The relation of disparity in student and faculty educational attitudes to early student transfer from college

Educational attitudes of entering students (N=236) and full-time faculty (N = 48) at a liberal-arts college for women were measured by the Student Orientations Survey (SOS) and the Faculty Orientations Survey (FOS). Attitudes of students who transferred from the college prior to the sophomore year were similar to those who remained on dimensions of educational purpose, peer relationships, and public position. Attitudes of transfers differed significantly from those of remaining students on dimensions concerned with the process of education and faculty-student power relationships. The absolute disparity between faculty and student attitudes on these same dimensions of process and power was greater for students who transferred than for students who remained. Implications for adapting the curricular-instructional process to reduce attrition and for utilizing such an assessment of student and faculty educational orientations in academic counseling are discussed. Suggestions are made for extending the study to identify possible relationships between disparity in faculty-student educational attitudes and attrition at other institutions.