Institutional Failure or Student Choice? The Retention of Adult Students in Atkinson College

Authors

  • J. Paul Grayson York University

Abstract

Universities in Canada are becoming increasingly nervous with the decline in part-time enrollment and the high attrition rate of adult students. With a second year retention rate of 53%, Atkinson College, the part-time evening operation of York University, loses more students between first and second year than any other undergraduate faculty. This article focuses on whether or not a retention rate of this magnitude reflects institutional failure or the characteristics and choices of 'mature' students. Surveys carried out prior to the commencement of class and at the end of the first year of study permitted an examination of the impact of background characteristics, barriers to education, initial goals and commitments, college experiences, satisfaction with these experiences, final commitments to the college, and first year grades on retention for a second year of study. Overall it was found that compared to those who returned for a second year, many students who left the university never intended to complete a degree to begin with, took fewer courses, and by the end of the first year were already reasonably sure that they would not come back for a second year. Students who left the university did not differ from those who returned to the College in terms of factors such as barriers to education, the type of experiences they had over the first year, and satisfaction with various aspects of their education. As a result, it can be concluded that the low retention rate is more a reflection of student choices than of institutional failure.

Résumé

Atkinson College, avec un taux de rétention de 53%, essuie le plus important volume d'abandon scolaire de toutes les facultés de premier cycle de l'université York. Cette situation est-elle attribuable à quelque défaillance institutionnelle, ou aux aléas du quotidien et de la personnalité chez les étudiants adultes? Un sondage a permis de mesurer l'influence des facteurs suivants sur le taux de réinscription: caractéristiques individuelles, obstacles à la participation, objectifs et engagements initiaux, expériences universitaire précédentes et niveau de satisfaction. Parmi les étudiants ayant omis de se réinscrire, plusieurs n'avaient jamais eu l'intention de compléter le diplôme. Ils avaient tendance à suivre mains de cours, et à prendre la décision de quitter l'institution avant la fin de leur première année. Les autres facteurs sont distribués également parmi les deux populations, ce qui amène à conclure que le taux d'abandon est dû aux choix individuels plutôt qu'à une défaillance institutionnelle.

Downloads

Published

1997-11-01

How to Cite

Grayson, J. P. (1997). Institutional Failure or Student Choice? The Retention of Adult Students in Atkinson College. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 11(2), 7–30. Retrieved from https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/view/2049

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (1997)

Section

Articles

License

Authors of manuscripts accepted for publication will be required to assign copyright to the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education/L’Association canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes (CJSAE). CJSAE requests that, as the creator(s)/author(s) of the manuscript your are submitting assign certain rights to the manuscript to the CJSAE in exchange for undertaking to publish the article in print and electronic form and, in general, to pursue its dissemination throughout the world. The rights the CJSAE requests are:

  1. The right to publish the article in print and electronic form or in any other form it may choose that is in keeping with its role as a scholarly journal with the goal of disseminating the work as widely as possible;
  2. The right to be the sole publisher of the article for a period of 12 months;
  3. The right to make the article available to the public within a period of not more than 24 months, as determined by relevant journal staff of the CJSAE;
  4. The right to grant republication rights to itself or others in print, electronic, or any other form, with any revenues accrued to be shared equally between the author(s) and the journal;
  5. The right to administer permission to use portions of the article as requested by others, seeking recompense when the CJSAE sees it as warrented;
  6. The right to seek or take advantage of opportunities to have the article included in a database aimed at increasing awareness of it;
  7. As the author(s), the CJSAE wishes you to retain the right to republish the article, with acknowledgement of the CJSAE as the original publisher, in whole or in part, in any other pbulication of your own, including any anthology that you might edit with up to three others;
  8. As the author(s), the CJSAE withes you to retain the right to place the article on your personal Web page or that of your university or institution. The CJSAE askes that you include this notice: A fully edited, peer-reviewed version of this article was first published by the Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, <Year>, <Volume>, <Issue>, <Page Numbers>.

BY AGREEING TO THE FOREGOING, YOU CONFIRM THAT THE MANUSCRIPT YOU ARE SUBMITTING HAS NOT BEEN PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE IN WHOLE OR IN PART, AND THAT NO AGREEMENT TO PUBLISH IS OUTSTANDING.

SHOULD THE ARTICLE CONTAIN MATERIAL WHICH REQUIRES WRITTEN PERMISSION FOR INCLUSION, YOU AGREE THAT IT IS YOUR OBLIGATION IN LAW TO IDENTIFY SUCH MATERIAL TO THE EDITOR OF THE CJSAE AND TO OBTAIN SUCH PERMISSION. THE CJSAE WILL NOT PAY ANY PERMISSION FEES. SHOULD THE CJSAE BE OF THE OPINION THAT SUCH PERMISSION IS NECESSARY, IT WILL REQUIRE YOU TO PURSUE SHUCH PERMISSSION PRIOR TO PUBLICATION.

AS AUTHOR(S), YOU WARRANT THAT THE ARTICLE BEING SUBMITTED IS ORIGINAL TO YOU.

Provided the foregoing terms are satisfactory, and that you are in agreement with them, please indicate your acceptance by checking the appropriate box and proceed with your submission.

This copyright agreement was extracted with permission from the "Best practices guide to scholarly journal publishing" (2007), produced by the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ).