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There are at least two dimensions of student success that have been explored widely in numerous studies. One dimension is that student success in college is defined as students’ achieving their goals upon embarking on their college career. Completing academic degree programs such as bachelor’s degrees, graduate degrees, or professional degrees (e.g., M.D., J.D., and so on) satisfactorily is a common characterization of student success. But not all students define success as completing a degree. Some students, for example, attend college with the goal of determining whether or not a baccalaureate degree program will help them achieve their educational or career goals. Accordingly, they enroll in college-level courses to determine if their educational goals can be met by completing a degree. Some students are enrolled in multiple institutions simultaneously, or they transfer from one institution to another, commonly known as swirling, to achieve their goals for their college experience. Another dimension of student success that has been widely studied has to do with what colleges and universities can do to provide an environment and develop programs and support so that students can achieve their goals for their college experience. This can be a combination of crafting an institutional environment that values and supports student success through a wide variety of messages, programs, and policies that, taken in the aggregate, communicate that it highly values student success and will do everything possible to help students succeed. The terms “persistence” and “retention” often are used synonymously, but for the purpose of this discussion, persistence refers to what students can do to achieve success, while retention is what institutions can do to help students achieve their educational goals. Programs, experiences, strategies, and other initiatives included in this discussion do not necessarily stand alone. That is, often they are complementary and have an effect on each other. There is considerable overlap in the topics considered in this article and in the Oxford Bibliographies in Education article Student Engagement in Tertiary Education because student engagement often is considered as a means by which success in college is achieved. In identifying and describing sources that address student success in college, the approach taken in this article is to consider the topic from the perspective of what institutions can do to facilitate student success and what students can do to achieve their educational goals. Many of the studies cited in this bibliography may be replicated in the future, perhaps with different methodological designs and most certainly with other groups of students. This edition of the bibliography has been designed to update the previous iteration, but it also has two additional emphases. The previous bibliography nearly exclusively focused on four-year institutions to the exclusion of community colleges and other two-year institutions. That was an oversight. IPEDS data indicate that while 10,938,123 undergraduate students were enrolled in four-year institutions in 2020, 4,913,783 were enrolled in two-year institutions (National Center for Education Statistics, Report on the Condition of Education 2022 [Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, 2022]). The extent to which these students are successful in their educational endeavors is of great interest to higher education scholars, so many more citations are included related to students enrolled in two-year institutions than in the previous version. The other emphasis in this iteration is a natural progression in research on student success. In recent years researchers have taken a more nuanced view of programs and experiences designed to foster student success. For example, it has been widely asserted that first-year seminars provide an enriched experience for students leading to their persistence from year one to year two, and, accordingly, they have been part of the educational portfolio of many colleges and universities. Researchers, however, have parsed the focus of such seminars and have found that some first-year seminars have been more successful than others, depending on their focus. For example, those that are an extended form of orientation are not as potent as those that have an academic focus. Consequently, simply offering first-year seminars may not result in student success unless they have an academic focus. The same is true for a number of other experiences, meaning that simply having the experience available is not enough to enhance success. The results of studies related to the nuances of student experiences are reported with increasing frequency in the literature and a number of such studies are included in this bibliography.

Based on experiences over the past 2 decades, the authors look at some of the challenges of making predictions and then offer some thoughts about student affairs practice in the foreseeable future.

This chapter describes and discusses the topics covered in the New Directions for Student Services sourcebook series from 1997 through 2014 and provides a profile of the guest editors for the series.

The chapter discusses learning that has resulted from selected international professional development experiences.

This chapter identifies elements that contribute to developing a culture of assessment in student affairs.

The challenges facing colleges and universities today may be unprecedented in number and complexity. The recent deep recession continues to take its toll and college costs continue to rise, even wh...

The final chapter provides a quick and easy reference of some of this volume's most salient points.

The Inventory for Student Engagement and Success (ISES) uses evidence from educationally effective institutions to help campuses gain a better understanding of their work with students. Campuses of varying sizes, with diverse missions, are using ISES to solve problems and improve educational practices.

Many institutions of higher education increasingly are concerned with retention and graduation rates. Focusing on private Baccalaureate Liberal and General colleges and universities, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between institutional selectivity and institutional expenditures and retention and graduation rates. Framed by Berger’s (2001–2002) view that organizational behavior can impact student departure, this inquiry examined if expenditures for instruction, academic support, student services, facilities, institutional support, and institutional grants (i.e. student financial aid) could predict retention and graduation rates at baccalaureate-granting institutions. Institutional selectivity and institutional expenditures, specifically those that directly contributed to students’ academic integration, were found to contribute significantly to retention and graduation rates. Recommendations are suggested, including using the results to inform resource allocation strategies that can enhance retention and graduation rates.

