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…

The transition from school to university mathematics is a challenging process for many students, which is reflected in high dropout rates during the first year at university. Using mediation analysis, we want to shed light on the role of students' attitudes towards mathematics--especially their interest in mathematics and their mathematical…

In higher education, many students do not complete their studies within the term allotted. A Dutch university implemented an intervention aimed to reduce this form of academic procrastination. The intervention consisted of three measures: (1) requiring students to acquire all first-year credits within their first year in university, (2) reducing…

Many of the first-year undergraduate students who enrol in universities, particularly in top-ranked private universities in Bangladesh, struggle with getting good grades. As a result, many students look forward to a bleak future, dropping out midway through their studies. Thus, improving the rates of graduation and reducing the rates of attrition…

Students' expectancy-value beliefs play an important role in shaping their educational choices and behaviors. Drawing on Eccles and Wigfield 's (2020) situated expectancy-value theory, we investigated short-term changes in students' expectancy-value beliefs in gateway math courses for beginning university students. In Study 1a, we collected data…

South African higher education institutions (HEIs) face significant challenges with high first-year student drop-out rates due to various stressors students are facing. The current study explores the coping of first-year students studying at a South African university. This qualitative study followed an exploratory, descriptive, interpretive…

In this paper, we present our experience with redesigning an introductory computer science course for (electrical) engineers with blended learning concepts. It is a large mandatory course with eight credit points over the course of two semesters, where first year electrical engineers learn how to program with Arduino, C and Python. Additionally,…

The dropout rate of university engineering studies is correlated with the absence of retention of freshman in the basic subjects. The aim of this work is to determine the effect of cooperative learning and the characteristics of students on learning, persistence, and academic performance. We have performed a study of learning, persistence and…

Disengagement and a lack of motivation have been found to be the major reasons for student drop out from higher education. In order to broaden our understanding of institutional and personal factors associated with intention to complete a college degree, this investigation examined the relationship between students' perceptions of classroom…

Since the number of students entering into the higher education system is increasing along with the dropout rates, therefore it is important for the institutions to identify the reasons that impact students' academic performance in order to introduce the provision for necessary support for the students. This study is stimulated by the demand to…

This paper examines the role of sociodemographic characteristics on non-traditional mature freshmen higher education dropout rates. One of Chile's largest higher education institutions, which has an important number of mature students from more deprived social sectors, was used as a case study. A quantitative methodology was applied, based on the…

Academic dismissal policies are increasingly implemented to promote academic success, with existing empirical evidence mostly restricted to short-run outcomes. This study examines long-term academic outcomes of academic dismissal for two cohorts (N=1707) of first-year bachelor students in Economics and Business at a Dutch university. Using…

To stimulate a flexible lifelong learning system students can enter university via lateral entry. Unlike traditional first-year students, lateral entrance students are not well-studied. Therefore this study focuses on comparing first-year students with a specific group of lateral entrants, namely bridging students at the Faculty of Engineering…

Persistence in the first year at university is a phenomenon that has been studied many times. However, most research has taken a very linear view of the persistence process and little research has attempted to understand persistence by taking into account its full complexity. Yet the process of academic persistence is punctuated by striking events…

With increasing access to Brazilian higher education comes increasing dropout rates in both licentiate and non-licentiate undergraduate programs. This paper reports on a comparative study of licentiate and non-licentiate undergraduate programs that enrolled students who either had or did not have a University Program for All (ProUni) scholarship.…