Factors influencing non-completion of final year undergraduate university studies: implications for management
- Authors: Webb, Theresa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Dropouts -- South Africa , College dropouts -- South Africa Academic achievement -- South Africa Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/35874 , vital:33855
- Description: South Africa has seen remarkable growth in student numbers at universities since reforms were introduced with the advent of democracy in 1994. Enrolments have almost doubled in the past twenty years, yet South African Higher Education (HE) is characterised by high levels of failure and dropout, and an estimated 50 to 55% of each intake will never graduate. This is not only an indictment on HE institutions (HEIs), but also results in rising debt to the students and to society. In South Africa, student debt has increased at an alarming rate since 2012, whilst state funding has decreased. Students have advocated for education to be free. President Zuma announced in December 2017 that education for the poor would be free. It is not clear yet where the funding will come from, but it would not be from universities’ as their budgets are already thinly spread. The main aim of this study was to identify the factors contributing to students dropping out of university in their final year of study, with some modules still outstanding. 360 final year students were identified as having less than 60% of their required credits left to complete their studies, but they had not re-registered and they were thus categorised as non-completing students or dropouts. An analysis of their biographical characteristics revealed that non-completing students were more likely studying for a diploma, male, ‘black’, and did not have English as a home language. Trends were also analysed across faculties and qualification types. In addition to the quantitative description of the biographical characteristics of the non-completing students, a further qualitative exploration was undertaken.Telephonic interviews were conducted with 65 of the non-completing students using a semi-structured interview schedule. The schedule consisted of four grand tour questions and various prompts to ascertain the reasons for students not completing their qualifications. The qualitative results revealed that financial, academic, health and personal problems were the main factors in Nelson Mandela University (NMU) final year undergraduate students’ decisions not to complete their studies. Other factors identified included taking up job opportunities and struggling to balance work and studies; along with factors related to the need for more flexible modes of delivery; and a more inclusive, caring, humanising institutional culture. If the 360 students with 60% or less of their required credits outstanding had graduated at NMU, the institution would have received approximately R8.6 million in subsidy income. In addition to the R8.6 million loss in subsidy income, there would also have been a considerable loss in fee income. Of these 360 non-completing students, 27 students had just one module outstanding. Had these 27 students with just one module outstanding been able to complete their outstanding module and graduate, the institution could have earned an approximate subsidy income of R767 667. The cost of the outstanding modules of these 27 students amounted to R111 070. This shows that the university could have reaped a substantial return on investment if these students could have been assisted to graduate. Based on these findings, a number of recommendations and suggestions were made to support students with the aim to assist the university to reduce the number of non-completing students and enable as many students as possible to complete their studies and graduate. These included having procedures in place for students to be able to take up their concerns with academics and faculty administration; implementing a system to track student progress and to institute interventions as soon as possible; greater flexibility in the delivery modes of modules, with increased online and distance learning possibilities for students who had only a few modules to complete; and creating an institutional culture where students develop a sense of belonging and feel included, which enhances the chances that they will persist until they complete their studies. Limitations of the study were noted and a number of recommendations for further studies were made.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Webb, Theresa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Dropouts -- South Africa , College dropouts -- South Africa Academic achievement -- South Africa Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/35874 , vital:33855
- Description: South Africa has seen remarkable growth in student numbers at universities since reforms were introduced with the advent of democracy in 1994. Enrolments have almost doubled in the past twenty years, yet South African Higher Education (HE) is characterised by high levels of failure and dropout, and an estimated 50 to 55% of each intake will never graduate. This is not only an indictment on HE institutions (HEIs), but also results in rising debt to the students and to society. In South Africa, student debt has increased at an alarming rate since 2012, whilst state funding has decreased. Students have advocated for education to be free. President Zuma announced in December 2017 that education for the poor would be free. It is not clear yet where the funding will come from, but it would not be from universities’ as their budgets are already thinly spread. The main aim of this study was to identify the factors contributing to students dropping out of university in their final year of study, with some modules still outstanding. 360 final year students were identified as having less than 60% of their required credits left to complete their studies, but they had not re-registered and they were thus categorised as non-completing students or dropouts. An analysis of their biographical characteristics revealed that non-completing students were more likely studying for a diploma, male, ‘black’, and did not have English as a home language. Trends were also analysed across faculties and qualification types. In addition to the quantitative description of the biographical characteristics of the non-completing students, a further qualitative exploration was undertaken.Telephonic interviews were conducted with 65 of the non-completing students using a semi-structured interview schedule. The schedule consisted of four grand tour questions and various prompts to ascertain the reasons for students not completing their qualifications. The qualitative results revealed that financial, academic, health and personal problems were the main factors in Nelson Mandela University (NMU) final year undergraduate students’ decisions not to complete their studies. Other factors identified