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.