Institutional Characteristics and College Student Dropout Risks: A Multilevel Event History Analysis

In the past two decades, although access to higher education for American students has improved, student persistence in 4-year
institutions is far from assured. There have been a number of research studies on student persistence/dropout in higher education,
but most have focused on the characteristics and behavior of students as illustrated by the “student-centered research tradition”.
This study focuses on what institutional characteristics contribute to conditions that reduce student dropout risks. By analyzing
longitudinal and hierarchical data, this research proposes and tests a multilevel event history model that identifies the
major institutional attributes related to student dropout risk in a longitudinal process. Evidence indicates that institutional
expenditure on student services is negatively associated with student dropout behavior. Implications of the results for institutional
practices and future research are discussed.