From individual longitudinal data for a full cohort of first-entering students who embarked on short programs in Spain and were observed over a 7-year period ending in 2003, we analyze the probability that an individual will drop out, transfer, or graduate from a university school program. The statistical analysis is carried out in a…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional level. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, higher…

Introduction: Premature withdrawal from university due to academic failure can present problems for students, families and educators. In an effort to widen the understanding regarding factors predicting academic success in higher institutions, prior academic achievement measures (preparatory school grade average point (GPA), aptitude test scores,…

If non-completion rate is to be a useful performance indicator it must reflect the recent health of a course in a transparent and robust manner that enables comparisons to be made between groups of students and between courses of varied structures. For flexible degree programmes with varied attendance modes and multiple entry points, traditional…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional level. At the center of these reforms is the need for more Tennesseans to be better…

As much as it is eagerly anticipated, freshman year is often a time of confusion, disorientation, and even alienation for many students. One in four college freshmen will drop out before completing sophomore year. The reasons for this high level of withdrawal vary, but a report suggests that new students often feel overwhelmed and unprepared for…

The research reported here is part of a larger study investigating differences between successful and unsuccessful (withdrawing) undergraduates at the University of Texas. It focuses on a 36-item list of problems which were rated by 647 withdrawing students during Fall 1969. Responses were subjected to a principal axis factor analysis and rotated…

With minimal possibility of predicting student withdrawal based on traditional variables, there appears to be a need to uncover "personal reasons." (Author)

For schools to communicate that student retention is valued, a program must be instituted that communicates this to students. D'Aprix's model of communication is a planned, systematically implemented communications program aimed at distributing messages of genuine value. This proactive stance can be used to develop programs increasing student…

Many issues are involved in the formulation of college and university course and withdrawal policies. Although such policies may be related to grade inflation, other problem areas are evident and require amplification and assessment. This paper reports a study of the issues based on a survey of 30 colleges. (Author)

School and College Ability Tests (SCAT), the Omnibus Personality Inventory, and questionnaire data collected indicated that, as compared to persisting students, voluntary withdrawals had higher verbal ability and were more intellectually oriented. Voluntary withdrawals had significantly higher SCAT scores than the failures and the female…

Of the 173 postgraduate adult students who abandoned their studies at Hellenic Open University, 108 were interviewed. Primary reasons for dropping out included difficulty balancing academic workload with employment and family obligations (mainly for female students), miscalculation of time available for studying, and underestimation of the effort…

A comparison of 24 Canadian aborigines who withdrew from college and 25 who persisted showed that withdrawers were often nonmatriculated, lacked time management skills, frequently missed class, worked over 25 hours per week, felt lonely and alienated, had family problems, and socialized excessively. (SK)

Study made at Brooklyn, City, Hunter and Queens Colleges of the City University of New York compared the number of students in 1955 and 1960 freshman classes who graduated, and documented findings relative to reasons for withdrawal. (AD)