Retention

Student retention is a challenge for many colleges and universities. Though there are many reasons why students might drop out, a decision to leave college or university often reflects a failure to see how a college education will advance life goals. Interdisciplinary general education can be useful for retention in a variety of ways:

• By providing Curricular Cohesion an interdisciplinary general education encourages students to see some organized purpose to their education. See also Understanding the Scholarly Enterprise

• Self-Actualization clarifies life goals themselves.

  • Since we all live interdisciplinary lives, it is easier to draw connections between an interdisciplinary education and the rest of one's life. See especially Integrating Coursework and Campus Life and Synergies with Community Service Learning. E-folios are recommended by many interdisciplinary instructors (and others) and provide an important mechanism for students to draw connections between their education and their lives. High Impact Practices can connect students emotionally to their studies. Students may find that particular Thematic Interdisciplinary Courses are particularly valuable in their lives.

  • Particular Skills (such as creativity and integration itself) and Values (such as enterprise and patience) associated with interdisciplinarity should resonate with students and encourage retention.

There have been studies at many universities that have found that interdisciplinary majors, and especially self-designed majors, increase student retention rates. We are not aware of evaluations of the effects of interdisciplinary general education on retention rates.

collegecompletion.chronicle.com provides information on retention.