Using complexity theory to develop a new model of student retention

paper proposes a new approach to the modeling of student retention in higher education, namely the use of Complexity Thinking, in conjunction with Exploratory Factor Analysis and Multidimensional Scaling. To illustrate our proposal we analyse a small data sample collected from undergraduate engineering students at a highly regarded traditional Swedish university. This analysis shows that issues affecting student retention should be viewed as nested, interconnected systems, in which certain components are more influential than others, rather than in linear terms. Keywordsretention, modeling systems, complexity thinking