Factors Influencing the Retention of Students in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Razi University

Achieving sustainable development requires the training of specialized and competent human resources through educational centers and institutions. While, one of the concerns of higher agricultural education, especially in recent years, is the issue of student retention. The purpose of this causal-relational research was to determine the factors influencing the retention of agricultural students. The statistical population was the undergraduate students of in College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Razi University in the academic year 2021-2022 (N=901), which 270 were selected based on Bartlett's table with a stratified random sampling method. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, which was used for its reliability and validity through ordinal coefficient theta (Ө= 0.87) and an expert panel. Exploratory factor analysis showed that factors related to professors, support-management factor, environmental and educational facilities and personal factor were extracted as effective factors on student retention. These factors explain about 73% of the variance related to the retention of agricultural students. The results of the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests did not show significant difference between the viewpoints of male and female students and different fields and educational degrees of students. While, there was a significant difference between the viewpoints of rural and urban students regarding the factors affecting the retention of students. Based on the findings, Creating motivation and interest in students by professors, supporting the government in creating jobs for agricultural graduates, providing greenhouses and agricultural land to carry out practical activities in agricultural colleges can create situation for retention of students.