Faculty and Student Relationships: Context Matters

As many as 42% of first and second year students at post-secondary institutions fail to complete their degrees, and of those students, only 15–25% of them drop out due to poor academic performance or for financial reasons. The remainder of them leave college for reasons that are less clear (National Center for Education Statistics 2012). However, positive relationships with key players, including faculty, at colleges and universities have been clearly associated with college persistence and completion. This article is an examination of student-faculty relationships at four-year colleges and universities and the contexts in which their interactions occur. Characteristics of positive relationships are discussed along with descriptions of student and faculty perceptions of the significance of the different contexts in which they interact.