Foster (2010) has considered the problem with what she considers the two things necessary “to protect the quality of the degrees they award: (a) selection mechanisms operating during student’s tenure and (b) effective teaching” (p. 301). When allowing higher numbers of students admission into higher education institutions, she argues, this makes it necessary to decide on whether or not to select students with “prior knowledge of the fundamental disciplines taught in first year” (p.317). If the institution decided to take students without this type of background they need “to facilitate poorly-prepared students’ out-selection before degree completion and/or provide sufficient resources” to prepare them appropriately before they are given their degree (p. 317). She suggests that course attrition may be the acceptable choice over institution attrition when teachers help students find the educational path to a career that best suits them. Her analysis was inconclusive as far as teacher effects. (Foster, 2010, p. 317)
1. They lose potential, student tuition fees,
2. gain a relatively smaller proportion of teaching and learning funds,
3. and receive a poor ranking compared to other universities. (p. 1)
With high attrition rates money is not the only problem, the reputation of the university is affected. When compared to other schools the status of an institution with high attrition rates will be lower than the others and that will in turn make the school less desirable to potential students.
The contemporary economic situation in one way helps universities and community colleges gain non-traditional students that would otherwise not be interested in taking courses. Nontraditional have a variety of reasons for starting or returning for education. They may be older students who have lost their job, mothers who have raised their children and need to gain job skills or young mothers who are heads of the family.
Foreign students also have a high attrition rate. There is something both the non-traditional students and the foreign students have in common: they both usually already have transcripts from their past education and don’t fit in with the high school students entering the undergraduate courses and proceeding in an established way until graduation.
Nontraditional students are filling the empty spots on their transcripts where they need classes which they didn’t have a chance to take in their earlier college experiences for whatever reason. Perhaps the class wasn’t offered at the time, or they had to drop out at the time it was offered. Foreign students often have to retake classes because of differences in requirements and/or class design in their country of origin.
In a literature review by Deng (et al., 2007) they found that foreign students are more likely to drop than Australian students. They also report that although it may be that community college transfer students are more likely to drop out, retention improves when credits are awarded to students upon their transfer. They concluded that government contributions show no statistical difference between domestic and foreign student retention leading them to theorize that paying fees encourages the students to follow through with their education. They also noted that disadvantaged students showed no statistical difference in dropout rates perhaps because they are “highly motivated to be successful” (p. 22). (Deng et al., 2007, pp. 22-3)
Gardner (2009) has taken the strategy of evaluating both student and faculty influences on attrition rate in U. S. Ph.D. programs. She reports that survey type research studies that have been done show a big difference in why faculty advisers think a student leaves a program and why the student say they left the program. In her overview of the available research she discovered that the faculty sited reasons such as (a) bad socialization, (b) shouldn’t be in the program in the first place and/or (c) lack of motivation. For example, when faculty and former classmates answered that a student left a Ph.D. program for “lack of motivation” the two groups had two entirely different thoughts in mind. The faculty mentioned personality flaws or personal problems causing a “lack of motivation” whereas students in the same program said they called it “lack of motivation” because their former classmate realized that they didn’t fit with the concept of the graduate program like they thought they would or they realized they were in the wrong discipline. (105-6)
McMeeken, Grant, Webb, Krause, and Garnett (2008) initiated a demographic study to explore the reasons that Australian physiotherapy student numbers were growing and why their attrition rate was less than the university average. They found that across the board there have been increase in the types of students entering the discipline which used to be primarily Australian female students; more men are entering the discipline to the point where there will be a gender shift to a more balanced proportion of male and female (p. 69). The increase is also in international students and students from across Australian. With more entering the physiotherapy studies will account for overall increase but the attrition rate being so low from the student’s point of view was not addressed. The authors noted that if the attrition rates stayed at 5% the university region in the study would receive an additional $776,000 which would be available to universities for every intake of 100 students” (p. 69).
