Keep the students coming back
The importance of student retention at Trinity Western University often gets neglected amidst talk of demographic numbers, enrolment levels and the inevitable gender ratio jokes. But keeping students enrolled at TWU is an important aspect of running the university.
Retention is a concern at every university, and comparatively, TWU is doing a good job. There was an 82 per cent retention from Fall ’07 to Fall ’08, which is a four per cent increase from last year. Compared to other Canadian schools, TWU has a higher retention rate, and is on par with similar universities in the U.S.
“We’re doing well for our age and size,” said Sheldon Loeppky, associate provost, “which is a huge testimony to the type of people we have here.”
TWU has a number of initiatives in place that help to keep students coming back. One of these projects is the Success Coach Program, which involves calling all newly enrolled students before they arrive to answer questions and to help them know what to expect.
“The idea is to help a student move from being a passive student to an active one,” said Kari Bergrud, transition program coordinator, who works with the First Year Experience. “The idea is to see students graduate.”
The SOS program, O-Week and University 101 also play a role in the proactive approach of the university.
“With University 101, we not only give students tools to succeed in university, but we [hook them up] with a group of peers and an upperclassman,” Bergrud said.
Another initiative TWU has put in place is the Collegium program. It was started in 1999, and in one semester the retention rate of commuter students went up from 70 per cent, to 91 per cent of those students involved in the collegiums.
The university has also been working on the availability of financial aid, as finances are a big reason students leave the school.
Elsa Stanley, a former TWU student, was forced to leave halfway through her second year for “purely financial reasons.”
“I loved it, but the tuition kept going up,” she said. “I thought, ok, I’m going to be in debt until I’m 30.”
Jessica Giesbrecht, another former student, also left because of finances after her first year. “I didn’t want to graduate with $75,000 of debt,” she said.
Although the issue of finances is legitimate, Bergrud insists that students often lack information about the availability of financial aid.
“Our financial aid services are one of the best across Canada,” she said, adding that every year around 50 per cent of scholarship money is not used because of a lack of completed financial aid forms.
Despite all of the work that goes into increasing retention, TWU is simply not the school for everyone.
Jennifer Deweerd left after her first year at TWU. “I had all these expectations for Trinity that totally didn’t happen. It was supposed to be such a great community and it wasn’t really any different than anywhere else,” she said. “It was not the right environment or fit for me.”
Loeppky realizes this and said, “At the end of the day, it’s about helping students succeed. Making students stay doesn’t necessarily help them succeed.”
But for those who are still at TWU, Loeppky encourages them to “take a step forward and engage the community…. There won’t be a time when you will have this much infrastructure again – take advantage of it.”
Correction: Mars’ Hill mistakenly reported that about 50 per cent of scholarships are not given out due to a lack of completed financial aid forms, when in reality the majority of TWU’s scholarships are used. Statistically, about 50 per cent of outside scholarships (i.e. banks, youth organizations) are not used. For a list of these scholarships and more go to www.twu.ca/awards.
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