An excerpt of the 2021 SAIR Best Paper award, this article summarizes a state’s retention challenges of college graduates identified from a college student survey and how the state responded to those challenges.

In response to the need for a skilled workforce to continue Alabama’s growth and prosperity, the Governor of Alabama developed Success Plus in 2020 (Office of the Governor of Alabama, 2023). This state initiative engages with high schools, colleges, and other education programs to strengthen the paths to high-demand career fields. Consequently, “Governor Ivey tasked the Alabama Attainment ComFinally, improving student perceptions of the Social Factors in Alabama could increase the number of college students who remain in Alabama to start their careers. Survey results indicate that Social Factors (social awareness, political environment, acceptance of people from diverse backgrounds, and overall image/reputation) are important to students, especially students from out-of-state. Social Factors have the largest gap between importance and impressions for Alabama residents and non-residents. The low impressions of Social Factors in Alabama could make students more likely to seek job opportunities out-of-state.mittee, a subcommittee of the Alabama Workforce Council, to develop a statewide goal for postsecondary attainment to ensure that Alabamians have access to in-demand career pathways leading to valuable, portable post-secondary degrees, certificates and credentials” (Officer of the Governor of Alabama, 2023). Based on the subcommittee’s recommendations, Governor Ivey set a goal to add 500,000 highly educated and skilled individuals to the state’s workforce by 2025 (ACHE, 2020). A barrier to achieving this goal is the number of university graduates who move out of Alabama to pursue their careers. Although two out of three in-state college students are found in the Alabama workforce one year after graduation, the retention of Alabama college graduates is relatively low when compared to other states (Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, 2021). Likewise, Forbes ranked Alabama as third among the states in not retaining its graduates (Harper, 2022; Monger, 2022; Quinn, 2023).

To understand the career choices of Alabama’s public university graduates, the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE) published an Employment Outcomes Report (2020) based on employment data from the Alabama Department of Labor and ACHE’s student completion data. Overall, most Alabama public university graduates (57 percent) were employed in Alabama five years after graduation, contributing to the state’s economy and growth opportunities. However, findings show essential differences between graduate outcomes by degree level and residency status. Individuals earning higher levels of education tend to remain in the Alabama workforce at lower rates. University graduates who were also Alabama residents when entering college were employed in Alabama three times more than non-residents (ACHE, 2020).

The Employment Outcomes Report (2020) provides useful information about the presence of Alabama college graduates in the Alabama workforce; however, it does not provide information about why these graduates decide to work within or outside of Alabama. To gain insight on this issue, ACHE surveyed Alabama public university students, asking their opinions, perceptions, and intentions about joining the Alabama workforce after graduation. The findings from the survey highlight potential opportunities and concerns for retaining Alabama college graduates. The survey results assist college leaders, employers, and policymakers in their efforts to keep graduates from Alabama’s public universities in the Alabama.

This article examines Alabama public university students’ viewpoints as they approach graduation. It sheds light on Alabama’s opportunities for retention and concerns that the state may need to address to help retain graduating students to the Alabama workforce. Alabama’s college leaders, employers, and policymakers can utilize the data and analysis from this article to inform their strategies to encourage college graduates to remain in or join the Alabama workforce.

Retention of College Graduates in Alabama

During the pandemic, national enrollment in colleges and universities declined, but as of September 2023, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Alabama (2023) noted that these numbers appear to be stabilizing. For the 2023-2024 academic year, Alabama colleges, such as Alabama State University, Alabama A & M, and University of Montevallo, have seen an increase in enrollment despite their struggles for the past ten years (Sharp, 2023). These numbers indicate an increased opportunity to retain students who graduate from Alabama’s colleges and universities. With more students entering Alabama’s higher education institutions, there is the possibility to recruit more college graduates into Alabama’s workforce after graduation.

Although enrollment in the Alabama college system has increased, some students question the possible return on their investment in education (Griesbach, 2023). As tuition costs have risen, Alabama institutions like the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham have maintained their tuition costs for the 2023-2024 school year. However, these costs differ for in-state versus out-of-state students, with Alabama state law dictating that out-of-state tuition should be at least double that of in-state tuition (1996 Acts, 2022). Also, “Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, chairman of the House education budget committee, said the state puts significant resources toward educating college and university students, but sees thousands of them leave each year” (Sell, 2021). Therefore, despite the $2.3 billion dollars allocated toward college education, this investment is not being cycled back into Alabama’s economy due to students migrating to other states (Crain, 2023).