included taking up job opportunities and struggling to balance work and studies; along with factors related to the need for more flexible modes of delivery; and a more inclusive, caring, humanising institutional culture. If the 360 students with 60% or less of their required credits outstanding had graduated at NMU, the institution would have received approximately R8.6 million in subsidy income. In addition to the R8.6 million loss in subsidy income, there would also have been a considerable loss in fee income. Of these 360 non-completing students, 27 students had just one module outstanding. Had these 27 students with just one module outstanding been able to complete their outstanding module and graduate, the institution could have earned an approximate subsidy income of R767 667. The cost of the outstanding modules of these 27 students amounted to R111 070. This shows that the university could have reaped a substantial return on investment if these students could have been assisted to graduate. Based on these findings, a number of recommendations and suggestions were made to support students with the aim to assist the university to reduce the number of non-completing students and enable as many students as possible to complete their studies and graduate. These included having procedures in place for students to be able to take up their concerns with academics and faculty administration; implementing a system to track student progress and to institute interventions as soon as possible; greater flexibility in the delivery modes of modules, with increased online and distance learning possibilities for students who had only a few modules to complete; and creating an institutional culture where students develop a sense of belonging and feel included, which enhances the chances that they will persist until they complete their studies. Limitations of the study were noted and a number of recommendations for further studies were made.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
The role of psychosocial factors in academic performance of first year psychology students at a historically white university
- Authors: Dlamini, Sipho Solomon
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students , Academic achievement , Undergraduates -- South Africa , Dropouts -- South Africa , College students -- South Africa , Psychology students -- South Africa , Minorities -- Education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5150 , vital:20781
- Description: The success rate of students in higher education has been a cause for concern in South Africa (Letseka & Maile, 2008; Department of Higher Education and Training, 2015). This has been particularly concerning for first-year students, where the rate of attrition is especially high (Letseka, Cosser, Breier, and Visser, 2010). A number of factors have been identified in past research as having an effect on academic performance, which influences attrition and graduation. These factors include age (Justice, & Dornan, 2001), gender (Buchmann, & DiPrete, 2006), socio-economic status which is confounded by race (Letseka & Breier, 2008), type of educational background (Spreen, & Vally, 2006), and whether a student is a domestic or international student (Li, Chen, Duanmu, 2009), social capital (Young & Strelitz, 2014), whether the student is a first language speaker of the language of instruction at the university (Snowball, and Boughey, 2012), student wellbeing (Quinn, & Duckworth, 2007), locus of control (Findley, & Cooper, 1983), and frequency of lecture attendance (van Wallbeek, 2004). The study was conducted at Rhodes University, a small historically white South African institution. For this study, academic performance was measured using the participant’s midyear exam results for an introductory psychology cause, a course that straddles faculties. Of the 690 students registered for the course, 361 (52%) completed an electronic survey that explored the various factors associated with academic performance. A hierarchical regression analysis indicates that pre-university factors (age, gender, race, nationality, language, type of school, and socio-economic status) were the only significant predictors of academic performance, contributing 11% of the effect. Race and nationality, when all the other factors were controlled for, were the only predictors of academic performance. The implications of these findings pose troubling questions of the institutional culture at the university.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Dlamini, Sipho Solomon
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students , Academic achievement , Undergraduates -- South Africa , Dropouts -- South Africa , College students -- South Africa , Psychology students -- South Africa , Minorities -- Education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5150 , vital:20781
- Description: The success rate of students in higher education has been a cause for concern in South Africa (Letseka & Maile, 2008; Department of Higher Education and Training, 2015). This has been particularly concerning for first-year students, where the rate of attrition is especially high (Letseka, Cosser, Breier, and Visser, 2010). A number of factors have been identified in past research as having an effect on academic performance, which influences attrition and graduation. These factors include age (Justice, & Dornan, 2001), gender (Buchmann, & DiPrete, 2006), socio-economic status which is confounded by race (Letseka & Breier, 2008), type of educational background (Spreen, & Vally, 2006), and whether a student is a domestic or international student (Li, Chen, Duanmu, 2009), social capital (Young & Strelitz, 2014), whether the student is a first language speaker of the language of instruction at the university (Snowball, and Boughey, 2012), student wellbeing (Quinn, & Duckworth, 2007), locus of control (Findley, & Cooper, 1983), and frequency of lecture attendance (van Wallbeek, 2004). The study was conducted at Rhodes University, a small historically white South African institution. For this study, academic performance was measured using the participant’s midyear exam results for an introductory psychology cause, a course that straddles faculties. Of the 690 students registered for the course, 361 (52%) completed an electronic survey that explored the various factors associated with academic performance. A hierarchical regression analysis indicates that pre-university factors (age, gender, race, nationality, language, type of school, and socio-economic status) were the only significant predictors of academic performance, contributing 11% of the effect. Race and nationality, when all the other factors were controlled for, were the only predictors of academic performance. The implications of these findings pose troubling questions of the institutional culture at the university.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
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