Macro analysis of drop-out rates in higher education

Abstract

Research on drop-out rates in higher education began around the late 1960s and early 1970s, following the mass increase in this level of education. The 21st century ‘renaissance’ - or at least a new impetus - of research on drop-outs in higher education was brought about by the EU 2020 strategy. In this paper, we present some macro-analyses, after a review of drop-out measures, and examine the relationship between drop-out rates and PISA scores, student-student ratios and specific (per student) higher education expenditure and (government) funding in a set of OECD countries. Finally, we take a look at the domestic characteristics of drop-out rates in higher education. The analysis shows that the dropout rate in higher education is correlated with national PISA scores, the conditions of higher education and the student-student ratio, which highlights the responsibility of government and institutional education policy in the dropout rate. Following the international analysis, a brief analysis of domestic higher education drop-out rates shows that the success of pass rates seems to have improved recently, but in assessing this we should note that, on the one hand, the last ten years of domestic higher education policy have been characterised by an elitist retention of staff, and on the other hand, despite the improvement, they still lag behind, for example, Polish or Slovakian figures.