According to the U.S. Department of Education (2023), 43,466 students enrolled in Alabama institutions for the first time, and 30,351 of those students were Alabama residents, while 13,015 were non-residents. ACHE’s Employment Outcomes Report (2020) indicates that Alabama residents were retained in the Alabama workforce more than three times the rate of non-residents (ACHE, 2020). Although the Alabama workforce retains the majority of the students graduating from Alabama higher education institutions, 43% are migrating out of the state after graduation.

According to the U.S. Department of Education (2023), 43,466 students enrolled in Alabama institutions for the first time, and 30,351 of those students were Alabama residents, while 13,015 were non-residents. ACHE’s Employment Outcomes Report (2020) indicates that Alabama residents were retained in the Alabama workforce more than three times the rate of non-residents (ACHE, 2020). Although the Alabama workforce retains the majority of the students graduating from Alabama higher education institutions, 43% are migrating out of the state after graduation.

Decatur’s Senator Orr, the chairman of the Senate education budget committee, posed the question, “How do we get [out-of-state students who attend Alabama colleges] to plug into our state or choose to reside in our state after graduation? How do we show them the opportunities that are available to them?” (Sell, 2021). Gunter, the Director of Communications and Governmental Relations for ACHE, believes the missing element is the relationship between students and businesses (Monger, 2022). Students need to be exposed to job opportunities and the positive aspects of Alabama early. Rather than fill a gap in the literature, the purpose of this study is to examine the viewpoint of Alabama public university students who are close to graduation. It aims to shed light on Alabama’s opportunities for retaining college graduates and highlight any concerns that may need to be addressed to draw students to the Alabama workforce as they embark on their careers.

Survey Design, Development, and Process

ACHE developed the Retain Alabama Survey in partnership with representatives from the 14 public universities in Alabama and with input from state leaders affiliated with workforce development efforts. The survey contained 20 items, including questions about students’ intentions to stay in Alabama after graduation, students’ impressions of Alabama across various factors, and the importance of factors for future plans. In addition, the survey asked students to self-identify on several demographic characteristics, including sex, race/ethnicity, age, residency status, first-generation status, and major. The demographic variables are used to disaggregate the survey responses to deepen the understanding of the survey results. Associate degree students were not included in the survey because associate degree graduates were found working in the state of Alabama at a robust level (70-72%) after five years since graduation. Baccalaureate students were found in Alabama’s economy between 48%-51% five years after graduation, and therefore, the survey focused on students attending the state’s universities.

Once the survey design and development were completed, representatives from ACHE and the 14 universities regularly convened to ensure smooth and consistent survey distribution. The target population was identified as undergraduate students at the sophomore, junior, and senior levels. Freshmen were excluded since many had yet to elect a major course of study, which could potentially obfuscate results. University staff emailed target students from their institutions, inviting them to complete the survey and providing a link. The survey was open from February 8, 2021, through March 26, 2021. A total of 8,208 survey responses were received, representing a 9% response rate.

Data Analysis and Results

The analysis of the survey results was completed using descriptive statistics and a factor analysis for the importance question, which then identified Factors. Next, the statistical analysis results highlight significant differences in mean responses for importance and impression factors and demographic variables. The analysis for this report used a 95% confidence interval, meaning that likelihood ratios less than or equal to .05 are considered statistically significant. All references to statistical significance in this report meet the 95% confidence interval (p = .05) threshold.

Demographics Findings

The number of undergraduate students with valid survey submissions was 8,208. Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the survey respondents (i.e., race, sex, age range, 1st generation college student status, Alabama residency status, major, and interest in staying in Alabama after graduation). The descriptive statistics show most respondents identify as female (67%) or male (32%), with 1% identifying as other. For race, most respondents identify as white (66%) or Black (21%). The remaining race/ethnicity groups represent 4% or less of the respondents. Seventy-two percent of respondents fall within the 19-24 age range, followed by 14% within the 25-34 age range. Most students (62%) do not identify as first-generation. Sixty-four percent of respondents are Alabama residents, meaning they graduated from high school in Alabama. The major with the most respondents is STEM (27%), followed by business (19%), health sciences (15%), education (14%), human services (13%), with arts and communication (8%), and public safety (5%) at lower percentages.

Table 1
Demographic Information

Note: The sum of percentages does not all equal 100% due to rounding error.

