2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Examining Academic Success and Retention of Post-Traditional Students in Engineering Undergraduate Programs

Presented at Minorities in Engineering Division(MIND) Technical Session 6

The purpose of this WIP paper is to examine the unique characteristics and challenges faced by underserved post-traditional students (formerly known as non-traditional students) in undergraduate engineering programs. The number of post-traditional students in higher education has increased rapidly during the past decade. Scholars have argued that many undergraduate students have characteristics of post-traditional students, therefore, post-traditional students have become the typical undergraduate students on college campus (Chen, 2017). In this context, the term “post-traditional” has replaced “non-traditional” to describe this population used to describe non-traditional students. The literature has identified a few key characteristics of post-traditional students, such as individuals who start college at age 25 or older, attend college part-time, and have dependents. Despite the large number of post-traditional students, researchers in higher education and engineering education have devoted limited attention to this population. Additionally, extant scholarship has not unpacked the differences between this group of students and traditional students with respect to gender, race, and socioeconomic status. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by investigating how post-traditional student characteristics and their demographics as well as the interactions of these variables affect students’ academic performance, persistence, and four-year graduation rates in engineering undergraduate programs. It uses the institutional deidentified data in the 2023-2024 academic year of students in the undergraduate engineering programs at a large Hispanic-Serving Institution in the Southeastern U. S. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, mean differences, linear and logistic regressions, and moderation analyses.
Our key findings indicate that
1) Students who are male, part-time, in underrepresented minority groups (e.g., Black, Hispanic) or have Pell eligibility tend to have lower cumulative GPA; Within the underrepresented minority groups, Asian students had the highest cumulative GPA, followed by Hispanic students, students of two or more races, and Black students.
2) Students who have two post-traditional student characteristics, including starting college at 25 or older or part-time students are less likely to enroll in the next semester;
3) Students’ enrollment status (part-time vs. full-time status) had significant interactive effects with a few predictor variables, such as starting age and Pell eligibility, on outcome variables. It significantly moderates the relationship between students’ starting age and both cumulative GPA and four-year graduation rates. For post-traditional part-time students, there was a positive relationship between starting age and cumulative GPA, while for traditional full-time students, this relationship was negative. In contrast, part-time status negatively influenced four-year graduation rates in that part-time students who began college at 25 years or older were significantly less likely to graduate within four years than a traditional full-time student starting at the same age.
The findings of this study enhance our understanding of the differences between traditional and post-traditional students. By acknowledging the unique characteristics of post-traditional students, HSIs and other minority serving institutions can better support their academic success and persistence, contributing to a more equitable and diverse engineering workforce.

Authors

Dr. Haiying Long http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6563-5291 University of Kansas [biography]

Haiying Long is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Kansas.
Dr. Jingjing Liu Florida International University [biography]

Dr. Jingjing Liu is a Postdoctoral Associate in the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education (SUCCEED) at Florida International University.
Mr. Joseph Ronald Sturgess Florida International University [biography]

Joseph Sturgess is a Ph.D. student in the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education majoring in Engineering Education at Florida International University, where he also serves as a graduate research assistant contributing to various projects supporting post-traditional students and transfer students. His research interests include community college-minority serving institution partnerships, transfer students, post-traditional students, and broadening participation in engineering education. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from Tuskegee University, an M.S in journalism from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, an M.S. in physics from Fisk University, an M.S. in industrial engineering from the University of Central Florida and an M.Ed. in educational leadership from Texas Christian University.
Julian Rodrigo Sosa-Molano Florida International University [biography]

Julian is a graduate research assistant at Florida International University. He holds a BSc in Electronics Engineering from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia and a MSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of Arizona. He is pursuing his PhD degree in Engineering and Computing Education at Florida International University. He has professional experience in Information Technology, Semiconductors, and Telecommunications in international companies such as Ecopetrol, Texas Instruments, and Ericsson. His research interests focus on inclusive STEM learning and teaching methodologies for students with physical disabilities.
Dr. Bruk T Berhane Florida International University [biography]

Dr. Bruk T. Berhane received his bachelorâ€™s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland in 2003. He then completed a masterâ€™s degree in engineering management at George Washington University in 2007. In 2016, he earned a Ph
Dr. Stephen Secules http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3149-2306 Florida International University [biography]

Dr. Stephen Secules is an Assistant Professor in the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education at Florida International University. Secules holds a joint appointment in the STEM Transformation Institute and a secondary appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. He has bachelor degrees in engineering from Dartmouth College, a master’s in Architectural Acoustics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a PhD in Education (Curriculum and Instruction) from the University of Maryland. Prior to his academic career, Stephen was an acoustical consultant for 5 years in both London, UK and Silicon Valley, CA. His research has focused on culture and equity in engineering education, particularly undergraduate contexts, pedagogy, and student support. Through his work he aims to use critical qualitative, video-based, participatory, and ethnographic methods to look at everyday educational settings in engineering and shift them towards equity and inclusion. He also leads the Equity Research Group where he mentors graduate and undergraduate students in pursuing critical and action-oriented research.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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