This chapter presents a hypothetical situation related to students who are displaced by Hurricane Katrina. It focuses on transition issues for the students as they are relocated to a new college for an undetermined length of time.

We're back at Macalester College for our second site visit. This meeting is with the provost to get feedback about the interim report we sent a few weeks ago. We're ready to record what he says we missed about what the college does to enhance student success. Instead, hepulls out a pen and legal pad and says, "This was a fine report. Now tell us how we can do things better here at Mac".

This study examined the financing patterns of 212 community colleges in 11 midwestern states during the decade of the 1990s using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Support from state appropriations declined between 1990 and 2000, and reliance on tuition and fees increased between 1990 and 1995, although both trends were weak effects. The states differed significantly in their reliance on 10 of 12 current funding revenue sources. Despite numerous calls for increased fund-raising, revenues from gifts, grants, and endowments have contributed little to enhance revenue at the institutions studied.

The extent to which community colleges in 10 Midwest states relied on 12 current funds revenue sources between 1990 and 2000 is presented in this study. Four models of funding were identified and evaluated. All models generated revenue in excess of the change in the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), a measure of inflation over the period studied. Implications for practice are discussed.

Biracial students represent a growing number of students on many campuses and an increasingly significant segment of the population of the United States. Nevertheless, this group of students rarely has been studied with respect as to how their experiences affect persistence at colleges and universities. This case study reports on the experiences of biracial students at one institution. It also analyzes their racial identity development and presents recommendations designed to improve their persistence to graduation framed by Tinto's theory of academic departure. Recommendations for additional study are presented.

This chapter, which focuses on the socialization process for new chairs, offers suggestions and recommendations for practice.

This article presents the findings from a qualitative study that sought to learn about students' perceptions of a Cross-Cultural Learning Community (CCLC) at a large Midwestern University. The article focuses on three major areas that emerged as a result of focus groups: 1) students' reasons for joining the CCLC, 2) the role of the CCLC in the students' transition to the university, and 3) CCLC participants' cross-cultural learning experiences. After theoretical frameworks are discussed, the findings related to the three major areas are presented. The article concludes with implications for further research.

A long-standing concern of many colleges and universities are low persistence and graduation rates. This study examined how institutions can affect, and potentially improve, persistence and graduation rates by targeting their expenditures toward those activities that have an affect on persistence and graduation. Framed by Tinto's theory of academic departure, the inquiry investigated the relationship between expenditures for instruction and academic support on persistence and graduation rates at 218 universities. The results confirmed Tinto's theory and were able to explain approximately half the variance in persistence and graduation rates among the institutions included in the study. Recommendations for practice are suggested, including using the results of the study to develop resource allocation strategies to enhance persistence and graduation rates.

We observe small wins every day. How can we harness their power?

This chapter examines factors that influence higher education finance, trends in revenue and expenditures of institutions of higher education, and current strategies used to meet financial challenges.

This study examined the experiences of students who are enrolled in high school and college simultaneously, a growing phenomenon known as dual-enrollment. Using qualitative methods, the study examined such elements of dual-enrollment as why students chose to enroll in high school and college at the same time, how they perceived the college environment, and what they reported as benefits from this experience. None of the participants indicated that the institutions they attended made any effort to retain them as full time students after they completed high school, presumably missed opportunities for the post-secondary institutions included in the study. Building on the students' experiences, recommendations for retaining these students are suggested.

Should we call our efforts to learn about programs and outcomes “research” or “assessment”? The name can make all the difference. And trying to adhere to the standards of research may get in the way of doing effective assessment.

This chapter discusses the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System as a tool for collecting data to be used in benchmarking studies.

This article examines foundational literature in student affairs with a focus on selected early books, journal articles, and conference proceedings. An analysis of the contributions of these selections to the field is provided.

The authors examine the relationship between writing quality, readability, and selectivity of seventeen education journals. They find that the quality of writing and readability did not vary as a function of selectivity; journals that are more selective about the work they publish tend to feature more complex forms of writing; and general-interest journals are significantly more selective than those with a mandate to publish work in a specialized field.

A critical first step before engaging in any assessment is to consider the politics. What are the needs and interests of the groups involved? What kind of information are people ready to learn about and interested in? Who should be involved and when? The authors explore these and other questions.

One of the challenges facing enrollment managers is developing strategies to use merit financial aid awards to maximize student retention. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between high school grade point average, ACT scores, Stafford loan eligibility, total scholarship award, and persistence. Merit scholarship awards were found to affect retention positively.