The factors that cause a student to drop out are foreseeable, according to a recent report by the Grattan Institute. If you study part-time, online or something to do with engineering or IT, it’s more likely you won’t complete your course.

The Grattan report states that more than 50,000 university students who commenced their degree this year are set to drop out. Here are the factors they found are most likely to put students at risk.

What To Look Out For

Students who study part-time are much more likely to drop out of their degree than full-time students. According to the report, students who enrol full-time have an 80 per cent chance of completing their degree, compared to a 50 per cent chance for part-time students.

The report also noted that the university entry mark also has a lot to do with the drop-out rate. Students who received an ATAR below 60 were more likely to drop out than those who scored over 90.

Another interesting risk factor are those who study STEM subjects. The report notes that health students are much more likely to finish than students studying IT or engineering.

Studying via distance education? Online students have a higher likelihood of dropping out too. We’ve spoken before about how the world of online study can be really isolating, so this doesn’t come as a huge surprise.

So, How Can We Avoid It?

Of course, this study doesn’t mean that everyone who drops their course load will immediately drop out. In fact, we’ve been known to encourage students to drop a few units if they feel like they’re getting a little overwhelmed. It also doesn’t mean that students who study online, who study IT or received a lower ATAR will drop out either.

It just means that if any of these things do relate to you, you should keep a a closer eye on how you’re coping. Do you feel overwhelmed? Are you enjoying your courses? Did you enrol for the right reasons, or the wrong ones? (The right ones being a career! Enjoyment! The wrong ones being societal/parental pressure, feeling like “you may as well”.)

Because at the end of the day, you don’t want to rack up a HECS-HELP debt for no reason — students pay an average of $12,000 for courses they don’t complete. That’s not a small amount of change. And HECS-HELP isn’t free money — you will be paying it back eventually.

As the report notes, it’s not just up to the students. Universities should also take on some of the responsibility to ensure students succeed. “Universities should do more to follow up on students who are not engaged with their studies, to get them back on track or encourage them to leave before they accrue a HELP debt,” it says.