Retention and Success of Engineering Undergraduates: A Discussion of Retention-related Initiatives at the University at Buffalo

摘要

The retention and success of undergraduate engineering students has received somewhat greater attention in recent years owing to declining enrollments during the 1990s as a result of a decreasing number of college-bound high school graduates. Engineering programs have been affected by these enrollment trends and have become sensitized to the issue of retention. Two of the major potential reasons for freshmen encountering academic difficulty or leaving engineering stem from insufficient academic preparation for the curriculum or unrealistic expectations. Conventional university admissions criteria, such as high school average and SAT score, correlate with academic success only in a broad sense. These metrics are unreliable in identifying individual at-risk students. An accurate method for predicting academic success of an individual student has recently been developed based upon a detailed analysis of the student's high school performance in mathematics and science. This insight provides a means of directing students to appropriate-level courses and special programs and establishes realistic goals to be achieved in order for the student to succeed in the program. Other important retention-related student needs include providing students with a realistic vision of the engineering profession, a sense of belonging to the program, imparting self-management skills for academic success, providing opportunity for peer interaction, and providing a framework for the processing of the transition experience from high school to college. A student success (retention) program has been recently instituted by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo. Components of the program include a new model for admission decisions, faculty mentoring for engineering freshmen, academic small group sessions in support of first-year technical courses, a case-studies course for entering freshmen, and the establishment of learning outcomes between engineering and the service departments in other academic units. The results of this program, along with some of the formidable obstacles affecting engineering retention, are presented.