While the gap in access to higher education between high-and low-income students has diminished over the past several decades, the gap in the completion of four-year degrees has not. This reflects a range of issues not the least of which is the fact that too many low-income students enter higher education without the academic and social resources they need to succeed. While the recent push to increase access to higher education among low-income youth is welcomed, it will do little to change their rates of completion unless institutions offer students the academic and social support they need to translate the opportunity that access provides into success in college.
Professor Tinto explores what this requires of institutions and the sorts of actions they must take to ensure that more of their low-income students complete their college degrees.
Vincent Tinto is a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Syracuse University and the former Chair of the Higher Education Program. His book, Leaving College, published by the University of Chicago Press, lays out a theory and policy perspective on student success that is considered the benchmark by which work on these issues is judged. His most recent book, Completing College, lays out a framework for institutional action for student success, describes the range of programs that have been effective in enhancing student success, and the types of policies institutions should follow to successfully implement programs in ways that endure and scale-up over time.
