‘Dropouts or stopouts or comebackers or potential
completers?': Non-continuation of students in the UK (HEPI
Policy Note 53) by HEPI Director, Nick Hillman, finds:
- the UK has had the lowest drop-out rate among developed
countries, with Ireland in second place;
- the UK's strong performance arises in part from the historic
levels of academic selection at the point of entry to higher
education as well as the relatively short length of undergraduate
degrees, which provides less scope for life events to intervene
and disrupt study;
- non-continuation fell somewhat during the worst of COVID and
rose immediately afterwards while the latest (experimental) data
suggest it is now falling again, though it has yet to fall back
to pre-COVID levels;
- the likelihood of dropping out varies enormously depending on
a student's characteristics, the course and institution studied
and the original learning goal – those more likely to drop out
include mature students, male students, Black students, students
previously entitled to Free School Meals and disabled students;
- the factors affecting drop-out rates make the Government's
demand that ‘we should have the same high expectations for all
students, regardless of background or circumstances' unfeasible –
especially in a constrained funding environment;
- politicians tend to focus on non-continuation as it is one
way to gain traction over autonomous universities without
directly demanding changes to admissions or curricula, so a
number of recent policy initiatives – including Access and
Participation Plans, the Teaching Excellence Framework and the B3
Registration Condition – incorporate drop-out rates;
- if the Government's flagship higher education policy, the
Lifelong Learning Entitlement, is to be a success, there will
need to be a new approach to non-continuation, as the LLE is
based on the idea that people should be encouraged to access
higher education in small chunks throughout their adult lives.
The report includes the following policy recommendations for
reducing non-continuation further:
- providing better information for applicants
so that there is a better match between the student experience
and prior expectations;
- putting more focus on students' living
costs, reversing the recent declines in the real value
of maintenance support;
- making clever use of big data, enabling the
provision of more personalised support for at-risk students;
- responding at an institutional level both to the existing
evidence base on non-continuation and to bespoke information
gathered through structured exit interviewsof
students who depart before their course of study ends; and
- making greater use of staging
qualifications, making it easier for students who do not
complete their whole original target qualification to obtain some
academic credits, which can then be used in the labour market or
upon returning to study.
The author of the new report, Nick Hillman, the Director
of HEPI, said:
‘Non-continuation rates or, more colloquially, drop-out rates are
endlessly discussed but poorly understood. It is easy to forget
the UK record on getting students through to graduation is very
good indeed when compared to other countries. Indeed, given the
drop-out rate at some institutions is under 1 per cent, there may
be instances where individual students are sticking with a
particular path when it might be better for them to change
course.
‘Drop-out rates are affected by multiple factors, such as
institution type, the personal characteristics of learners and
the chosen route. While ministers say they favour low drop-out
rates, the degree apprenticeships they are pushing heavily have
notably high drop-out rates.
‘Drop-out rates also bounce up and down with the wider
environment. They fell during the worst of COVID, rose
immediately afterwards and now appear to be falling once more.
The Department for Education have sometimes regarded
contextualising non-continuation data as excusing failure but
this is too simplistic.
‘Where high drop-out rates exist, they need to be tackled via
better information for applicants, improved living cost support
for students and better use of big data by institutions. We also
recommend structured exit interviews for those who do leave as
well as staging qualifications within higher level courses, as
these can make it easier to return to learning after dropping
out.
‘Most critically, if the Westminster Government's flagship higher
education policy, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, is to
succeed, there has to be an entirely new approach to dropping
out, at least in some areas, as the whole point of the LLE is to
encourage people to dip in and out of learning throughout their
working lives.'
The report itself concludes with the words:
‘The UK's problem is not high drop-out rates across the entire
higher education sector. It is the relatively low attendance rate
in the compulsory stage of education since the pandemic lessened,
insufficient support for sub-degree provision, high drop-out
rates among a minority of institutions, courses and students
(including degree apprenticeships) and people being unable to
make the most of their student experience because they have not
got enough money and have to undertake a high number of hours of
paid work – even during term time when their studies should be
their main priority.'
