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ASU International Student Retention Report

A historical overview of retention trends, and an in-depth look at the most recent cohort’s attrited students, top possible reasons for attrition and recommendations and suggestions

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Overview

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Background Information on Retention

In the 2021-2022 school year, international students contributed over $33 billion dollars to the US economy (NAFSA). While it is easy to see the economic impact of the students who remain here, there is also an impact of international student attrition; students and alumni with a negative experience may be deterring friends and family back home from attending their alma mater, and may be creating negative reputations of studying in the US altogether (Interstride, 2023) . It is important to not only attract international students, but make sure they have a positive student experience so they retain and share their positive experiences so we can continue to attract more international students to US institutions.

There are many reasons why students may choose to end their educational experience, or continue their programs elsewhere. Studies have shown that academics and lack of familiarity with teaching methods and academic integrity play a large role in international student attrition (Hanassab & Tidwell, 2002; Sherry et al., 2010). There are also many other challenges that affect student success (Gautam, Lowery, Mays, & Durant, 2016; Perry, 2016), one of which is likely the high costs of attending a US university.

International Student Retention at ASU

ASU tracks retention of First-Time First Year Students (FTFYS) as enrollment on of the 21st day of their 3rd semester after their official admit term. ASU is federally required to report retention rates every fall, therefore the Fall-Fall retention rate is given the most attention and is what is typically shown on University Dashboards, etc.

Additionally, ASU tracks retention for several different ‘markets’. In the International Students and Scholars Center (ISSC), we are primarily interested in the “International” market. While the ISSC only oversees the immigration records for students with an F1 visa, the “international market” is comprised of students who are here studying on many different visa types. For this reason, we are often interested in looking at F1 students and non-F1 students separately to see if there are any notable trends.

Report Overview

This report aims to provide an overview of historical FTFYS retention trends for the International Market at Arizona State University, as well as a deeper look at the most recent FTFYS cohort to gain insights on possible reasons for attrition in order to provide recommendations or suggestions to improve the international student experience at ASU and ultimately retain more students.

The report consists of the following sections (to skip to a certain section, you can click the buttons below, use the nav bar to the right, or scroll):

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Historical Trends

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Fall 2022 Cohort Characteristics

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Reasons for Attrition

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Recommendations and Suggestions

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Historical Retention Trends for FTFYS “International Market”

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ASU sets a retention target every year for different student markets. For the “international market” the target is usually around 92-93%.

Internally in the ISSC, we have a higher retention target of 95%.

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What does the data say?

On average, over the last 10 years, the retention rates are:

Cohort total: 91.50%

F1 students: 91.47%

Non F1 students: 90.32%

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

F1 students average 1.15% higher retention than non-F1 students

Historically, overall retention rates are .5-1.5% lower than targets.

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Fall 2022 Cohort (Fall 2023 Retention/Attrition)

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The Fall 2022 Cohort of FTFYS is the most recent cohort of students that have retention data available, since retention is considered as enrolled in the third semester after the student’s initial admit term. Fall 2022 admit term students have enrollment data available for their 3rd semester, which is Fall 2023.

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What does the data say?

Retention rate for Fall 2022 Cohort is 90.4%.

Attrited F1 students make up 9.3% of the cohort.

Attrited non-F1 students make up .3% of the cohort.

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

The Fall 2022 Cohort has 1.1% fewer students who retained than the 10-year historical trend average of 91.5%

In order to increase the retention rate and meet university and department targets, it is important to better understand the attrited students (students who are leaving the university), so that we can work to remedy their issues and provide better support and experience so that they succeed here at ASU.

Demographic Characteristics of Fall 2022 Cohort Attrited Students

What countries are the attrited students from?

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What does the data say?

Of the 102 attrited students, 62 students (60.78%) come from the top 5 countries:

India

South Korea

China

Vietnam

Kuwait

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

India and China are two of the largest populations represented in our international student population, so it is not surprising to see them on this list.

Of more interest may be South Korea, Vietnam and Kuwait. More analysis is needed to understand why attrition is relatively high for students from those countries.

Academic Characteristics of Fall 2022 Cohort Attrited Students

What are the attrited students studying?

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What does the data say?

The top 3 colleges with the most attrited students are:

Engineering

LAS - Natural Sciences

Business - BS

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

While the above colleges have the largest number of attrited students, there are also a lot of International Students in those colleges. When you account for that and look at attrition as a percentage of overall enrollment, it tells a different story.

The three colleges with the highest percentage of attrited students, still only account for a total of 10 attrited students, however.

It is still advisable to focus on the top 3 colleges in the first graph with the largest number of attrited students, as there is the most opportunity to convert attrition to retention.

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Possible Reasons for Attrition (Fall 2022 Cohort)

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While there are many possible challenges that affect student success (Gautam, Lowery, Mays, & Durant, 2016; Perry, 2016), some are more prevalent than others. Studies have shown that academics and lack of familiarity with teaching methods and academic integrity play a large role in international student attrition (Hanassab & Tidwell, 2002; Sherry et al., 2010). Financial strain is another cause of hardship for students in higher education, and international students often do not have the scholarship or employment opportunities that domestic students have to help offset the costs of education.

Academic Performance

GPA as an indicator

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What does the data say?

Retained students have an average GPA of 3.5, while attrited students have a much lower average GPA of 2.5.

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

If GPA is an indicator of academic success and performance, attrited students seem to be struggling with academics more than the retained students.

Progress Towards Graduation as an indicator

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What does the data say?

Over 75% of the attrited students are identified as ‘off track’ for graduation.

An additional 20% of students have no status identified, which doesn’t necessarily mean they are on track.

