ABSTRACT

Successful retention of students through understanding their motivations and behaviours is a challenge to universities worldwide. Whilst the impact of withdrawals is an issue for all institutions, attrition for distance-learning providers is particularly problematic owing to higher non-completion rates, less physical visibility, and because distance-learners tend to have more complex lives. This paper examines students’ personal stories explaining their decisions to withdraw from university study. It considers 641 written discourses initiated by students as part of their requests to withdraw, covering the challenges they face, and the complex combinations of factors that contribute to their decisions to give up. This qualitative approach was adopted as a necessary complement to the quantitative rush of metrics information that universities now provide on withdrawal figures. Three themes selected are: deferral/withdrawal, time available, and preparedness for study. The paper concludes that complementary qualitative insights both add clarity and detail to institutional understanding and reduces oversimplification of complex decision-making from unidimensional quantitative approaches.

摘要

通过了解学生的动机和行为来成功留住学生是全球大学面临的挑战。虽然退学的影响对所有机构都是一个问题，但远程学习提供者的流失尤其成问题，因为未完成率较高、身体能见度较低，并且远程学习者的生活往往更加复杂。本文考察了学生的个人故事，解释了他们退出大学学习的决定。它考虑了学生发起的 641 篇书面演讲，作为他们退出请求的一部分，涵盖了他们面临的挑战，以及导致他们决定放弃的复杂因素组合。这种定性方法被用作对大学现在提供的关于退学数字的量化指标信息的必要补充。选定的三个主题是：延期/退学、可用时间和学习准备。该论文的结论是，互补的定性见解既增加了制度理解的清晰度和细节，又减少了从一维定量方法中对复杂决策的过度简化。