Retention is a measure of how many students return to UT. By contrast, persistence is a measure of how many students continue their education at any university. The National Student Clearinghouse differentiates retention and persistence in the following way.
Persistence rate is measured by the percentage of students who return to college at any institution for their second year, while retention rate represents the percentage of students who return to the same institution.
This vignette will focus on retention rate metrics. The university’s retention metrics can be broadly broken into two groups. Cohort retention and term-to-term retention.
| Group of Students | Retention Includes | Retention Excludes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cohort Retention | Cohort, First-time Freshman and/or Transfer Students | Returned term indicated | Exclusions |
| Come Back Rate | All degree seeking students | Returned term indicated | Exclusions |
| Return Rate | All degree seeking students | Returned or completed a credential by the term indicated | Exclusions |
Cohort retention
A cohort is a group of students with shared characteristics that are tracked for reporting purposes. New, degree seeking students are assigned a cohort when they enter the University. They are placed in a cohort based on data in the census enrollment snapshot. There are eight cohorts students are placed in:
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, transfer
- Part-time, Bachelors degree seeking, freshman
- Part-time, Bachelors degree seeking, transfer
- Full-time, Associates degree seeking, freshman
- Full-time, Associates degree seeking, transfer
- Part-time, Associates degree seeking, freshman
- Part-time, Associates degree seeking, transfer
Cohort retention metrics track cohorts as they progress toward graduation. Cohort retention starts with a cohort of students (a group of students) and tracks if the student was enrolled (retained) as of census for the return term indicated; exclusions are removed from this metric. The denominator for this metric is the number of students within the cohort who do not have an exclusion flag. The numerator for the metric is the number of students from the denominator who do not have an exclusion flag and were enrolled as of census for the return term indicated.
- Fall-to-spring cohort retention rate
- Fall-to-fall2 cohort retention rate
- Fall-to-fall3 cohort retention rate
- Fall-to-fall4 cohort retention rate
SELECT a.student_id,
a.cohort_start_term_id,
a.is_exclusion,
-- Second fall return rate
a.is_returned_next_fall,
a.is_graduated_year_1,
-- Third fall return rate
a.is_returned_fall_3,
a.is_degree_completer_2,
-- Fourth fall return rate
a.is_returned_fall_4,
a.is_degree_completer_3,
c.primary_major_desc,
c.primary_degree_id,
c.primary_degree_desc,
d.college_abbrv,
d.college_desc,
e.first_name,
e.last_name,
e.gender_code,
e.ipeds_race_ethnicity,
e.is_veteran,
e.is_international,
e.is_athlete,
e.is_first_generation
FROM export.student_term_cohort a
LEFT JOIN export.term b
ON b.term_id = a.cohort_start_term_id
LEFT JOIN export.student_term_level_version c
ON c.student_id = a.student_id
AND c.term_id = a.cohort_start_term_id
AND c.is_enrolled
AND c.is_primary_level
AND c.is_census_version
LEFT JOIN export.academic_programs d
ON d.program_id = c.primary_program_id
LEFT JOIN export.student e
ON e.student_id = a.student_id
WHERE b.season = 'Fall'
AND a.cohort_desc != 'Student Success'
AND substr(a.cohort_start_term_id, 1, 4)::int >= (SELECT substr(term_id, 1, 4)::int - 5
FROM export.term
WHERE is_current_term)Term-to-term
Term-to-term metrics include:
- Comeback rate fall to spring
- Comeback rate fall to fall
- Return rate fall to spring
- Return rate fall to fall
Comeback rate metrics track if the degree seeking students were enrolled (retained) as of census for the return term indicated; exclusions are removed from this metric. The denominator for this metric is the number of degree seeking students who do not have an exclusion flag. The denominator for the metric is the number of students from the numerator who were enrolled as of census for the return term indicated.
Return rate metrics track if the degree seeking students were enrolled (retained) as of census or completed a credential by the return term indicated; exclusions are removed from this metric. The denominator for this metric is the number of degree seeking students who do not have an exclusion flag. The numerator for the metric is the number of students from the denominator who were enrolled as of census or completed a credential by the return term indicated.
#to do - look at the sql
SELECT a.student_id,
a.term_id,
a.is_returned_next_spring,
a.is_returned_next_fall,
c.primary_major_desc,
c.primary_degree_id,
c.primary_degree_desc,
d.college_abbrv,
d.college_desc,
e.first_name,
e.last_name,
e.gender_code,
e.ipeds_race_ethnicity,
e.is_veteran,
e.is_international,
e.is_athlete,
e.is_first_generation,
COALESCE(f.is_exclusion, FALSE) AS is_exclusion,
COALESCE(f.cohort_start_term_id, 'None') AS cohort_start_term_id,
COALESCE(f.cohort_desc, 'None') AS cohort_type
FROM export.student_term_outcome a
LEFT JOIN export.term b
ON b.term_id = a.term_id
LEFT JOIN export.student_term_level_version c
ON c.student_id = a.student_id
AND c.term_id = a.term_id
AND c.is_enrolled
AND c.is_primary_level
AND c.is_census_version
LEFT JOIN export.academic_programs d
ON d.program_id = c.primary_program_id
LEFT JOIN export.student e
ON e.student_id = a.student_id
LEFT JOIN export.student_term_cohort f
ON f.student_id = a.student_id
AND f.cohort_desc IN ('First-Time Freshman', 'Transfer')
WHERE b.season = 'Fall'
AND substr(a.term_id, 1, 4)::int >= (SELECT substr(term_id, 1, 4)::int - 5
FROM export.term
WHERE is_current_term)