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

A large number of attrited students are ‘off track’. ‘Off track’ criteria vary by college and program, so it is difficult to say to what extent this designation is meaningful. More research and analysis is needed regarding ‘off track’ classifications and criteria.

Financial Stress

Account Status as an Indicator

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Amounts of Monies Past Due as an Indicator

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What does the data say?

Over 30% of the attrited students (first graph) have some amount of finances past due on their account.

The second graph shows the distribution of amounts of monies owed. Of the 31 students with past due accounts, 22 students (71%) owe more than $5,000.

In the highest bracket, the amounts that the 4 students owe ranges from $20,802.29 to $54, 203.04 with an average of $34,513.76.

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

Finances only seem to be significantly affecting around 30% of the total attrited students, but if finances are an issue, they are a big issue - with most of the balances due over $5,000.

More analysis is needed to see any correlation between students with financial stressors and academic issues, or if they seem to be isolated issues.

Other reasons or opportunities

It is possible that there are other reasons for exit aside from academics and finances. While some of those reasons may be difficult to discern, the ISSC asks all students to report their exit or transfer to another university before the student’s immigration record is terminated or transferred. While it is not mandatory to report, and it is self-reported information, it can provide some additional insight that official university reports do not capture.

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What does the data say?

31.4% of attrited students Reported Exit

Top reasons for exit:

Not Completed Degree and will NOT return (6 students, 18.8% of those reporting exit)

Leave of Absence and WILL return (3 students, 9.4% of those reporting exit)

27.5% of attrited students Transferred to Another University

Top Universities of transfer (at 2 students each):

Foothill College

Georgia State University

Purdue University

What is the takeaway for ISSC?

While it is hard to draw any conclusions from the ‘unknown’ and reported exit segments of attrited students, the fact that over 25% of the cohort’s attrited students are transferring to other universities is of interest.

More analysis is needed regarding the institutions that students are transferring to.

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Recommendations and Suggestions

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Overall, the Fall 2022 Cohort has 1.1% fewer students who retained than the 10-year historical trend average of 91.5%. This is concerning, because even the historical average is lower than the current retention targets of 92-93%. More effort is needed to understand the reasons for attrition and develop an action plan to remedy it.

Characteristics of attrited students

It is important to investigate the larger populations of India and China, since they account for a large number of attrited students. However, some effort should be spent to understand other highly-attriting populations such as South Korea, Vietnam, and Kuwait. Analysis should be done on the FTFYS of those countries to determine proportions of attrited and retained students, and find any other trends that may be present within those specific populations. External research may also be needed to determine if there are outside factors that are contributing to attrition among those populations.

As far as academic characteristics are concerned, the ISSC should work more closely with the colleges who have the highest number of attrited students (Engineering, LAS, and Business). We need to more closely work with our liasons in those colleges to understand the college retention procedures and initiatives and find ways to work together and improve student chances for success.

Academic Performance

Attrited students have a lower average GPA, and a large number of attrited students are classified as ‘off track’ for graduation. More research and analysis is needed regarding ‘off track’ classifications and criteria and to determine if there are any correlations between GPA and progress towards graduation status.

Financial Stress

While finances only seem to be significantly affecting around 30% of the total attrited students, most of those students have balances over $5,000. If students are struggling to pay their bills, they are struggling to pay large amounts and they need a lot of assistance. The ISSC needs to work closely with financial aid and the registrar, and perhaps other departments or organizations, to determine ways to make higher education more affordable for international students. In addition to affordability, the ISSC needs to investigate the causes and reasons for the outstanding charges and determine if there are any process changes that could be made to make the payment of charges more amenable to the international student population.

Exiting/Transferring

Of interest here is the fact that over 25% of the cohort’s attrited students are transferring to other universities. More analysis is needed regarding the institutions that students are transferring to. It would be interesting to see if there are specific regions that students are drawn to, if they are leaving for larger or smaller universities, if there are different academic programs offered, if there is a significant cost difference, etc.

Conclusion

Overall, this report provides an interesting starting point for the discussion of international student retention/attrition at ASU. The data shows some possible reasons for attrition, which provides more opportunities for investigation.

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Data Sources

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1) Retention Trends (2012-2022) dataset provided to the ISSC from ASU Office of Institutional Analysis (not for public consumption).

Used for historical datasets and overview information.

2) FTFYS Cohort With Current Enrollment and Program Status RS. Retrieved 2/4/2024 from

https://analytics.asu.edu/group/enrollment-and-records/ftfys-cohort-current-enrollment-and-program-status-rs⁠

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Used for all Fall 2022 cohort information, including demographic characteristics, academic characteristics, academic performance and financial stress.

3) ISSC Reporting Exit and Transfer-out Eforms (not for public consumption).

Used for exit and transfer information in other reasons or opportunities section.

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References

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1) Gautam, C., Lowery, C. L., Mays, C., & Durant, D. (2016). Challenges for global learners: A qualitative study of the concerns and difficulties of international students. Journal of International Students, 6(2), 501–526. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1094884.pdf⁠

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2) Hanassab, S., & Tidwell, R. (2002). International students in higher education: identification of needs and implications for policy and practice. Journal of Studies in International Education, 6(4), 305–322. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from

https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/doi/abs/10.1177/102831502237638⁠

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3) Interstride. (2023, March 6). Retention strategies for international college students. Interstride. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from

https://www.interstride.com/blog/retention-strategies-for-international-college-students/⁠

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4) NAFSA International Student Economic Value Tool. NAFSA. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2023, from

https://www.nafsa.org/policy-and-advocacy/policy-resources/nafsa-international-student-economic-value-tool-v2⁠

5) Sherry, M., Thomas, P., & Chui, W. H. (2010). International students: a vulnerable student population. Higher Education, 60(1), 33–46. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from

https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/stable/40784044?seq=13⁠

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