Institutional Characteristics and College Student Dropout Risks: A Multilevel Event History Analysis.

In the past two decades, although access to higher education for American students has improved, student persistence in 4-year institutions is far from assured. There have been a number of research studies on student persistence/dropout in higher education, but most have focused on the characteristics and behavior of students as illustrated by the 'student-centered research tradition'. This study focuses on what institutional characteristics contribute to conditions that reduce student dropout risks. By analyzing longitudinal and hierarchical data, this research proposes and tests a multilevel event history model that identifies the major institutional attributes related to student dropout risk in a longitudinal process. Evidence indicates that institutional expenditure on student services is negatively associated with student dropout behavior. Implications of the results for institutional practices and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]