Student Attrition: Factors and Possible Ways of Management in Private Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Student attrition is a universal problem in the academic arena. It has both educational and cost implications. Education is meant to produce competent citizens in various disciplines based on societal needs. Greater attrition rate implies missing the target of education that meant to meet. This study is done to find out the extent and causes of attrition in St. Mary’s University College and suggest possible remedies thereof. In so doing, a mixed approach to analytical research that entertains both qualitative and quantitative techniques was employed. The main data sources for the study were students who experienced poor academic performance in the period referred herein. To supplement/complement the data obtained from students, department heads, faculty deans, documents from the Registrar, and Student Affairs Office, and relevant literature were also explored and used to substantiate the findings of the study. For the gathering of qualitative data, convenient sampling technique was used. Eleven suspended students and three department heads and three deans were interviewed by posing various unstructured, semi-structured, and structured open-ended questions. The study tried to illicit their perceptions through in-depth interviews. A total of 213 students who were readmitted in the first semester of the year 2001 were asked to complete a questionnaire prepared for them. Out of this, 67 (31.5%) responded. The study, by and large, indicated that student attrition is a problem sufficient to draw managerial attention in the institution. The attributable factors are linked to the various areas of the learning process. Thus, tackling student attrition can not be taken as a unilateral activity. There is interdependence of factors that work in favor of student drop out. It has to be seen in a holistic approach by paying attention to individual differences and tackling every problem in the teaching-learning process that contributes to student attrition.