Students who enrolled in higher education in fall 2023 are persisting into spring and the following fall semesters at the highest rates since 2020, even besting pre-pandemic levels in some cases, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The persistence rate among students who remained enrolled in higher education for the following spring semester reached 83.7%, equating levels last seen in 2015. The retention rates, which denote students who stayed enrolled at the same institution, were only marginally lower than those between 2015 and 2017.
Among students who remained enrolled through fall 2024, persistence (80.3%) and retention (70.2%) rates represented a post-pandemic high.
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First spring and second fall rates have increased on average across every major higher education sector for the past four years. However, retention and persistence rates into the second fall semester decreased for community college students.
Students from minority backgrounds also seemed to have reached new heights. Second fall retention among Black students (69.8%) was 2.1 percentage points higher than fall 2022, surpassing every cohort aside from 2015.
Hispanic students enrolling in fall 2023 experienced the highest persistence and retention rates among those enrolling in their second fall semester, beating every other cohort since 2020. However, their current rates still lag behind their pre-pandemic cohorts.
Major bachelor’s programs with the highest retention rates were:
- Engineering (86.8%)
- Social sciences (82.7%)
- Biological and biomedical sciences (82.6%)
- Liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities (81%)
