An Empirical Model of Holistic Support for U.S. Military Veterans and Service Members in Public Undergraduate Engineering Programs: Implications for Research and Practice

U.S. military veterans and service members comprise a unique population in higher education that is worthy of particular attention. In this paper, we turned attention toward developing deeper understandings about student veteran and service member experiences in engineering education by researching with academic institutional agents who support them. Because strong institutional agent support is linked to college student success in engineering, especially for first-generation and underrepresented students, we qualitatively explored institutional agent awareness of, attitudes about, and perceptions of support for student veterans and service members in undergraduate engineering programs in public U.S. institutions. Situated within the social constructivist paradigm, we employed an emergent, qualitative research design derived from constructivist approaches to grounded theory methods. We interviewed 14 participants across seven institutions situated in the western United States. Participants were purposively selected based on their professional roles working with student veterans and service members in engineering at either an institutional or college level. Thematic analysis of interview data produced six major themes that we subsequently synthesized into an empirical model of holistic support for student veterans and service members in U.S. engineering degree programs. New findings identified in this study suggest that the context of an institution, including its size, location, and community makeup, impact institutional agents' abilities to support student veterans and service members. Future research is needed to develop alternative approaches for supporting student veterans and service members in engineering across varying institutional contexts.