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Influence of Academic Integration, Social Integration, and Finances on the Persistence of International Graduate Students at a Mid-Western University

Patil, Preeti B
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604515146875442

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, Educational Administration (Education).
Student persistence, which is student’s progress towards graduation through achieving or meeting educational goals, is widely studied. The focus of a majority of the studies on student persistence is on students at the K-12 and undergraduate levels. Furthermore, while persistence of graduate student population was studied, such studies focused on domestic student, and not international students. International graduate students are important for educational institutions. The pedagogical and financial impact of international graduate students on educational institutions is significant, yet their retention and persistence is understudied. The current study was an attempt to enhance our understanding surrounding student retention and persistence. Research on student retention and persistence is greatly influenced by the works of Vincent Tinto, one of the earliest researchers to incorporate sociological research into their work on student persistence and, who in the early 1970s, developed what is probably the very first predictive model of student persistence. Tinto’s (1993) model of student persistence, known as Tinto’s Institutional Departure Model (TIDM), suggests that a student’s integration into the academic and social fabric of the educational institution (i.e., academic integration and social integration) predicts their persistence. Subsequent research, across different student populations and at different levels of education, has shown that academic integration and social integration play an important role in determining persistence of students, validating the core finding of Tinto’s model. Student persistence decisions are complex and are influenced by a variety of factors. For example, finance plays an important role in not only access to education but also influences academic integration and social integration. This was highlighted by the works of Pascarella and Terenzini (2005), and Cabrera and colleagues (Cabrera, Nora, & Castañeda, 1992; Nora, Cabrera, Hagedorn, & Pascarella, 1996) who have shown that while financial aid can help, the effectiveness of the assistantship varies, depending on the type of financial aid awarded to individual students. This was a quantitative study using a correlational research design approach. The sample of participants for the current study consisted of international graduate students from Ohio University. The data was collected using a Qualtrics survey. The survey instruments were tested and validated using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. Robust statistical analyses of the data were performed using approaches such as descriptive statistics, frequency distribution, correlation, ANOVA, regression analysis, path analysis, and structural equation modeling. Results of regression, path analysis, and structural equation modeling showed that academic integration, social integration, finances, and GPA were statistically significant predictors of persistence. The results also showed that academic integration was a mediator variable for social integration. These results confirmed the findings in the literature and showed that these variables are important to understanding the persistence of international graduate students.
Emmanuel Jean-Francois (Advisor)
185 p.
Education; Education Finance; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration
Social Integration; Academic Integration; graduate students; international graduate students; persistence; finances; Ohio University

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Patil, P. B. (2020). Influence of Academic Integration, Social Integration, and Finances on the Persistence of International Graduate Students at a Mid-Western University [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604515146875442

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Patil, Preeti. Influence of Academic Integration, Social Integration, and Finances on the Persistence of International Graduate Students at a Mid-Western University. 2020. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604515146875442.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Patil, Preeti. "Influence of Academic Integration, Social Integration, and Finances on the Persistence of International Graduate Students at a Mid-Western University." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604515146875442

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1604515146875442
207
© 2020, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Influence of Academic Integration, Social Integration, and Finances on the Persistence of International Graduate Students at a Mid-Western University by Preeti B Patil is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.