Factors Affecting Persistence of Undergraduate Students in a Fisheries and Wildlife Program: Leavers

Abstract

Undergraduate enrollment in natural resources‐related programs are 13% lower than they were 30 years ago, even though overall collegiate enrollment has increased by roughly 8.5 million students during the same period. Because of this, we decided to investigate the question of student retention in a fisheries and wildlife (FW) program from the perspective of the students themselves. In this pilot study, we conducted face‐to‐face interviews with seven students who left a FW program (“leavers”), and asked them 13 questions related to their experiences at a large Midwestern university to better understand student reasons for leaving. Specific findings include: the importance of job prospects and earnings potential, a general reluctance to pursue postgraduate education, a degree of disillusionment at the relative lack of outdoor experiences offered, and a desire for more active participation in the undergraduate program. Some students expressed a feeling of deception at the realities of the departmental curriculum, although these were poorly defined and may be the product of other issues such as unrealistic program expectations. The results of this study inform the discussion on student retention and motivation in natural resource programs, and provide real‐world suggestions on how to stem student attrition.

Forest Science Education in Research Universities

“…Two primary reorganizational trends have occurred, sometimes simultaneously within a single institution: forestry programs have moved from colleges or schools to departments; and forestry academic units have been combined with other units to form larger units with a broader environmental or natural resources focus. These transformations of forest science programs are consistent with transformations of agricultural programs (National Research Council [NRC] 1996[NRC] , p. 14 -18, 2009, Chapter 1) and other natural resource programs such as range, wildlife, or fisheries management (Wolter et al 2011). These programs are often interconnected and, in the United States, share the same land grant function.…”

Factors Affecting Persistence of Undergraduate Students in a Fisheries and Wildlife Program: Freshmen

“…Participants had higher average high school GPAs (mean = 3.79) and collegiate GPAs (mean = 3.31) than both the sample pool and current FW students, whereas the sample pool had a lower high school GPA but higher collegiate GPA than the departmental averages (Table 2). Eight major themes were identified during the interview process (Table 3), seven of which reflected ideas developed by leavers from the program (Wolter et al, 2011a), and included a new category, passion. A total of 314 responses were coded as 425 individual statements (Table 1).…”

“…Earning potential was another common code among freshmen. This was a major concern for students who left FW programs (Wolter et al, 2011a); however, the vast majority of freshman students said that while it was a consideration for them, overall it was relatively unimportant. Aaron exemplified this mentality saying, “…[money] doesn't really matter to me as long as I am doing something that I love and it is enough for me to live on,” while Max said that,

When I was little my uncle told me that if you work a job you love you will never work a day in your life, and he told me to always exclude the money from it.

…”

“…This deficiency manifested itself in two forms, (1) simply not knowing that NR programs and careers exist, and (2) misconceptions or unreal ideas about what natural resource professionals actually do. The former concept was one that all students seem to struggle with, and is illustrated by quotes from students such as Mike, who said “…I had never heard about how to become a DNR [Department of Natural Resources] officer,” by Helene who said she, “had not heard about FW,” and by Andrea who said, “I knew about wildlife management and stuff like that, but I didn't know there was a specific major for it.” The latter idea was common among leavers (students who departed the FW program for another major; Wolter et al, 2011a), but was also mentioned by freshmen, although less frequently. Several leavers told us that they had thought participation in a FW program would be like a TV program, such as Planet Earth, where they would spend the majority of time outdoors having fantastical encounters with wildlife (Wolter et al, 2011a).…”

Implementation of Collaborative Learning as a High-Impact Practice in a Natural Resources Management Section of Freshman Seminar

“…Over the past two decades, enrollment in natural resources undergraduate programs in the United States has declined by a rate of about 4% per year (Wolter, Millenbah, Montgomery, & Schneider, 2011b). This decline has occurred in spite of increasing job availability in both the private and public sectors due to retirements and increased demands in the US for professionals with these skills.…”