Will We Meet Again? Examining the Reasons Why Students are Leaving First Year University Courses and Moving Towards an Approach to Stop Them

Abstract

Competition for students in a global market is intense. High attrition rates amongst university students are one of the underlying undesirable factors in the marketing mix tertiary institutions use to attract students (Schwartz, 2007). Not surprisingly, in a higher education environment where federal funding arrangements have started to focus on student completions rather than employment, it is essential to determine why students leave. In order to better understand the different dimensions involved in student attrition and retention it is important to determine the salient factors students give for withdrawing from their first-year tertiary courses. Through a review of the international literature, this paper introduces 17 factors why students claim to withdraw from their studies. This paper explores why students abandon their studies, and how to identify at-risk students for preventive intervention.