University dropout in engineering: Motives and student trajectories

• Autor(a) principal: Casanova, Joana R.
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Vasconcelos, Rosa, Bernardo, Ana B., Almeida, Leandro S.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/75983
• topic: Higher education; Engineering students; Academic dropout; First-year students; Academic trajectories; Educación superior; Estudiantes de ingeniería; Deserción académica; Estudiantes de primer año; Trayectorias académicas; Ciências Sociais::Ciências da Educação; Social Sciences; Educação de qualidade

Background: Dropout in higher education is a concern for students, families, educational institutions, and society. Tertiary education is an important mechanism for empowering people and STEM courses are vital to countries’ development. Method: The study combined quantitative and qualitative data. Step 1 was an analysis of personal and contextual variables in a comprehensive examination of dropout in a sample of 1,016 engineering students. In step 2 a short interview by telephone were conducted with 82 students who dropped out, identifying their reasons and their academic/professional situation. In step 3 in-depth interviews were conducted with six students in order to understand the dynamic process of their decisions to leave. Results: The academic/professional situations of students who dropped out were quite varied, for example the same course or a different course at another institution, starting a job, not working or studying, or attending another level of professional training. There were three main reasons for dropping: vocational, learning process and achievement, and reconciling roles. Conclusions: Engineering student dropout is related to vocational and academic achievement. This should be considered in the implementation of programs to reduce the rate of dropout.