Resources
Student Success Data
APU Global student success data: persistence, retention, and graduation rates, how they're defined, and what the university does with the findings.
Institutional data
Persistence & Retention
Persistence and retention are measures of academic effectiveness and student engagement. Persistence is the rate at which the students continue to enroll in one or more courses that contribute toward the same academic goal from one session to the next. Retention is the rate at which the students continue to enroll from one year to the next, calculated on a 16-week semester (rather than an 8-week session) basis.
Interactive data
Persistence, retention, and graduation dashboards
Use the filters and tabs inside each dashboard to view results by program, term, and student group.
Rates, cohorts, and reporting periods appear exactly as published in the source dashboards maintained by the Office of Institutional Research.
Methodology
How these measures are defined
Persistence measures the rate at which students continue enrolling in courses toward the same academic goal. Retention measures the share of students who return term over term at the same institution. Graduation rates measure completion within a defined window. Read together, they show whether students are moving forward, pausing, or leaving.
What the university does with the findings
- 01Identifies the specific points in a program where students most often stall
- 02Directs proactive advising outreach before a student disappears
- 03Redesigns course sequences and workload where data indicates friction
- 04Evaluates whether support services actually change outcomes
Graduation
As it relates to students, APU Global conceives the promotion of faith, life, and learning as engaging students in learning (through curriculum design, instruction, and student support) that reflects the Christian worldview of APU Global and culminates in the realization of hope in our students. As a result of this process (through their interactions and study at APU Global), we hope to see our students graduate from our programs better equipped and better prepared to fulfill their life goals.
Context for online adult learners
Working adults stop out for reasons that have little to do with academic ability, a schedule change, a deployment, a family illness. That is why APU Global tracks persistence alongside retention: a student who pauses for a term and returns is a different story than one who leaves, and the response should differ too.
Frequently asked questions
Persistence is the rate at which students continue enrolling in one or more courses toward the same academic goal from one session to the next, while retention is the rate at which students continue enrolling from one year to the next, calculated on a 16-week semester basis rather than an 8-week session. Together, these measures show whether students are moving forward, pausing, or leaving. APU Global tracks both to understand student engagement.
APU Global uses persistence, retention, and graduation data to identify the specific points in a program where students most often stall, direct proactive advising outreach before a student disappears, redesign course sequences where data indicates friction, and evaluate whether support services actually change outcomes. This data-driven approach is tailored to online adult learners. Findings are used continuously to refine advising and course design.
Working adults often stop out for reasons unrelated to academic ability, such as a schedule change, a deployment, or a family illness. APU Global tracks persistence alongside retention because a student who pauses for a term and returns represents a different story than one who leaves entirely, and the university's response is designed to differ accordingly. This context shapes how the university approaches advising and outreach.
Questions about student success reporting
The Office of Institutional Research can explain definitions, cohorts, and reporting periods behind these measures.
ir@apuglobal.edu