Student Retention
According to industry research, seventy-seven percent of those responding to a national survey of higher education officials said that college and university student retention was a major challenge for their institutions, and seventy percent said that the challenge was greatest in the first year of academic programs. The top issues to overcome to encourage retention, survey respondents said, were college costs and a lack of student preparedness. Key factors in keeping students enrolled, survey participants said, were family support, one-on-one counseling, and personal attention. CARS provides this one-on-one advising and personal attention.
As part of our student retention service Responding to Students Voicing Problems (R.S.V.P), we contact students with preapproved scripts before class starts and at various important milestones during the student's college lifecycle. We create a custom communication plan for each client that involves us listening to students concerns, probing for issues, identifying trends, advising, and reporting back to the College.
We reach out at important times such as registration, book distribution, midterm reminders, final reminders, and schedule updates when attendance issues become evident, or when there are specific issues with a particular student. We communicate this feedback to designated people at the school and then, to make sure they have been taken care of, follow-up with the student.