Staying in Alabama After Graduation

Respondents were asked if they anticipate staying in Alabama after graduation. Of the 8,208 students who responded, 33% indicated they plan to stay in Alabama, 23% indicated they do not intend to remain in Alabama, and the largest percentage (43%) indicated they might stay in Alabama after graduation. Respondents who are residents of Alabama (i.e., they graduated from an Alabama high school) are more than twice as likely to plan to stay in Alabama than non-residents, 43% versus 17%. Conversely, non-residents (i.e., those who graduated from high schools outside of Alabama) are more than twice as likely not to plan to stay in Alabama after graduation, 17% versus 35%. Over 40% of resident and non-resident respondents indicate they may stay in Alabama after graduation. The results also indicate females are more likely to plan to stay in Alabama (35% of females versus 30% of males) as well as leave (27% of females versus 22% of males). While the overall number was small, respondents who identified their sex as “other” were dramatically less likely to indicate they had plans to stay (only 5% indicating “yes”), and much more likely to indicate they planned to leave (45% indicating “no”).

When analyzing the responses by race/ethnicity, respondents who identified as white are the most likely to plan to stay in Alabama after graduation (37%), and they are also the least likely to select “maybe” (40% of white students versus 50+% for other race/ethnic groups). Asian-American/ Pacific Islander respondents are the least likely to plan to stay in Alabama (18%); however, they have the highest percentage of students who were unsure (58%). Similar percentages of African American, Hispanic, and other minority respondents plan to stay in Alabama after graduation (26%-28%). Approximately half of African American and Hispanic respondents are unsure of plans to stay in Alabama, 50% and 52%, respectively.

Respondents identifying as first-generation college students are more likely to plan to stay in Alabama after graduation than non-first-generation students, 40% versus 29%. Respondents considered non-traditional, namely aged 25 years or older, indicate they were more likely to stay in Alabama than traditional students (those aged 24 and younger), 45% versus 29%. Older respondents are also less likely than younger students to be unsure about their plans to stay in Alabama, 36% versus 46%.

In comparing respondents by major, education majors are the most likely to plan to stay in Alabama after graduation (53%), followed by health sciences majors (40%). The major categories with the lowest percentage of respondents planning to stay in Alabama are arts and communication, public administration, safety and law, and STEM, 23%, 24%, and 25%, respectively. These same major categories have the highest percentage of respondents not planning to stay in Alabama (27% – 31%) and some of the highest percentages of students unsure about their plans to remain in Alabama (45% – 48%). The STEM field (48%) is the major category with the highest percentage of unsure respondents.

Factor Analysis

An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to identify correlations among the survey items that could have common underlying explanations (Green & Salkind, 2017). This analysis benefits the study by grouping the survey items into factors or categories, thereby reducing the number of variables used in subsequent analyses. For this study, a Principal Components EFA with Varimax Rotation was conducted since the survey originally included 20 items about importance, which had not been statistically examined for scaling or dimensionality. Following the guidance of Hair et al. (1998), since the sample size is above 350, a value of .3 was used for factor loading as the cut point to place items in the loaded factor. The researchers created the factor names.

The EFA results in five factors from the 20 survey items. Each of the five factors is comprised of items with commonalities, which were the basis for the factor names. Factor 1 explains 35% of the variance; Factor 2, 9% of the variance; Factor 3, 8% variance; Factor 4, 6% of variance; and Factor 5, 5% of variance. Overall, the five factors explain 63% of the variance. See Table 3 for the survey items associated with each of the following factors.

For all factors, the mean for importance is higher than for impressions, indicating that respondents rated the importance of factors higher than the impression of that factor in Alabama. Since the same factors are applied to both the importance and impressions scales, the gap between the two scales can be calculated. The gap calculation measures the extent of the difference between how respondents rated importance versus impressions. The higher the gap score, the larger the disconnect between the importance respondents give to a factor and their positive impression of that factor. The gap between the importance and impressions scale is the highest for the Social Factor (.94), followed by the Career Factor (.88). The gaps for the remaining three factors are much smaller: Nature Factor (.13), Community Factor (.05), and Entertainment Factor (.01).

Mean Comparisons by Demographic Variables

The analysis (see Tables 2 and 3) shows statistically significant differences in importance and impression factor ratings between students who plan to stay in Alabama after graduation and those who are unsure or do not plan to stay. Respondents who plan to remain have significantly higher importance ratings for Career, Entertainment, Nature, and Community Factors. Respondents who do not plan to stay in Alabama have significantly higher importance ratings for the Social Factor. Respondents planning to stay in Alabama have significantly higher (more positive) impressions for Career, Social, Entertainment, Nature and Community Factors.

