Academic Integration as the Main Driver of Student Retention: A Multidimensional Analysis of Educational Ecosystems in Private Universities in Northern Peru

Aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), this study examines how personal factors, academic integration, and institutional support relate to students’ intention to persist in private higher education. Using a cross-sectional online survey, composite scores were computed for validated constructs and entered simultaneously into a single multiple linear regression model to estimate each dimension’s unique association with intention to persist. The overall model explained a substantial share of variance in persistence intentions (adjusted R2 = 0.599). Academic integration showed the largest unique association, institutional support contributed a smaller additional association, and personal factors did not retain a unique association once overlap among constructs was taken into account. Given the cross-sectional, self-report design and single-institution sample, the findings are interpreted as conditional associations within this context, informing retention strategies that strengthen sustainable educational ecosystems as private higher education expands in Latin America.