Corporate Social Responsibility Policies in Higher Education Institutions: Impact on Student Retention

Institutions of higher education are trying to better understand the complex dynamics involved in a student's decision to voluntarily leave an institution in order to devise countermeasures to increase retention rates. The existence of similarities between student and employee retention theories justify further exploration to determine whether approaches benefiting employee retention can also be used in student retention strategies. Corporate social responsibility has shown to have casual relationships to employee retention in the private sector but has not been tested directly against students' retention in higher education. Organizations are trying to infuse social responsibility endeavors into their culture as a way to appeal to the growing sensitivity toward these issues. Stakeholder management theory within a social responsibility context has focused primarily on employees and customers within the 'for-profit' sector. Students in higher education display similar characteristics to both a customer and an employee therefore corporate stakeholder theories may apply.;The purpose of this study is to develop and test a model that determines whether relationships exist between institutions of higher education that adopt social responsibility policies and student retention This study focuses on a sample group of higher education institutions within the United States that have a high level of social responsibility policies and compares and contrasts their levels of student retention to institutions with a low level of social responsibility policies.;Secondary data is used including, but not limited, to information from trade associations, magazines, government statistics, unpublished reports from research scholars, and journals. The result of this study supports the position that incorporating social responsibility policies into higher education institutions has a parallel relationship with stakeholder management theory and consequently positively influences student retention rates. A relationship between social responsibility policies and student retention rates is expected to encourage institutions to divert more resources toward adopting those policies thereby sustaining the institution, and creating a campus environment that boasts a higher student retention rate.