Table 2
Demographic Value with the Highest Importance Rating
for Each Demographic Question for all Five Factors

 * Statistically significant difference <.001
** Statistically significant difference < .05

Table 3
Demographic Value with the Highest Impression Rating for Each Demographic Question for all Five Factors

 * Statistically significant difference <.001
** Statistically significant difference < .05

Survey respondents who resided in Alabama prior to college place a significantly higher importance on the Career, Social, and Community Factors than respondents not from Alabama. These same respondents, those from Alabama, give a significantly higher impression rating for Career, Entertainment, Nature, and Community. There is no statistically significant difference in impressions ratings for the Social Factor between Alabama residents and non-residents.

The analysis for the sex variable was conducted, including only two answer options (Female, Male) given the low N for the Other option. For importance, female respondents rate all five factors (Career, Social, Entertainment, Nature and Community) with a higher importance than males. However, for impressions, male respondents rate four statistically significant factors (not Entertainment) with a more positive impression than females.

The race variable was aggregated using two approaches. First, the respondents were grouped into the following categories: Asian-American/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Hispanic, White, and Other Minority. The second approach was to group the respondents into two categories: White and non-White. For both approaches, the ANOVA demonstrates statistically significant differences with race and mean ratings for all factors for importance and impressions. Respondents identifying as white have a lower importance rating than non-white respondents for all factors except Nature. Conversely, white respondents have more positive impressions than non-white respondents for all five Factors.

The age variable was consolidated into the categories of Traditional-aged (<25 years old) and Non-Traditional-aged (25+). Non-Traditional-aged respondents provide higher importance ratings for all factors except Nature, the only factor that is not statistically significant. For the impressions, Traditional-aged respondents have significantly more positive impressions for Career and Nature Factors, while Non-Traditional have significantly higher impressions for the Social Factor.

Statistically significant differences in 1st Generation Status and how respondents rate importance and impressions of Factors were also found. First Generation respondents had significantly higher ratings of importance for all Factors, except Nature. For impressions, the non-1st Generation respondents report significantly higher impressions for Career, Entertainment, and Nature, with 1st Generation respondents rating Social Impressions significantly higher.

Conclusion and Policy Recommendations

The Retain Alabama Survey was developed to understand what matters to Alabama’s undergraduate college students as they decide where to live and work after graduation. Survey results show that approximately three-quarters of respondents were open to staying in Alabama. Previous research on employment outcomes in Alabama showed that only half of bachelor’s degree holders remained in the state five years after graduation. These figures suggest that Alabama has the opportunity to retain a much greater proportion of its recent college graduates.

Student responses to the survey offer some insight about what efforts Alabama could make to keep talent in the state. First, through the higher education commission, the state could develop a coordinated outreach campaign focusing on Alabama’s strengths and target those students most likely to stay in Alabama after graduation. Survey respondents have the highest positive impression ratings for Nature and Community factors. These strengths lend themselves to being incorporated into broader outreach efforts; for example, highlighting opportunities for graduates to engage in communities and outdoor activities. Additionally, outreach strategies should engage student demographic groups with greater interest in staying in Alabama, including first-generation and non-traditional students and Alabama residents.

Second, Alabama universities should strengthen career connections before students graduate college. Survey respondents rate Career Factors as the most important factor influencing their decision about where to live after graduation, though their impressions of the Career Factor in Alabama are much lower than its importance. The Career Factor has the second largest gap between importance and impressions, indicating a need to strengthen Career Factors and student awareness and understanding of the career benefits of staying in Alabama. Universities should promote internships and other work-based learning opportunities for students since research shows that these career connections strongly influence post-graduation career decisions, including location. Additionally, Alabama should adopt a more coordinated, statewide approach to help students find job opportunities in-state and help employers connect with the talent they need.

Finally, improving student perceptions of the Social Factors in Alabama could increase the number of college students who remain in Alabama to start their careers. Survey results indicate that Social Factors (social awareness, political environment, acceptance of people from diverse backgrounds, and overall image/reputation) are important to students, especially students from out-of-state. Social Factors have the largest gap between importance and impressions for Alabama residents and non-residents. The low impressions of Social Factors in Alabama could make students more likely to seek job opportunities out-of-state.

References