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Managerial Decisions to Enhance Student/Customer Retention: The Case of Ontario’s Academic Institutions

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Abstract

Academic institutions invest significant sums of money to serve their students and to influence their decisions to stay. This study sheds light on the challenge for academic institutions to allocate their investments to keep students and enhance their retention rates. This study aims to investigate whether or not providing academic services has affected the retention rate in Ontario’s higher education market. The variable of academic services is measured through an examination of the effect of providing student services, technology and library acquisition, and scholarships and bursaries. The retention rate variable reflects students returning to an institution for the second year. The results of this study were reported based on examining the responsiveness; first, for all universities together (the whole market), and then for each university in Ontario’s higher education market.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, P. O. Box 64141, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

    Bayan Yousef Farhan

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  1. Bayan Yousef Farhan
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Correspondence to Bayan Yousef Farhan.

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Appendix A

Appendix A

Variables

Fixed effect (all all coefficients vary across universities): retention

Brock_U

Carleton_U

U_Guelph

Lakehead_U

Laurentian_U

McMaster_U

Scholarship and bursaries

Baseline effect (estimated)

− 0.035859*

− 0.036130*

− 0.036599*

− 0.038289*

− 0.046109**

− 0.026286*

Additional effect (estimated)

− 0.0143156

0.101498***

− 0.0137722

0.0256922

0.136680***

− 0.0170352

Overall effect (calculated)

− 0.050174**

0.065368**

− 0.050371

− 0.012597

0.090571***

− 0.043321

Technology and library

Baseline effect (estimated)

0.0851355

0.0890271

0.0807946

0.0847776

0.0899008

0.102504*

Additional effect (estimated)

− 0.0770236

− 0.0736932

0

− 0.0445843

− 0.0949898

− 0.146274*

Overall effect (calculated)

0.0081119

0.015334

0.080795

0.040193

− 0.005089

− 0.043770*

Student’s services

Baseline effect (estimated)

0.0123141

0.0141637

0.0119115

0.0193505

0.0100038

0.012919**

Additional effect (estimated)

0.0235982

− 0.0215085

0.1243321

− 0.206360***

− 0.0317973

− 0.0012011

Overall effect (calculated)

0.0359123

− 0.007345

0.136244

− 0.187010***

− 0.021794

0.011718

N

147

147

147

147

147

147

R2

0.71

0.71

0.71

0.72

0.72

0.72

  1. Note Constant, trend and fixed-effect coefficients omitted for brevity
  2. Expenditure on Technology and Library Aquisition at University of Guelph remains constant over time and is thus perfectly co-linear with the dummy variable
  3. *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01

Variables

Fixed effect (all all coefficients vary across universities): retention

Nipissing_U

OCAD_U

UOIT

U_Ottawa

Queen’s_U

Ryerson_U

Scholarships and bursaries

Baseline effect (estimated)

− 0.0337868

− 0.0208262

− 0.0458367

− 0.036237*

− 0.0366255

− 0.037265*

Additional effect (estimated)

0.0075801

− 0.0431552

0.0066481

0.062138*

0.043298**

0.402472**

Overall effect (calculated)

− 0.026207

− 0.063981*

− 0.039189*

0.025901*

0.006673*

0.365207**

Technology and library

Baseline effect (estimated)

0.0786298

− 0.0039538

0.0815775

0.0813394

0.0822486

0.0783154

Additional effect (estimated)

− 0.0037041

0.772723***

0

0

− 0.0325477

− 0.252914*

Overall effect (calculated)

0.074926

0.768769***

0.081578

0.081339

0.049701

− 0.174599

Students’ services

Baseline effect (estimated)

0.0152564

− 0.0133254

0.0241388

0.012174

0.0154524

0.0178478

Additional effect (estimated)

− 0.0424244

− 0.1629885

− 0.0643299

− 0.0006998

− 0.0486012

− 0.273917**

Overall effect (calculated)

− 0.027168

− 0.176314

− 0.040191

0.011474

− 0.033149

− 0.256069**

N

147

147

147

147

147

147

R2

0.71

0.90

0.71

0.71

0.71

0.71

  1. Note Constant, trend and fixed-effect coefficients omitted for brevity
  2. Expenditure on technology and library aquisition at UOIT remains constant over time and is thus perfectly co-linear with the dummy variable
  3. Expenditure on technology and library aquisition at University of Ottawa remains constant over time and is thus perfectly co-linear with the dummy variable
  4. *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01

Variables

Fixed effect (all coefficients vary across universities): retention

U_Toronto

Trent_U

U_Waterloo

Western_U

Wilfrid _U

U_Windsor

York_U

Scholarships and bursaries

Baseline effect (estimated)

− 0.033771*

− 0.035880***

− 0.036725*

− 0.037543*

− 0.037472*

− 0.036093*

− 0.038016*

Additional effect (estimated)

0.0120808

0.0383053

− 0.146180*

0.110044*

0.182098***

0.196749*

0.216386***

Overall effect (calculated)

− 0.021690

0.002425

− 0.182904**

0.072502

0.144627***

0.160657

0.178369***

Technology and library

Baseline effect (estimated)

0.0966111

0.0809782

0.0947923

0.0917745

0.0856068

0.0796255

0.0860801

Additional effect (estimated)

− 0.1168233

0

− 0.145118*

− 0.1133067

− 0.0332252

0

0

Overall effect (calculated)

− 0.020212

0.080978

− 0.050326***

− 0.021532

0.052382**

0.079626

0.086080

Students’ services

Baseline effect (estimated)

0.0149838

0.0107635

0.0084842

0.0131329

0.0119805

0.0162408

0.009347

Additional effect (estimated)

0.0286605

0.118328*

0.243884**

0.023465

− 0.1388494

− 0.2825892

0.152129***

Overall effect (calculated)

0.043644*

0.129091**

0.252368***

0.036598

− 0.126869

− 0.266348

0.161476***

N

147

147

147

147

147

147

147

R2

0.71

0.71

0.72

0.72

0.71

0.71

0.71

  1. Note Constant, trend and fixed-effect coefficients omitted for brevity
  2. Expenditure on technology and library aquisition at Trent University remains constant over time and is thus perfectly co-linear with the dummy variable
  3. Expenditure on technology and library acquisition at Windsor University remains constant over time and is thus perfectly co-linear with the dummy variable
  4. Expenditure on technology and library acquisition at York University remains constant over time and is thus perfectly co-linear with the dummy variable
  5. *p < 0.10, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01

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Farhan, B.Y. Managerial Decisions to Enhance Student/Customer Retention: The Case of Ontario’s Academic Institutions. Interchange 50, 155–174 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-019-09351-7

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