Primary Research Group has published The Survey of Best Practices in Student Retention, 2013 Edition, ISBN 978-1-57440-229-2.

This study of student retention in higher education is based on a survey of 50 American colleges and universities, including Auburn, Sarah Lawrence, the University of Delaware, and Georgia State University, among many others.

The study looks closely at college expenditures to increase retention, including spending on consultants, conferences, staff, publications, special retention administrators, and more. The report gives highly detailed data on retention of graduate students, foreign students, adult students, over age 65 students, distance learning students, part- and full-time students, and many other categories of student, as well as overall data, which is broken out for size, type, and tuition level of the colleges. The extensive 100+ page report also looks at efforts to identify and support students who transfer or drop out prior to graduation, and at how student services of various kinds are viewed in the overall retention effort.

Just a few of the report's many findings are that:

• Colleges in the sample spent a mean of $6,622 on retention consulting services in the past year, with more spending accounted for by a handful of colleges that spent more than $30,000 each with on spending about $1,200
• Spending on retention consulting is expected to increase by nearly 33 percent in the next year
• 58 percent of the colleges sampled have a dean or high-level administrator whose main work responsibility is to increase student retention
• The overall retention rate for first year students by college in the sample with more than 10,000 students (FTE) was 74.33 percent
• The retention rate for distance learning/hybrid class students was 57.17 percent
• 62 percent of the colleges sampled track retention rates by declared academic major

The study is available in print and PDF format for $98.00. Site licenses cost $219.00. To view a table of contents, list of participants, or free excerpt, or to order a copy of the report, please visit our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.