In the strategy "Europe 2020", EU claimed the aims to increase the ratio of graduates among 30-34-year old people, which means the expansion of the number of students in higher education as well as the decrease of dropouts. This double purpose is considered to be a big challenge both for countries and for higher educational institutes.…

Purpose: This research attempts to reveal ways of addressing challenges in open universities related to empowering lifelong learning; establishing policies and strategies in dropouts, student portfolio and support services for students with special needs; and implementing online instructional design and strategies. Two institutions were…

The purpose of this study was to examine the long-term effects of perceived community disorder and social stigma on depressive symptoms among adolescent school dropouts. This study used 2-4 wave data of a Longitudinal Survey and Support Plan for Dropouts. Multivariate latent growth modeling indicated that social stigma was associated with greater…

The tutor's role in enhancing student retention in distance learning is paramount. This study aims to predict retention and not actual retention by investigating how tutoring support predicts student retention in distance learning at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Moore Transactional Distance Theory underpinned the theoretical framework of…

Research on the effect of school uniforms on school attendance in low income countries is scarce. Building on a meta-analysis of the available literature, this paper analyses primary survey data collected (n = 462) in Mongolia on students' perceptions of school uniforms. The findings reveal that it is not only the cost of uniforms that matters,…

The university experience of students with ASD was explored through a qualitative study of 11 former university students and six significant others from Australia and New Zealand. A range of key issues were identified including difficulties encountered when studying, reasons for completion and non-completion, supports used, and coping strategies…

In order to improve the retention of science teachers, studies have focused on understanding the issues teachers encounter and identities they construct. Most studies examined the early years of teaching science. However, fewer studies of professional trajectory and identity examine the departure/dropout of mid-career and late-career science…

Since 1988, 27 states have introduced No Pass, No Drive laws, which tie a teenager's ability to receive and maintain a driver's license to various school-related outcomes--most commonly, enrollment and attendance. Enrollment-Based No Pass, No Drive policies, in 21 states, target both enrollment and attendance, and have negligible effects on…

Research Finding: The present study estimates the long-term effects of Chile's national public Early Childhood Care and Education program (ECCE) on children academic achievement, grade retention and school dropouts, to better understand if ECCE is helping reduce the socioeconomic achievement gap. The present study uses a quasi-experimental design…

Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Boston is attempting a turnaround and has been for decades. In 2016, after having been designated a Level 4 school by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), a stamp that branded it "underperforming," school officials created a plan they began…

Recent reforms in higher education have provided material for researching different aspects of doctoral studies in a variety of ways. Much of the current literature concentrates on characteristics of effective supervision and doctoral students' experiences. Less attention has been paid to the study experiences of non-completers--former doctoral…

In this paper we argue that simply identifying gateway courses in which a large number of students fail or withdraw and focusing attention on them may not always be the best use of limited resources. No matter what we do, there will always be courses with high D/F/W rates simply because of the nature of their content and the preparation of the…

The authors examined the predictive nature of attentional biases and initial grade point average of ninth graders dropping out of high school. Attentional biases are cognitive shifts in focus that are linked in both time and context toward stimuli perceived by an individual as threatening. Data were collected from 68 high school freshmen (45.6%…

We evaluate the effect of the Apprenticeship Bonus, an employment subsidy programme, on early apprenticeship dropout. Eligibility for the programme is restricted to school leavers who have actively looked for an apprenticeship to start immediately after leaving school, but were unsuccessful in finding one. Our analysis is based on rich survey data…

Changing majors or dropping out are of great concern to universities worldwide, but the role of learning approaches in terms of students' persistence has not been previously studied. Changing majors, especially in chemistry, is a severe problem in Finland. Here, learning approach data were collected with the ChemApproach questionnaire from 733…