Why do students leave? Student-related factors and attrition intentions

Abstract

Established as a collection of scholars protecting their shared interests, higher education has become a driving force of economic development accountable to the government and society. However, changes in higher education have been accompanied by multiple challenges, including funding and quality assessment. This dissertation addresses one of these challenges facing academic institutions, academic attrition. Although much research has been conducted on the issue of why students leave education, we don't yet know enough about how students' beliefs and perceptions, study behaviors, and difficulties are related to their decisions to leave. The present dissertation aims to facilitate the current research by investigating student-related factors and mechanisms involved in academic attrition.

An important issue in research on academic attrition is the variability of the phenomenon and the difficulty in putting available research into practice. The first two papers addressed the relevance of the distinction between different types of attrition intentions and involved self-regulated learning mechanisms. In the first paper, three categories of attrition intentions were investigated: leaving permanently, changing university, and changing study field. A particular focus has been placed on time management skills, self-efficacy, and student integration in explaining students' attrition intentions. The results showed that academic self-efficacy (i.e., student-related factor) was stronger related to attrition intentions than traditionally considered aspects of students' integration. The second paper addressed a similar question. However, compared to the first paper, the focus was directed toward the role of academic procrastination in explaining attrition intentions. Results showed a significant relationship between procrastination and all three categories of students' intentions. In sum, both papers support the importance of the distinction between different categories of attrition intentions and the relevance of looking at attrition from a student perspective. Finally, in the third paper, we investigated mechanisms that may be important in explaining and reducing procrastination. The results of the study showed that academic self-efficacy was an important mediator of the study skills-procrastination relationship. Taken together, the present results might have implications for future research developing assistance programs and universities aiming to reduce academic attrition.