Biyo-ekolojik Kuramın Gözünden Türkiye Yükseköğretiminde Öğrenci Kalıcılığı

Abstract

Higher education not only improves individuals academically, socially, and emotionally but also provides any capital for societies and states. In order to serve this purpose, retention of students in higher education gains importance. Higher education institutions have complex structures and processes such that their ecosystems are affected by both inner dynamics and outside pressure. However, a gap exists in the literature since student retention studies in the literature focused on narrower perspectives neglecting either micro scale issues or macro scale issues. Therefore, there is a need for extensive perspectives drawing big and comprehensive picture of student retention in Turkey. The current study aims to investigate student retention in higher education context of Turkey through the lenses of Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-ecological Theory and to compare and contrast with international literature. Considering layers of theory which are microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem, retention concept was discussed in the light of core ideas of each layer. Finally, it was concluded that higher education system in Turkey should consider inclusion of multidimensional approaches to improve student retention.