Retention of Undergraduate Physics Majors

Description Benefits Effective Practices Programmatic Assessments Resources Evidence Glossary

Retention includes ensuring that students who are already physics majors complete your program. This section focuses on strategies for creating a welcoming, inclusive, and student-focused environment in which students feel they are a part of a community and are more likely to stay. Successful retention strategies include improving curriculum, degree programs, and support structures for students, which are implemented throughout all years, with particular focus on the first and second years. For guidance on recruiting students who have not yet decided to major in physics, see the section on Recruiting of Undergraduate Physics Majors.

Benefits

Effective retention strategies are critical to increasing the number of graduates from your program; creating and maintaining a healthy, inclusive community; increasing the diversity of students in your program; and strengthening the viability, vibrancy, and climate of your department or program. Having larger and more diverse cohorts of students can enable your program to offer more diverse courses and opportunities for students, to facilitate better study groups, and to provide an environment in which students with diverse backgrounds and aspirations will feel welcome and succeed. These factors increase students’ and faculty members’ sense of being part of a community working together toward common goals and building camaraderie, where students can both take leadership and get peer support to work through challenges. Creating a successful retention plan enables faculty to contribute to the future of the discipline and the community. Retaining the students who are already in your program is cheaper and more effective than recruiting new ones, although recruiting is still important (see the section on Recruiting of Undergraduate Physics Majors for details).

Effective Practices

Make retention an explicit goal that your entire program supports through a comprehensive plan
Nurture a community atmosphere and a departmental identity, culture, and climate of respect and student advocacy
Implement a relevant, high-quality, accessible curriculum that is supported throughout your institution
Offer degree programs or tracks that are flexible and relevant for students with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests, and career aspirations
Create and leverage support structures for students

Programmatic Assessments

The Cycle of Reflection and Action

Where are you and what are you trying to accomplish?

Who should be involved?

What will you do?

How did it go and what comes next?

To be intentional about change, a department must have a clear understanding of its present situation and a vision for what it would like to become. Our cycle of self-reflection questions will help your department start conversations and structure thinking about how to get from where you are to where you want to be.

The Cycle of Reflection and Action will help you put the EP3 Guide to work for your department.

Learn more about the Cycle of Reflection and Action and how it can help your department.

Guide to Retention of Undergraduate Physics Majors

Benefits

Effective Practices

Make retention an explicit goal that your entire program supports through a comprehensive plan

Nurture a community atmosphere and a departmental identity, culture, and climate of respect and student advocacy

Implement a relevant, high-quality, accessible curriculum that is supported throughout your institution

Offer degree programs or tracks that are flexible and relevant for students with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests, and career aspirations

Create and leverage support structures for students

Programmatic Assessments

The Cycle of Reflection and Action

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