Bad mark early on quadruples student dropout risk

A student’s first assignment at university can be pivotal in determining whether they stay the course, Australian research suggests.

Students who failed as few as one first-year subject proved to be about four times as likely to drop out as peers who passed all their units, the research found.

The study, published by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE), supports a theory that early setbacks can prompt students to question whether they belong at university. “This is not something they just move on from,” said lead author Bernadette Walker-Gibbs, associate professor of education at Deakin University.

“They invest a lot of time and emotional effort. It impacts on [whether] they see themselves as successful.”

The researchers analysed data on more than 7,000 first-year Deakin undergraduates. Almost one in three who had failed at least one subject had left by the beginning of the following year, compared with one in 11 of the students who had passed everything.

This pattern proved consistent, irrespective of a student’s socio-economic background – contradicting assumptions that those from neighbourhoods where few people have degrees are at more risk of dropping out.

Dr Walker-Gibbs said the researchers had been surprised by the strength of the relationship between failure and withdrawal, and its influence on students from privileged as well as disadvantaged backgrounds.

Interviews revealed that many new undergraduates had been mystified by the grading systems used in higher education, with even high achievers experiencing culture shock. “For some [who] got a credit, it felt like a failure,” Dr Walker-Gibbs said.

“One student thought she was really good at writing. The feedback suggested she wasn’t. She went home and cried for two days.”

Making matters worse, many students found it difficult to discuss problems with their tutors or lecturers. Dr Walker-Gibbs said support services for struggling students often operated separately from academics, whose role was to teach students about a particular discipline but not to “help them learn how to be a student”.

“Academics…aren’t kept in the loop when support is required,” she said. “[They] don’t get an opportunity to provide the added feedback the student may need to gain perspective.”

The report says that socio-economic status – the measure normally used to gauge students’ need for extra help – might not be an “adequately sensitive category” for predicting academic attrition. Dr Walker-Gibbs said equity groupings needed to be broadened so that students who experienced early failure could receive support, regardless of their backgrounds.

Separate research by the University of Newcastle, also published by the NCSEHE, has found a strong appetite for university in many disadvantaged communities. “[This] challenges the simplistic view that young people from target equity groups have low aspirations,” said lead researcher Jenny Gore.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com