Higher Ed's Decreasing Retention Rate

Jon Marcus, a higher-education editor at The Hechinger Report, discusses his recent piece, “More high school grads than ever are going to college, but 1 in 5 will quit.” In recent years, the number of high school graduates applying and being accepted to four-year universities has continued to increase, from 63% in 2000 to 70% in 2017. However, 1 in 5 students will not register for a second year, which highlights the disparity in university infrastructure that exists between admitting and retaining students. The majority of students who don’t return for a second year come from low-income backgrounds and are often the first individuals in their family to attend university. Marcus will unpack these trends and explain what is being done to try and reduce student attrition.

This episode is guest hosted by Matt Katz.