Are questions on student success/retention or recruitment on-topic, particularly if they are about research in those areas?

Question

As a followup to DQdlM's question about pedagogy, are questions about student recruitment, success, or retention on topic even if they are not related to curriculum development or instructional design?

For example:
My institution does a little general recruitment. Most recruitment is handled in the academic departments. I am not a college recruiter. I assume that research has been done on targeting and recruiting students who are likely to be successful, but since my research background is in chemistry, I do not even know where to begin looking for this kind of information. Would a question on locating resources on recruiting undergraduate students be on-topic?

Answer 1

I would definitely imagine this is on-topic. It's related to academia and specific to academics. I would suggest that, because recruitment/retention in academia requires specialized techniques not used in other fields—unique approaches to finding students, unqiue ways of selling the lab, unique methods for differentiating yourself—that such questions would be fine here.

I'd love to hear what others think.

Answer 2

I would agree that this is on-topic. Questions related to achieving positive outcomes, such as improved learning as well as retention, would definitely be relevant. The only thing is that focus should be on teaching at the college level or above.

Answer 3

Yes, questions about student recruitment and retention are definitely on-topic.