The Academic Dropout Wheel Analyzing the Antecedents of Higher Education Dropout in Education Studies (original) (raw)

Student dropout rates in Catalan universities: profile and motives for disengagement

Quality in Higher Education, 2014

Data from over 21,600 students who had left Catalan higher education institutions during the academic years 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 has been analysed in order to describe the academic and personal profiles of university dropouts. Additionally, a telephone survey and face-to-face interviews with a pilot group of leavers were undertaken to gather additional qualitative information on the reasons for their decision. The influences on non-completion can be reduced to three main factors, among which dissatisfaction with the quality of the students' experience, family and work responsibilities, as well as economic difficulties, are prominent. Analysis conducted showed no significant differences among Catalan higher education institutions, the dropout percentages ranging from 28% to 33%. These rates should be understood within a context of broad access to higher education. Within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) scenario, the findings have triggered institutional endeavours to improve the quality of the students' and teachers' experience.

The deficient factual basis of the main explanatory models of dropout in higher education

Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 2023

In the last 40 years in much of the western world dropout rates in higher education have remained almost unchanged. Although student retention seems to be the most studied and discussed aspect, nearly every empirical study on the causes of dropout in higher education and even more the impact of retention actions carried out by universities, in most cases have achieved modest results. This paper argues that this fact finds its explanation, to a certain extent, in the nature of the methodological approaches and factual supports of the empirical studies that most of those actions were based on. In this regard, there are strong arguments and empirical evidence that reveal the deficient nature of the factual basis of the most accepted models, theorizations and measurements on dropout in higher education. Among them are those that underlie the models proposed in 2012 by Vincent Tinto and Adam Seidman, the two main current references on the subject. The most significant questions point to the low reliability of the inferences produced from the application of surveys, especially the national survey of student engagement, very recurrently applied throughout the western world in empirical studies on dropout in higher education.

Defining and Measuring Dropout Phenomenon in Romanian Public Universities

Higher Education in Romania: Overcoming Challenges and Embracing Opportunities, 2022

Increasing the number of people who complete higher education is among the highest political priorities agreed upon within the European Higher Education Area. The measures to meet the objective can be addressed in secondary education or by reducing the dropout at higher education level. Even if the policy objective is reflected in multiple official documents, little has been done to assess the dropout rate at the national level. The accurate estimation of the dropout phenomenon within tertiary education is more complex than it seems at first glance. It must take into account the very diverse processes that can occur throughout the academic student path. These are defined, regulated, and especially registered differently from one university to another: temporary interruption of studies, transfer between or within universities, pursuing two study programs at the same time or delayed graduation. The current research presented in this article is based on the analysis of available data from the National Student Enrolment Registry (RMUR), and it is part of a larger strategic project carried on by the executive institution in charge (UEFISCDI) together with the Ministry of Education in Romania. In this context, this paper aims to provide a definition of the dropout rate in the Romanian context, envisages the

Factors influencing university drop out rates

Computers & Education, 2009

This paper develops personalized models for different university degrees to obtain the risk of each student abandoning his degree and analyzes the profile for undergraduates that abandon the degree. In this study three faculties located in Granada, South of Spain, were involved. In Software Engineering three university degrees with 10,844 students, in humanities nineteen university degrees with 39,241 students and in Economic Sciences five university degrees with 25,745 students were considered. Data, corresponding to the period 1992 onwards, are used to obtain a model of logistic regression for each faculty which represents them satisfactorily. These models and the framework data show that certain variables appear repeatedly in the explanation of the drop out in all of the faculties. These variables are, among others, start age, the father's and mother's studies, academic performance, success, average mark in the degree and the access form and in some cases also, the number of rounds needed to pass. Students with weak educational strategies and without persistence to achieve their aims in life have low academic performance and low success rates and this implies a high risk of abandoning the degree. The results suggest that each university centre could consider similar models to elaborate a particular action plan to help lower the drop out rate reducing costs and efforts. As concluded in this paper, the profile of the students who tend to abandon their studies is dependent on the subject studied. For this reason, a general methodology based on a Data Warehouse architecture is proposed. This architecture does most of the work automatically and is general enough to be used at any university centre because it only takes into account the usual data the students provide when registered in a course and their grades throughout the years.

Student drop outs at Catalan universities

This study focuses on the aforementioned problematic issues of combining theoretical review with field research while, at the same time, it provides references, strategies and tools for intervention. The study deals with the subject of the university drop out, which, in spite of not being a new problem, takes on greater dimensions when extended to the access to university studies. Behind this problem there is the economic cost of university available to a majority and the deficient use of resources, as well as the problems of discourage of those who wanted to be educated but did not see their expectations satisfied, or of those that have not been properly orientated or reorientated towards professional training to which they could aspire to obtain. The importance of this document it is not so much to identify the problem of dropping out with more clarity but to suggest some actions and to listen to the opinions of those that are part of this phenomenon. Therefore, several proposals ...

