among fall 2022 starters 20 years or younger was 80.9 percent and the retention rate was 71.9 percent. In comparison the retention and persistence rates for students 21 through 24 and 25 and older did not exceed 50 percent.
Institutions continue to retain Hispanic, Black and Native American students at rates significantly below the national rate (63.6%, 56.6%, and 52.8%, respectively, compared to 68.2% nationally). Moreover, there was more muted growth in retention rates for Hispanic and Native American entering students in fall 2022 compared to gains nationally. This represents a reversal of the pattern last year, when retention rate increases for these students outpaced growth in the national rate. Black college starters in fall 2022 saw the reverse with retention rate increases on par with national growth, compared to muted growth for the fall 2021 cohort.