Student persistence has long been a major challenge for open universities. Despite the evolution of open education, an overall high student attrition rate remains. This paper examines the changes and trends in factors related to student persistence in open universities. It reviews the empirical studies from the 1970s to the 2010s which reported factors influencing student persistence. The relevant studies were searched from databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Among the 108 studies collected, a total of 284 factors influencing student persistence were identified. The factors were categorised into student factors, institutional factors, and environmental factors. Their changes and trends over the years were examined. The results show that student factors were the most frequently studied over the years examined, with the major categories being students’ psychological attributes and outcomes. Institutional factors have been increasingly studied in recent decades, with the design and delivery of programmes and courses being the strongest category. Finally, environmental factors have been decreasingly examined, with factors related to students’ family and work being the two main categories. Based on the results, the implications for developing intervention and retention strategies for student persistence in open universities are discussed.

中文翻译：

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开放大学学生持久性的相关因素

长期以来，学生的持久性一直是开放大学面临的主要挑战。尽管开放教育在不断发展，但总的学生流失率仍然很高。本文研究了开放大学中与学生持久性相关的因素的变化和趋势。它回顾了从1970年代到2010年代的实证研究，这些研究报告了影响学生持久性的因素。从包括Scopus，Web of Science和Google Scholar在内的数据库中搜索了相关研究。在收集的108项研究中，总共发现了284个影响学生坚持性的因素。这些因素分为学生因素，机构因素和环境因素。研究了它们多年来的变化和趋势。结果表明，在所检查的年份中，学生因素是研究最频繁的，主要类别是学生的心理属性和结果。近几十年来，对制度因素的研究越来越多，其中课程和课程的设计和交付是最强的类别。最后，对环境因素的研究越来越少，与学生家庭和工作有关的因素是两个主要类别。基于结果，讨论了开发干预和保留策略对开放大学中学生持久性的影响。与学生家庭和工作有关的因素是两个主要类别。基于结果，讨论了开发干预和保留策略对开放大学中学生持久性的影响。与学生家庭和工作有关的因素是两个主要类别。基于结果，讨论了开发干预和保留策略对开放大学中学生的持久性的影响。