The Assumed Benefit: Priority Registration Timing in Higher Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Entering Factors in the Lives of Colleges Students

Abstract

This paper addresses the impact of organizational policy on student success by examining priority registration, a mechanism for institutions to provide an intended advantage to certain cohorts of students during the class registration process. Using quantitative analysis of longitudinal population data at a public flagship, this research provides insight into a singular implementation by following an incoming first-time, full-time cohort over six years. The study found significant relationships between priority registration and multiple markers of student success, and the researcher suggests that institutions could benefit from evaluating their registration timing structures to determine the degree of benefit or disadvantage that exists for given segments of students and adjust registration frameworks in a way that bolsters campus-wide student success.

Author

• James Bailey, The University of Alabama