A number of research studies have explored why students choose or stay in specific science majors, like chemistry. Students may choose or remain in a major for a variety of reasons, including GPA, participation in undergraduate research, salary considerations, real or perceived values of a discipline, and relationships with family and others. These factors provide a rich knowledge base to guide departments in thinking about how to grow and improve to recruit and retain more students. In 2020, our department began the process of rebranding to become the Department of Chemistry and Occupational Health Science. As part of this rebranding process, we were tasked with applying conclusions from research about factors that predict recruitment and retention of science majors to our specific context. As we considered the relevance of previous research to our interdisciplinary department, it became clear that the findings, while meaningful, were insufficient to provide adequate guidance. In addition to a lack of interdisciplinary findings, there was little detail about factors specific to our region. Therefore, to provide more specific guidance in rebranding efforts, we chose to design and execute a study to explore the factors that contribute to the recruitment and retention of science majors in our department. Our mixed-methods study made use of semi-structured interviews with existing students and regression analysis on institutional data available for the past ten years. This model provided an efficient way to gather data on which to base decisions in the department’s rebranding process. In this presentation, we will discuss the details of our model, results from the analysis, and suggestions for how others can adapt our model to investigate factors specific to their departments and contexts.

Why do they stay? Exploring the factors that contribute to student interest and retention in science majors in a departmental rebranding process

ACS Fall 2021

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