Abstract:

There is a critical need for more students with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors to enter into, persist, and graduate or transfer from two year postsecondary institutions to universities. Expanding the student populations in STEM programs and careers is an identified global goal. According to national statistics, the largest groups of students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM careers United States attend two-year public community colleges. Recent research has indicated that students from these populations who understand how to seek assistance and navigate college campuses, in other words have college knowledge and associated social capital, are most likely to persist toward two-year degree completion or to transition to four-year colleges to complete STEM bachelor’s degrees. Accordingly, this study seeks to understand how particular program related student support practices lead to STEM undergraduate retention that is initiated in two-year colleges. It explores which factors lead to attrition in STEM for undergraduates. Its results describe key features that lead either to attrition and to retention in undergraduate STEM programs to either degree completion or to four-year university transfer success.

Keywords:

STEM education, retention, attrition, key factors, academic success higher education.