Institutional policies to improve retention and graduation in Argentine national universities

Abstract

Institutional Policies to improve retention and graduation rates in Argentine public universities.
This article presents the findings of a research project on the policies that public universities implement to retain and to promote student’s graduation. For that purpose, we conducted a survey of the academic secretariats and analyzed the Internet websites of national universities. After analyzing the international literature which refers to institutional strategies carried out to retain and improve graduation rates in higher education, the three main policies undertaken by Argentine national universities were examined: tutoring and other social integration and academic leveling actions; the production of indicators to track academic careers, and financial assistance via grants.
The paper concludes pinpointing the progress made and the challenges lying ahead to improve these institutional policies and to achieve better retention and graduation rates in public higher education