Longitudinal study of the dropout and reentry process in students of social sciences: The case of Business Administration and Management
Abstract
Preventing university dropout constitutes one of the most important challenges of national and international higher education policies. The study presented in this article was carried out in the framework of the research project titled “Paths of abandonment, persistence and graduation in social sciences” (EDU2012-31568). Specifically, it analyses the dropout process and its evolution over time in a cohort of students enrolled in the Business Administration and Management degree program at the University of Barcelona in the period 2010–2015. The process attends to three fundamental aspects: the moment and previous academic situation, reasons and emotional impact, and university reentry. A descriptive study was conducted using telephone interviews with 225 students of a total of 393 that have dropped out of the program (57.3%). The results show significant differences in the reasons for dropout related to the course year. The probability of reentry also differs according to the year and of the emotional impact of the decision. Likewise, the path leading into higher education has been found to have an effect on student dropout and reentry. Finally, the importance of establishing diagnostic systems over the course of students’ academic path is discussed.Keywords
university dropout, higher education, academic paths, university reentryReferences
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