On-Campus Housing Effects on Academic Success in the Two-Year Sector

• In Event: Poster Session 1
  In Poster Session: Posters Related to College and University Student Access

Abstract

Authors have claimed that on campus-housing in the 4-year sector fosters social and academic integration thus enhancing retention, graduation, and transfer rates. While housing has been present in community colleges for decades this is the first study that assesses its effects on measures of academic success. Since community colleges without housing may be systematically different from those with housing, we employed matching techniques to reduce baseline differences. Graphical representations show that the use of matching techniques is supported. We found that, after correcting for 34 baseline differences, on-campus housing significantly influences transfer-out rates, but does not improve retention and graduation rates. This is an important implication for administrators who may be deciding whether or not to pursue building on-campus housing.

Authors

• Jonathan Turk, University of Georgia

• Manuel S. Gonzalez Canche, University of Georgia