Good news on student retention

By Salma Ghanem / September 28, 2023 / Twitter / Facebook

I’m writing to share some very good news. More of last year’s freshmen returned to DePaul for a second year than at any time since 2013! DePaul’s first-year retention rate for the 2022 freshmen cohort is 87%; that’s an increase of 3 percentage points over the 84% of the past two years. Moreover, the retention rate for Black students has increased 4 percentage points to 79%, and for Hispanic students that rate has increased 6 percentage points to 85%. These improved retention rates will help us reach the goal of closing the performance gaps across racial and ethnic groups by 2033, as mentioned by President Manuel during Academic Convocation.

As you see in the graph above, the freshmen retention rate is relatively stable. That makes an increase of three percentage points especially noteworthy. This increase would not have happened without the help of the entire DePaul community: colleges launching focused retention efforts; faculty trying new techniques to engage their students; student support professionals addressing myriad questions and challenges every day; peer tutors and mentors supporting their fellow students; business office teams working to improve their processes; facility and technology teams caring for our infrastructure, and on and on. Everyone at DePaul has an impact on the experience of every student, whether or not a given student even knows who you are.

Let’s keep on working together building on this success to see these students through to graduation and launch them into meaningful futures. We want to keep improving as we welcome each successive cohort to DePaul and work to close the performance gap across racial and ethnic groups.

For more data, visit the Retention Resource Room (DePaul login required). Many thanks for all you do; your work makes an important difference for our students.