Stephens, Thibodeaux, Sloboda and Tonkin (2007) undertook an empirical study of adolescent student attrition in a substance abuse program. The study was motivated by the strong attrition rate after ninth grade. This paper is the pilot study with the methodology of tracking study subjects primarily by contacting parents with telephone class and using mailings of flyers. Protocols were set and strictly used for contacting the parents and the subjects. Their method of contacting students who had left the program resulted in successful “contact with 56.8% of the parents and resulted in completed surveys from 19.5% of the students.” They concluded that because the attrition rate is so important a methodology to track attrition is also important. They highly recommend being creative about finding resources and contacting necessary correspondents. They also found that the professional personnel were very helpful in whatever capacity they had been a part of the students’ lives and helped the progress with good results for the pilot study.
In conclusion the research demonstrates the importance of retaining students not only for the sake of the students but also for the university and the programs being offered. It’s very important to remember the difference in the answers between the students and the faculty in the study by Gardner (et al., 2009). Paying attention to what information is really being communicated is essential to understanding the basic reasons for student attrition.
A balance needs to be found between the type of student that is selected and the capability of the school to offer teacher’s who can handle the needs of students who need extra attention in order to be brought up to the appropriate level of knowledge. The attrition rates could be high because the student’s needs are not being met when perhaps they only required a little nudge in the right direction to help them set personal goals.
The faculty interviewed for the research about the high USA Ph.D. attrition rates need to decide if they are going to sit in judgment of the students they are supposed to guide and teach or are they going to behave professionally and respect the needs of the students. A positive attitude from faculty towards the students in their department and individual students could make a difference in whether a student completes the Ph.D. or not. This is a topic that needs to be further researched. What may seem like small acts of disrespect from faculty towards women and foreign students can have a very dehabilitating effect on the student targeted and set the student towards the path of opting out of the system. How to make faculty more respectful towards students may call for sensitivity training; further research can better address the solution to this widespread problem.
It seems that trends in the popularity of a discipline happen normally as found in the high entrance rate of students into physiotherapy departments. This may call for extra work on the part of the existing faculty until more faculty members can be hired to take some of the classes. Since the extra work load is for a temporary period the administration should be willing to support the faculty with extra pay and other practical methods of support. I have determined from reviewing the research that the faculty plays a pivotal role in whether or not students remain in universities, colleges and community colleges. I conclude that the administration and the faculty must step up to the challenge of student retention and quit blaming the students.
Women and international students are two categories of students that need to be supported as much as possible. More research needs to be done in order to keep these two categories in school until they graduate. No doubt there are unique personal reasons for each student deciding to leave a program. Those personal reasons are not the place of the university to delve into. The universities (and other educational institutions) need to focus on what the university can do for women and international students that is not doing to keep student attrition high.
It’s possible that the needs of both groups can be met by using the same approach. I would suggest further study in how one-to-one student counseling can help target students in need and private conferences with them to help smooth their road. Counseling centers are already prepared to help these students now they need to start reaching out.
It is also the job of university organizations such as international clubs and the women’s centers to reach out to students considering leaving school. The entities available for students cannot afford to sit and wait for these students to come to them. High attrition rates have a negative impact on the students that leave as well as on the educational institutions. The negative impacts on the institutions in turn hurt the remaining students because of loss of resources that would otherwise have been available.
Sometimes professionals involved in the education of adult students need to slow down and remember that the students most vulnerable to attrition such as women and the foreign students are the students that need them the most. Research and administrative duties may seem more pressing but high rates of student attrition negatively impact everyone in the system.
References
Deng, X., Lu, Z-H, & Cao, Z. (2007). Attrition patterns in a diversified student body: A case study. J. of Ed. Res. Group Analysis. 1 (1) 15-25.
Foster, G. (2010). Teacher effects on student attrition rates and performance in mass-market tertiary education. High Educ. 60:301-19.
Gardner, S. K. (2009). Student and faculty attributions of attrition in high and low-completing doctoral programs in the United States. High Educ. 58: 97-112.
McMeeken, J., Grant, R., Webb, G., Krause, K-L., and Garnett, R. (2008). Australian physiotherapy student intake is increasing and attrition remains lower than the university average: a demographic study. J. of Physiotherapy. 54 (1) 65-71.
Stephens, R. C., Thibodeaux, L., Slboda, Z., and Tonkin, P. (2007). Research note: An empirical study of adolescent student attrition. J. of Drug Issues. 37 (2) 475-87.
