Want to reduce university drop-out rates? Try better supporting part-time and external students
Originally published by the ABC
This has led to Education Minister Simon Birmingham's call for universities to take
"responsibility for the students they enrol".
Attrition does not mean dropping out. It just means the student did not
continue their study in the following year.
For example, attrition includes students who suspend studies due to
personal circumstances, but return to study a later year.
However, the evidence is that most students who discontinue
their studies do not end up completing.
How does Australia compare to other countries?
To analyse comparative performance, we looked at attrition rates in a
number of countries, as well as regions within some countries.
As with Australia, most countries focus their attention on nationals
(that is, not international students) entering university for the first time.
Australia's national attrition rate was 14.97 per cent, with institutions
ranging as low as 3.92 per cent and as high as 38 per cent. The best-performing
state was New South Wales and the worst was Tasmania. Of 39 institutions, 12
had an attrition rate over 20 per cent.
Aotearoa, New Zealand, had an overall attrition
rate of 16 per cent, slightly higher than Australia's. This was also the case
with US public higher institutions offering
four-year degrees, where the attrition rate was 17.7 per cent.
Universities
in Ontario, which covers 40 per cent of Canada, had an average attrition
rate of 12.8 per cent for full-time students. But the overall attrition rate
(which includes part-time students) would likely place this figure even closer
to Australia's attrition rate, though we can't say this for certain.
What causes student attrition?
Many things affect student attrition, including age,
socio-economic status, location and time on campus.
Our study focused on three elements that have the potential to contribute
to higher rates of attrition. The first is above-average student-to-staff
ratios, as an indicator of student-lecturer interaction.
The second is above-average ratios of part-time enrolments, suggesting
students are juggling study with work and personal commitments. The third is
above-average ratios of external enrolments (such as students studying online),
since these students have little or no access to the majority of on-campus support
services.
The issues of part-time enrolments and external enrolments are closely
related, as most students studying externally also study part-time.
We searched in the official higher education statistics for relationships between attrition and these
three elements. That is, were attrition rates higher for universities that had
more students per lecturer, or higher part-time enrolments, or more students
studying externally?
We found some links between attrition rates and student-to-staff ratios.
Some 15 universities had higher-than-average attrition rates when they also had
higher-than-average student to staff ratios.
And nine universities that had better-than-average student-to-staff
ratios also had better than average attrition rates.
But that still meant 15 universities bucked the trend. They either had
better attrition despite having worse student-to-staff ratios, or the opposite.
There was a much stronger relationship between attrition rates and
external enrolment ratios. Some 20 universities had below-average attrition and
external enrolment rates, and 10 had above-average attrition and external
enrolment rates.
The correlation was even stronger between attrition rates and part-time
enrolments, with 31 universities displaying a direct relationship between the
two factors.
Looking at our international comparisons, we saw similar trends. The
overall attrition rate in the UK was 9.8 per cent. But this hid an attrition
rate of 35.5 per cent for part-time students.
For those studying through the UK Open Universities (so, externally), the
attrition rate was even higher, at 43.5 per cent.
In the US, the attrition rate for part-time students was 37.2 per cent.
In New Zealand, it was 26 per cent.
What type of higher education system do we want?
Students who don't complete their courses are not only missing out on a
personal opportunity, there's also lost potential to society.
Students and universities must aim to further reduce attrition. Universities
are changing their admission, teaching and student support to increase their
students' success. But completion rates also reflect what kind of higher
education system we want.
That said, Australia's attrition rates are not unusually high by these
international comparisons.
We should accept a modest level of attrition so we can keep providing
opportunities for part-time students and others who don't fit the conventional
mould.
Students studying part-time, especially those studying externally, need
specialised support to help them balance their studies with their work and life
commitments. But they don't need to see their opportunities for flexible study
reduced, just so an institution can improve its retention rate.