Premeditated, dismissed and disenchanted: higher education dropouts in Poland

Abstract

Student attrition is a significant problem and a huge challenge from an institutional point of view. Although completion rates in Poland are lower than in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the problem has not been studied thoroughly. In order to shed light on that problem the aim of this paper is to present the results of a mixed methods study on dropout behaviour at the University of Warsaw, Poland’s largest higher education institution, combining administrative data analysis, survey research and individual in-depth interviews. The main results are: 1) students drop out mainly during the first year of studies, 2) there are three main types of dropouts – planned dropout, academic failure and those who are disappointed with their studies 3) one of the reasons for this lies in the process of choosing the study programme. Improving this decision process by providing more information and support to candidates should help reduce dropout rates.