Student Pandemic Erosion

Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Just catching up with some material from last month and noted the item below about student erosion - the degree to which first-year students don't enroll for the next year. As you might expect, this phenomenon was increased by the pandemic with its online courses, quarantining, etc. From EdSource:

Fewer first-year and transfer students returned to the University of California this past fall after enrolling the previous year, a trend that system President Michael Drake said he is watching “very carefully” but predicted will rebound. Across the university’s nine undergraduate campuses, 92% of undergraduates who enrolled as freshmen in fall 2020 returned to their UC campus in fall 2021, down from 93% the previous year. The percentages measure what are called retention rates.

The drops were steeper for first-generation students, students who receive Pell Grants and underrepresented students, which includes Black, Latino and Native American students. The retention rates dropped from 92% to 88% for first-generation students, from 91% to 88% for underrepresented students and from 93% to 89% for Pell recipients. Pell Grants are federal financial aid awards available to low-income students...

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Full story at https://edsource.org/2022/uc-tracking-drop-in-students-returning-after-covidstart-especially-for-low-income-and-first-generation-students/675779.