Student dropout from universities in Europe: A review of empirical literature

Hungarian Educational Research Journal

This contribution is based on an extensive literature review of student dropout in Europe, which was carried out by a research group of the Danish Clearinghouse for Education in cooperation with an international expert group in 2012/2013. The review served to answer three basic questions: What is dropout? Why does it occur? What can be done to reduce or prevent it? Only empirical studies were included in the review and altogether 44 studies were included. The article points out that student dropout is a more complex and multidimensional issue than most people think and that it is important to distinguish between formal dropout (i.e., leaving university studies altogether before degree completion) and transfer (i.e., changing subject and/or institution). The review summarizes and discusses the main results of the 44 studies included in terms of nine dimensions: (a) study conditions at university, (b) academic integration at university, (c) social integration at university, (d) person...

THE DEFINITION OF DROPOUT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS (LIMITS) FOR HIGHER EDUCATION POLICIES

Educação em Revista, 2021

Public policies are based on diagnoses of reality that, with some frequency, use social indicators and administrative records. The success of public action and of diagnostic tools depends, among other things, on an adequate definition of the phenomenon to be addressed. This article aims to problematize the current and official definition of dropout in higher education used by INEP/MEC, based on its guiding document "Methodology for Calculating Flow Indicators in Higher Education" of 2017, and point out its limits and implications. To achieve success, a documentary research was mobilized, bifurcated in methods of document analysis for government texts and data analysis for the Census of Higher Education. For the presentation of the reflections, it was opted, initially, to point out the importance dropout has in several public policies for higher education. Later on, there is the actual analysis of the subject of this article. The results achieved signal the presence of limits in the ability to express the phenomenon and, consequently, to instrumentalize public policies appropriate to the public problem, especially because the current definition does not deal with the motivations, ignores the reentries by considering the dropout as an act always terminative, does not commit to a longitudinal analysis and does not adequately dialogue with the purposes of higher education established by the Law of Directives and Bases.

The Role of the Academic Factor in Student's Tendency to University Dropout

Journal of Education and Human Development, 2021

Dropout in higher education has got important dimensions worldwide. The problem has consequences on an individual, social and economic level and it is thus of significance to investigate students' tendency to dropout before the decision to leave their studies is irreversible. Due to the complexity of the dropout phenomenon and the diversity of the influence exerted by different factors, arises intensively the need for a thorough comprehension of the mechanism and decomposition of the exerted intercorrelations. In regards to the above, this research aimed to analyze the effect of the variables within the academic spectrum on students' tendency to dropout of their studies via hierarchical regression trees indicating both the sequence and intercorrelation. From the present work it emerged that the elements of the academic index exert a significant impact on students' tendency to dropout via the sequence of level of study followed by the subject of study, the provision of knowledge to solve complex real-world problems, the feedback by professors on students' work completed, the students' perception of justice and reward in the evaluation procedures concerning them, the clarity of the educational goals and courses' requirements as well as students' satisfaction with the work of the teaching staff.

Dropout in Higher Education: A Review and Theoretical Synthesis of Recent Research

1973

This document presents a review and theoretical synthesis of recent research on dropouts in higher education. The first chapter deals with defining dropouts from_college, and in considering the various meanings applied to that term, suggests some needed modifications in the definition. The second chapter reviews _recent data on dropouts in order to estimate both the effect of-ability and social status on current rates of dropout and the degree to which rates of dropout have changed since 1965. The third and forth chapters deal respectively with the develogigat of the basic theoretical model which seeks to explain dropout as an interactive process between the individual and the institution, and with the synthesis of recent research on dropout within that theoretical _model. The fifth and final chapter utilizes the findings of the preceding two chapters in order to develop a modified definition which seeks to distinguish voluntary from nonvoluntary dropout and transfer from the permanent dropout from higher education. An extensive bibliography is included..

Concepts and measurement of dropout in higher education: A critical perspective from Latin America

Issues in Educational Research, 2021

This study identified the main explanatory factors of dropout in higher education in Rivera, Uruguay, and showed that the limitations and methodological implications related to the polysemic nature of the concept of dropout should be addressed by studies on this subject. Through a systematic search of the international scientific literature, the results showed that the main barriers were: (i) the absence of consensus of dropout in higher education in the international scientific literature; (ii) measurement of dropout rates according to individual research interests using the predominant methodological strategies and the available data (which are usually unreliable and difficult to access), instead of adopting a more conceptually and methodologically consistent definition; (iii) the nature of the data and the absence of a unique definition of dropout in higher education prevents its generalisation and/or comparison with data from other institutions and countries.