Prediction of student attrition risk using machine learning
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education
ISSN: 2050-7003
Article publication date: 20 May 2021
Issue publication date: 31 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The prediction of student attrition is critical to facilitate retention mechanisms. This study aims to focus on implementing a method to predict student attrition in the upper years of a physiotherapy program.
Design/methodology/approach
Machine learning is a computer tool that can recognize patterns and generate predictive models. Using a quantitative research methodology, a database of 336 university students in their upper-year courses was accessed. The participant's data were collected from the Financial Academic Management and Administration System and a platform of Universidad Autónoma de Chile. Five quantitative and 11 qualitative variables were chosen, associated with university student attrition. With this database, 23 classifiers were tested based on supervised machine learning.
Findings
About 23.58% of males and 17.39% of females were among the attrition student group. The mean accuracy of the classifiers increased based on the number of variables used for the training. The best accuracy level was obtained using the “Subspace KNN” algorithm (86.3%). The classifier “RUSboosted trees” yielded the lowest number of false negatives and the higher sensitivity of the algorithms used (78%) as well as a specificity of 86%.
Practical implications
This predictive method identifies attrition students in the university program and could be used to improve student retention in higher grades.
Originality/value
The study has developed a novel predictive model of student attrition from upper-year courses, useful for unbalanced databases with a lower number of attrition students.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Financing: This study was financed by the Teaching Innovation and Development Fund from the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and the Vice-Rector of Research and Graduate Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Citation
Barramuño, M., Meza-Narváez, C. and Gálvez-García, G. (2022), "Prediction of student attrition risk using machine learning", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 974-986. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-02-2021-0073
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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