Concerns Expressed about University Retention Rates

The Australian, 26 February 2009; The Financial Review, 27 February 2009

According to government data, approximately 30,000 Australian students will have changed their university, swapped their course, deferred their studies or dropped out of university after their first year.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which looks at the performance of education systems across the world, has shown that the average university completion rate in all member countries is 69 per cent, compared to Australia’s 72 per cent.

However, in 2006, Australian universities experienced an 18.5 per cent attrition rate. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has also added that data shows that a further 20.4 per cent of students from a low socioeconomic background drop out of university in their first year.

The Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Ms Julia Gillard, has indicated that the Australian Government would consider using student retention figures as a ‘key performance measure for universities’.

A spokesperson for Ms Gillard stated that ‘the challenge is to grow the system and to improve retention, not just attract students to universities but to engage them and retain them’.

Monash University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education, Professor Adam Shoemaker, believes that universities have only recently begun to invest in student retention. Professor Shoemaker also believes that the first four weeks of university are a crucial time for first-year students, with many of them deciding to drop out in the first month of classes. ‘I think it is an issue that has been underdone in the past, but people are increasingly recognising it now,’ Professor Shoemaker said.

 

 

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