Semester-to-Semester Student Retention Tracking

[Megabytze]

Hello!  I'm a brand new institutional researcher at a regional college attempting to track & visualize the number of students our school retains from one semester to the next.  I've found several helpful resources that look at customer retention on a monthly or yearly basis (e.g., 1) https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Community-Blog/Customer-Retention-Part-3-Period-O...  2) https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Student-Retention-Term-by-Term-Fall-to-Fall-Year-b... 3) https://forum.enterprisedna.co/t/cohort-analysis-higher-education-style/3582), but can't quite figure out how to do it when the number of days in each semester varies.

Here's what I have for tables so far (no pbix yet):

Enrollment Table:

ID

Semester

Term

Year

TermID

Dept. Code

Div. Code

First Degree

FT/PT

Level

Prog. Code

Program Sought

Tuition Status

Current Cr Hours

Cumulative Cr Hours

Cohort

Program Start

Student A

Fall

2

2025

20252

RNBS

NU

0

Part time

3

RNBSN

RNBSN

HT

9

26

Fall 2023

8/28/2023

Student B

Fall

2

2025

20252

RNBS

NU

0

Part time

3

RNBSN

RNBSN

LH

12

87

Fall 2024

8/26/2024

Term Table:

Semester	Year	Term	TermID	Code	Term Start Date	Term End Date	Cohort	Total Days
Spring	2026	3	20253	SP2026	2026-01-05	2026-04-25	Spring 2026	110
Fall	2025	2	20252	FA2025	2025-08-25	2025-12-13	Fall 2025	110
Summer	2025	1	20251	SU2025	2025-05-05	2025-08-02	Summer 2025	89
Spring	2025	3	20243	SP2025	2025-01-06	2025-04-26	Spring 2025	110
Fall	2024	2	20242	FA2024	2024-08-26	2024-12-14	Fall 2024	110
Summer	2024	1	20241	SU2024	2024-05-06	2024-08-03	Summer 2024	89
Spring	2024	3	20233	SP2024	2024-01-08	2024-04-27	Spring 2024	110
Fall	2023	2	20232	FA2023	2023-08-28	2023-12-16	Fall 2023	110
Summer	2023	1	20231	SU2023	2023-05-08	2023-08-05	Summer 2023	89
Spring	2023	3	20223	SP2023	2023-01-03	2023-04-22	Spring 2023	109
Fall	2022	2	20222	FA2022	2022-08-22	2022-12-10	Fall 2022	110

The goal is to have it look something like this, with each of the rows denoting cohorts (aka start terms) and the columns denoting subsequent semesters:

Any insight you can provide here would be so helpful!  I've been chasing my tail trying to make the business-focused tutorials I encounter work for me in higher ed, but I think I need some more training before I'm good enough to translate the info.  Thanks!

[krishnakanth240 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Megabytze 

Retention is term-to-term instead date-to-date.

So instead of
Days
Date differences

You can use
TermID as an ordered time index
Cohort = first enrolled TermID
Offset = how many terms after cohort

This is exactly how customer cohort analysis works, just replace month with term.

Model Setup
Relationships
Enrollment[TermID] → Term[TermID] (Many-to-One)
No need to use Term Start/End Date for retention logic

Required columns
From Enrollment:
StudentID
TermID
Cohort TermID (first term the student enrolled)

If you don’t have Cohort TermID, create it
Cohort TermID =
CALCULATE(
MIN(Enrollment[TermID]),
ALLEXCEPT(Enrollment, Enrollment[StudentID])
)

Create “Term Offset” (This Replaces Month 1, Month 2…)

In Enrollment
Term Offset =
Enrollment[TermID] - Enrollment[Cohort TermID]

This gives:
0 = cohort term
1 = next semester
2 = semester after that

Base Measures
Students in Cohort (Denominator)
Cohort Size =
CALCULATE(
DISTINCTCOUNT(Enrollment[StudentID]),
Enrollment[Term Offset] = 0
)

Retained Students (Numerator)
Retained Students =
DISTINCTCOUNT(Enrollment[StudentID])

Retention % Measure
Retention % =
DIVIDE(
[Retained Students],
[Cohort Size]
)

Build the Matrix Visual
Rows
Term[Cohort] or Enrollment[CohortTermID]

Columns
Enrollment[Term Offset]

Rename as
Term 1
Term 2
Term 3

Values
Retention %
(or Retained Students for the count version)

This will look exactly like your customer retention example, but by semester.

Please mark it as a solution with headup if this helps you. Thank You!

[Megabytze]

Wow, I think that worked - I can't thank you enough for walking me through that!  Is there an easy way to change the column names to Term 1, Term 2?  

[lbendlin]

Your Enrollment sample table does not have enough data.  Please provide sample data that covers your issue or question completely.
Do not include sensitive information. Do not include anything that is unrelated to the issue or question.
Please show the expected outcome based on the sample data you provided.

Need help uploading data? https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Community-Blog/How-to-provide-sample-data-in-the-Power-BI-...
Want faster answers? https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/How-to-Get-Your-Question-Answered-Quickly/m-p/1447...