Resistances to scientific knowledge production of comparative measurements of dropout and completion in European higher education

Carlhed, Carina

doi:10.1177/1474904116667363

Cited by 7 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Millions of people each year work, save, and strive to get into graduate school, to pursue degrees with the potential to change their lives forever. Yet dropout rates in graduate programs have been estimated at higher than 50% (Council of Graduate Schools, 2008;Nettles & Millett, 2006) and dropout is an higher education issue all over the world (Carlhed, 2017;Soares, Fernandes, Nóbrega, & Nicolella, 2015). Graduate student perceptions and experiences of professional expectations and development, performance standards, and change in the academy complicate their trajectories of success toward and beyond graduation (Rizzolo, DeForest, DeCino, Strear & Landram, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling American Graduate Students’ Perceptions Predicting Dropout Intentions

Hardré

Liao

Dorri

et al. 2019

IJDS

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Aim/Purpose: Dropout is a critical problem in graduate college programs across disciplines and institutions. Yet relatively little research has assessed graduate students’ motivations for dropping out across disciplines, or systematically modeled perceptions that contribute to dropout intentions. Background: Perceptions drive critical decisions that people make about their lives, and a core set of these perceptions consistently predict adults’ educational intentions and choices. This study investigates how a set of critical perceptions predict the strength of graduate students’ dropout intentions. Methodology: This study models their differential contributions using structural equation modeling, in AMOS®. Participants were 886 masters and doctoral students across programs and colleges in a Southwestern university in the United States. Findings: The best-fitting model demonstrated most significant influences on graduate students’ dropout intentions were predicted by: satisfaction with the overall graduate experience (not just program-of-study), self-efficacy for professional success (not just coursework), and the Perceived Graduate Experience Gap (expectations vs. experience in graduate school). Model fit was excellent for the whole group, and demonstrated some nuanced differences for subgroups, notably by degree type and point-in-program. Recommendations for Practitioners: These findings illuminate considerations useful to graduate faculty and program administrators concerned about improving retention and completion. They can inform policies and practice for preventing and reducing graduate student dropout.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling American Graduate Students’ Perceptions Predicting Dropout Intentions

Hardré

Liao

Dorri

et al. 2019

IJDS

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“…In several European countries, dropout rates are measured regularly, such as in Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Finland and Norway, France, Italy, Portugal, the UK, and Iceland, whereas Sweden does not measure dropout rates systematically (European Commission, EACEA, & Eurydice, 2014); instead, the regular measures used in Sweden are completion rates, retention rates, time to degree, and performance indicators (UKA, 2015), and in the UK, non-continuation and degree completion (HESA, 2015). Nevertheless, there is and has been a strong consensus among researchers in the field regarding the difficulties in both identifying students who drop out and calculating the levels of student departures (Carlhed, 2017b;Quinn, 2013;RANHLE, 2008;Thomas & Hovdhaugen, 2014;Vossensteyn et al, 2015).…”

Section: Common Ways To Measure Student Progressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Completion and retention are measured in a variety of ways in European HE and national contexts (European Commission et al, 2014). Hence, there are also serious difficulties in comparing different countries' completion and dropout rates (Carlhed, 2017b;Hovdhaugen, 2012;RANHLE, 2008;Thomas & Hovdhaugen, 2014;Quinn, 2013;Vossensteyn et al, 2015). In sum, the difficulties are connected to:…”

Section: Early Leavers and Late Leaversmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The urgent call for knowledge about rates of dropout and completion is related to the growth of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the Bologna process, and the work toward harmonization of data on the topic. The European HE policy promotes the EHEA to be a competitive actor in the globalized knowledge market (Carlhed, 2017b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Comparative studies are very valuable but are difficult to pursue, for example, due to methodological reasons. Furthermore, there are epistemological obstacles in comparative studies when the terminologies and aims from critical research studies are mixed with those from policy-friendly and evaluative studies (Carlhed, 2017b), or the challenges researchers face when searching for common categories and concepts to compare the cases and explain differences and similarities between them (Valimaa & Nokkala, 2014). Hence, the research area needs carefully designed and context-sensitive comparative studies that adhere to the complexity in measuring student progression.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding the complexity in measuring student progression in European higher education

Ydhag

2019

HERJ

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This article aims to analyze student progression in European higher education (HE) using Sweden and UK as countries of reference. It presents and problematizes common ways to measure student progression (e.g., rates of dropout, completion, and retention), distinguishing between institutional departures or system departures, and the implications of the timing of the measurement, hence focusing on early and late leavers. The article also discusses general rates of student progression in different countries and the reasons for dropping out, revealing what lies behind the dropout statistics. Finally, the article also includes a critical questioning of the interests and intentions behind the data production. The article offers an orientation among the multiple definitions and measurements of student progression in HE. It deals with the value of measurements and alternative ways of measuring student progression, and with the implications for further studies on dropout and completion rates, which are politically contested issues.

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