More and more young people are beginning to study after leaving school. However, some students leave university without a degree or change their degree programme. In a new project, Oldenburg scientists are now investigating the reasons why some students drop out and how the number of dropouts can be reduced.
Wrong subject, stress in the family or exam nerves? Students drop out of university for a variety of reasons; there are often several factors that cause students to end their academic career prematurely. In a joint project, Prof Dr Michael Feldhaus from the Institute of Social Sciences and Prof Dr Karsten Speck from the Institute of Educational Sciences are investigating what causes students to drop out of university. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project "Lebenslaufansatz und Studienabbruch (LAST) - eine multikontextuelle Analyse zu den Ursachen und Folgen des Studienabbruches" as part of the funding priority "Studienerfolg und Studienabbruch" with 440,000 euros over a period of three years.
What is special about the Oldenburg project is that the researchers are using an integrative approach to record as many different influences as possible: "We are not only analysing the university environment or the individual inclinations of the students, but also the role played by family, friendships and partnerships," explains project coordinator Feldhaus. "Previous studies have not sufficiently taken such aspects into account," adds Speck.
Around a quarter of all students in Germany drop out of their studies prematurely - in other words, they leave the higher education system without a degree. The dropout rates differed significantly between subjects: according to a survey from 2010 to 2012, almost 40 per cent of students in natural sciences and engineering completed their studies without a degree, while the dropout rate in law, economics and social sciences was around 27 per cent.
The Oldenburg researchers now want to find out which factors ultimately lead to students dropping out or changing degree programmes. In a second step, they are investigating which measures can be used to reduce the number of students dropping out. The scientists are using what is known as a prospective longitudinal approach: they are following Bachelor's students from the first semester until they graduate or drop out with repeated surveys. In this way, the researchers want to identify the reasons for dropping out as early as possible. The results of the project should benefit both teachers and counselling centres.