Features

Students drop out of universities across the country and throughout the world. Do they lack money or motivation, is it the cold weather, or is the student life just too hard? Or do some students simply not see the point anymore?

Data released by the Tertiary Education Commission shows more than one in five New Zealand students drop out of university in their first year. In 2010, the national retention rate for first year university students was 81 per cent; in 2011 it was 79 per cent; in 2012 it was 82 per cent; and in 2013 it was 84 per cent. The retention rate in New Zealand is pretty stable even if it isn’t excellent.

The latest research from the Ministry of Education shows that in 2012 of the full-time domestic students who started study in 2011, Asian students had the highest first-year retention rate: 89 per cent were still enrolled in 2012, or had completed a qualification. This compares to 84 per cent of European students, and 74 per cent and 79 per cent for Māori and Pasifika respectively.

Of the same students who started study in 2011, 84 per cent of women and 80 per cent of men were still studying in 2012, or had completed a qualification.

Overseas, England’s University of Bolton had the worst drop-out rate in the UK last year with 21.4 per cent of students reportedly quitting after their first year. It is estimated that 45 per cent of undergraduates in England fail to complete their degrees.

The total figure of university drop-outs in Britain has risen 13 per cent in one year. Imogen Jenkins, a BSC (Hons) Medical Science student at the University of Leeds in England, said the majority of people in her high school enrolled in university to continue their education. The shortest degree is three years and, before 2011, the average fee was £3,375 per year (roughly $7,000 NZD). After 2011, some fees increased to £9,000 a year ($18,100 NZD). Jenkins believes this contributes to the increase in the drop-out rate: she believes the fees are not worth it if students are not enjoying the course.

The drop-out rate in the Netherlands is also fairly high. A majority (84 per cent) of the university’s students are first-year students because few reach beyond their first year. Agriculture seems to have the highest drop-out rate, followed by education. Students 19 and older are twice as likely to drop out as students under 19.

In Finland, university is free. And there are almost zero dropouts. The government pays for your degree and gives you the equivalent of the student allowance (weekly payments you don’t have to pay back). The only reason you might need to get a loan is to upgrade your apartment or to go travelling. Lotta Moisala studies at the University of Helsinki and is working towards a Masters in Psychology.

It will take her five and a half years to complete her degree, which will likely get her a job straight out of university as the competition isn’t huge and “the future looks bright” in her discipline. So what’s the catch with Finland? Free education? Free living costs? No debt? Well … you have to be a genius to get in.

Moisala applied to her course along with 1800 other students and was one of only 55 to get in. This worked out as three per cent of applicants. The number of dropouts is minimal; likely a result of students working their butts off to get in and not wanting to throw it away after one year.

In America, the top retention rate is 99 per cent, which is the rate at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and Yale University as surveyed by U.S. News and World Report. Seven other universities follow closely behind with 98 per cent, and another 16 have 97 per cent retention rates. However, nationally, as many as one in three students don’t return for “sophomore year” (second year) for reasons including academic struggles, family issues, financial strain and loneliness in colleges.

Someone who did make it to sophomore year is Isabel Lanaux, a student from the University of Southern California in New Orleans currently on exchange at the University of Otago. She said most students who make it to the first semester of their third year go on exchange, as college is “one of the only opportunities for this extended type of travel,” and Emma Howey from Wellesley College in Seattle agrees with her, saying it was just time to get away. Lanaux chose Otago because of our great outdoors, and thinks that the domestic fees here are less expensive than in the US.

At Lanaux’s high school, almost all of Year 13s went on to university, and she expects that this figure is a lot lower in New Zealand. At Howey’s school, about half of the graduates continued to tertiary level. The typical degree in the States is four years, and even if you have a scholarship the cost could still be up to USD$100,000 (NZ$132,000)! The chances of getting a job straight after graduation are pretty high if you know the right people. Howey doesn’t know anyone who has dropped out at home, and Lanaux only knows a couple of people who have failed after one and a half to two years. The norm in this situation is to return home and attend a community college.

The University of Auckland and the University of Otago have the lowest first-year drop-out rates in New Zealand. But in 2012, 14 per cent of Otago students still dropped out. So why do students in New Zealand drop out of their degrees?

Student health services provide cheap counselling services to help students cope with the unique situation that is university. Being straight out of school, dealing with the additional workload and intense social scene, and often suffering some form of homesickness can place extra stress on anyone. There is also the matter of no individual attention, which many will be used to at home. Residential assistants are there to help with this transformation, but it’s certainly not the same as some one-on-one family time.

Seeing as New Zealand usually weighs heavy in the alcohol consumption basket, research into the possibility of alcohol causing drop-outs seemed necessary. Professor Doug Sellman, Director of the National Addiction Centre, shared his thoughts: “We are likely to be comparable to universities in other Western countries, with the most important drug problem by far being alcohol.” Interestingly, he comments on the apparently overlooked issue of how long alcohol actually stays in our bloodstreams: it can be there up to 72 hours later. So after a big night on Saturday, your Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are “down the toilet with your vomit.”

Sellman reminds us of the yin and yang of recreational drug use — what goes up must come down, and if you make these big Saturday nights a routine for the year, then “more than half the time is devoted to alcohol intoxication and subsequent detoxification.” He also said that “a web-based survey of 2,500 undergraduates in New Zealand (not a random sample) was conducted in New Zealand in 2009 showing that nearly 40 per cent had binged alcohol in the past week.” He claims that “[New Zealand’s] relaxed attitude towards alcohol will continue to have an enormous and unnecessary amount of harm occurring including the tragedy and waste associated with alcohol-induced university drop-out.”

While this is all very likely (we all know people who should party less), alcohol doesn’t have to be the big ugly reason every time.

Other students choose to change their type of degree. Rhoda Miller, a first-year Health Science (FYHS) student of 2013, dropped out of her course after one semester because she did not enjoy it and, as a result, wasn’t achieving the grades she wanted. Dropping out of FYHS is not uncommon. She states that at least 50 per cent of the infamous “Health Scis” at her hall dropped out of their courses and changed to a different degree by the second semester. Students often change to entirely different courses, possibly at entirely different tertiary institutes.

Brody Leathem is a former Otago student who left his degree behind in 2013. When asked about his reasons, he said the word “drop-out” is an interesting term. He expands on this: “If I run a bath and it gets cold after a while, I really begin to wonder what I’m sitting there for! Is it worth finishing everything you start?” Undergoing a Law and Arts degree was leaving the bathwater cold for Leathem. He left after three and a half years, $28,000 in debt, which he calls “an expensive decision-making process.” However, university was always intended to open Leathem’s eyes to what he wants to do and who he wants to be, and the “pseudo-adulthood” environment meant he met like-minded people. Leathem said he felt “more and more stifled by the institution of education” and that “the cost of conformity was a means to some storied end” like job security, career prospects and competitive employment, which are not “paramount values” for him.

His leaving university was more to do with the fact that he didn’t believe it was what he wanted to do at that particular time. He is not alone in this, as he knows two other people who also didn’t see uni as an important life step and left their degrees unfinished after two years of study. Leathem would absolutely consider another degree in later life if it turns out he needs one to succeed in a particular venture. He now resides in Mount Maunganui and is looking for employment there. At least he’s enjoying the great weather.

Evidently, dropping out doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Neither does changing your course. It may be expensive, but that’s why we love the interest-free loan. The help and support are there if you are struggling. The choice of courses is there if you are bored. And if you really don’t want to be on your course, or struggle to see where it may take you in life, why not make a change?