Preliminary Causes for the University Dropout at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka

Abstract

University dropout without completing the degree is one of the prominent drawbacks that affect institutions of higher education, individuals, and society worldwide. The current literature has focused on identifying the internal or external characteristics of students’ neglecting the pool of aspects in broad. This study aims to identify how career interest, financial, academic, and social factors affect the student’s dropout to address the desertion of universities based on their justifications. A Google questionnaire was used to collect data from 30 randomly selected dropped out undergraduates of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna. The majority (70 %) of participants were female. The sample representing 80% of participants have expressed their satisfaction towards the dropout decision while 20% have regretted their decision of leaving the degree program. This finding claims that one out of five dropout students regrets their decision subsequently. According to the Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test results, the deviated career interest of the undergraduates significantly influenced their decision to drop out during the university period (p=0.043, α<0.05). However, the financial difficulties when acquiescing essential requirements like food, clothes, etc. (p=0.463, α>0.05 accommodation (p=0.172, α>0.05) and the academic vulnerability because of complexity (p=0.686, α>0.05), language problems (p=0.464, α>0.05) did not significantly influence their dropout decision. The social isolation due to unhealthy relationships with batch mates (p=0.008, α<0.05), academic staff (p=0.020, α<0.05) were also significant and have influenced undergraduates’ dropout decisions. The academic, financial, and social factors related issues can be addressed by developing a conceptual model that signals the vulnerability of desertion of each undergraduate beforehand. The timely intervention of academic staff while organizing efficient student mentoring sessions for needy students seems necessitated and also the outcome of this study will assist the administration body to reclaim the academic policies to diminish university dropout in advance.