14 The Undergraduate Student Retention program

Student retention is the percentage of students who have stayed in their program, or at uOttawa, from Year 1 to Year n of their program. For example, in 2021, the retention of Faculty of Engineering students at uOttawa was 85.2% from Year 1 to Year 2, and 76.7 % from Year 1 to Year 3. Retention is important for both pedagogical and financial reasons:

• as our admission averages have gone up significantly in the last decade, most of our incoming students arrive with a really strong academic preparation. While it is understood that not every student is necessarily suited for studies in Engineering or Computer Science, and that, given our high standards, not every student has to pass every class, it remains that if many good students fail, it raises important questions, for example about the level of preparation achieved from the recommended course sequence, or possibly, from individual courses as well.
• more students staying in our programs means more income from tuition fees; in addition, retention correlates with graduation rates, which is one of the metrics used by the Ministry to allocate funding to the University.

Upon admission, the Registrar’s Office now administers a 45-question survey designed to help identify students at risk of academic failure. This information is complemented with the students’ academic results in the first weeks and months of first-year courses at uOttawa to solidify the diagnosis. The Faculty of Engineering benefits from advanced analysis of the data, so that the Undergraduate Studies Office can target students who need help with good accuracy. The Undergraduate Studies Office also monitors remedial actions, such as meetings with academic advisors or participation in activities organized by the Mentoring Centre, and their effects on retention.

Beyond simple awareness of the existence of the retention program, the only participation required from professors is collaboration, should the Student Experience Officer ask for your course syllabus, or someone from the Registrar’s Office ask for access to the students’ grades in Brightspace if you’re teaching a first-year course.