Racial origin and student retention in a Canadian University

In this article, attention will focus on the first year voluntary and involuntary withdrawal of students of various racial origins enrolled full- time at York University, Canada's third largest university, located in Toronto. Students who withdraw involuntarily are those who because of low academic standing are debarred from continuing for a second year. Information for the study was obtained through end-of-year surveys carried out in 1993, 1994, and 1995 and from administrative records. In general it was found that differences in overall retention ratets for Blacks and students of South Asian, Chinese, 'other' non- European origins are small. Moreover, a logistic regression analysis indicated that while racial origin is not a predictor of voluntary withdrawal from university at the end of the first year, it has a slight effect on involuntary withdrawal. (DIPF/orig.)