High Impact Practices and their Influence on Students Attending a University Branch Campus

The purpose of this study is to understand the High Impact Practice experiences of university branch campus students. Additionally, the study seeks to understand how student participation in High Impact Practices (HIPs) has influenced their persistence. For this study, persistence is defined as a student’s 32 5th Annual Student Research Symposium behavior during their time in higher education that leads them to eventually graduate and receive a degree (Arnold, 1999). Currently, there is a gap in the literature concerning the experiences of students attending university branch campuses. Studies have examined the reasons why students choose to attend a branch campus (Bird, 2014; Hoyt & Howell, 2012), branch campus student motivations (Cossman-Ross & HiattMichael, 2005), and branch campus demographics relative to academic performance and retention (McClelland & Daly, 1991; O’Brian, 2007). However, there is an absence of studies that explore branch campus student experiences in relation to High Impact Practices and their persistence. This qualitative study attempts to further the understanding of the branch campus experience of students and the impact of High Impact Practices. Through a transcendental phenomenological approach (Moustakas, 1994), semi-structured in-depth interviews (Creswell, 2013) were conducted with recent graduates of a state university branch campus who had, during their time as an undergraduate, participated in at least one high impact practice and attended the branch campus for the entirety of their academic career. The data collected was organized and analyzed through Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological analysis method