Development of an Early Warning System to Detect the Undergraduate Dropout at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna

Abstract

Student dropout is a critical issue related to the higher educational systems in the world. Among Sri Lankan universities also, student dropout has become a vital issue. Student dropout rate at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna is considerably high and there is no mechanism to identify possible dropouts in advance. The objective of this concept paper is to propose an Early Warning System to detect the undergraduate dropout at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna. The proposed system would provide explicit pre-awareness regarding dropout-prone candidates and help the faculty to take appropriate measures to reduce the dropout rate determining the best ways to minimise the number of dropouts.