Dropout in Rural Higher Education: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Student dropout in higher education has been of great interest to the academic community, state and social actors over the last three decades, due to the various effects that this event has on the student, the family, higher education institutions, and the state itself. It is recognised that dropout at this level of education is extremely complex due to its multi-causality which is expressed in the existing relationship in its explanatory variables associated with the students, their socioeconomic and academic conditions, as well as the characteristics of the educational institutions. Thus, the aim of this article was to identify the individual, socioeconomic, academic, and institutional explanatory variables involved in student dropout in rural populations, based on a synthesis of the evidence available in the SCOPUS database. In order to achieve it, a mixed systematic review was defined under the PRISMA 2020 method. The analysis was approached in two stages; the first concerned the identification of the documents and the conformation of the sample, where 21 documents were distinguished for effectively dealing with dropout in rural higher education; and the second corresponded to the procedures defined for the development of the bibliometric analysis and synthesis of the information found in the documents. The results showed the distribution of studies by country, years of publication, the categorisation of the documents in SCOPUS, their classification by type and the methodologies used in the development of the studies analysed, as well as the variables that have been addressed in previous research. In this way, it is concluded that the results of the studies are not generalisable, either because of the size of the sample or because of the marked social asymmetries that exist in some countries, which can make the findings lack significance; on the other hand, the interest in research on variables associated with individual and academic determinants to explain rural student dropout is highlighted. In addition, some future research lines which can be addressed as a complement to the current view of the dropout event in rural higher education were identified.

Rural Population and COVID-19: A Model for Assessing the Economic Effects of Drop-Out in Higher Education

“…In this respect, the preference of various authors for investigating the socioeconomic context of the student, the identification and treatment of this type of variable as presented in the studies developed by Rodríguez-Hernández et al (2020), Palacio Sprockel et al (2020), Adrogue andGarcía (2018), De Clercq et al (2017), Erola et al (2016), among others. This same situation is present in the study of dropout in rural higher education, as evidenced in the works of (Cook et al, 2021;Mncube et al, 2021;Guzmán et al, 2021b;Castleman and Meyer, 2020;Lewine et al, 2019;Muñoz, 2013;De Hart and Venter, 2013;Qu, 2009).…”

“…Student drop-out as an educational phenomenon does not have a single meaning, but rather there are multiple definitions in the literature and public policies. This is a result of the complexity of this phenomenon which involves several levels of analysis as stated by Guzmán et al (2021a), Guzmán et al (2021b) and Kehm et al (2019). In this sense, this variety of conceptualisations allows for a broader understanding of dropout because it links different aspects, variables, representations, models and effects of dropping-out.…”

“…On the other hand, COVID-19 has decreased the rate of access to higher education, due to the high costs that the educational level represents for the student and his family, as a result of the economic crisis and the social emergency, since they cannot cover the tuition and other costs associated with the educational level either with their own resources or with credits (Potra et al, 2021;United Nations, 2021). In addition, COVID-19 has led to a decrease in student retention in higher education, which implies a higher drop-out rate (Cruz et al, 2020;Alyoussef, 2021;Guzmán et al, 2021b;Delnoij et al, 2021;López-Aguilar and Álvarez-Pérez, 2021;Teuber et al, 2021).…”

“…Based on the dynamic hypotheses (see Figure 1), the Forrester diagram and the mathematical model were designed considering the flow, level and auxiliary variables necessary to replicate the drop-out phenomenon (see Supplementary Material S2). With the design of the diagram and the base model presented below, the corresponding adaptations were made to run the simulations, since the training programmes in the sample have different numbers of academic periods that students must complete to graduate (see Guzmán et al, 2021b;Guzmán et al, 2021c;Guzmán et al, 2021d). Thus, the base model was divided into five subsystems.…”

“…Consequently, this article highlights the shortcomings of public policies on access to higher education for the rural student population, both in the pandemic and post-pandemic scenarios, as they do not have the capacity to mitigate the drop-out phenomenon, which contrasts with the results of (Mayer et al, 2015). For this reason, it is necessary to continue delving into the reasons why rural students dropout, since socio-economic variables related to tuition fees do not fully explain the dropping out and high drop-out rates among this student population, and the policies developed by Western countries are insufficient to transmit the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of the educational level, as stated by Guzmán et al (2021b).…”