Abstract
Ensuring student success has long been on the research agenda in higher education. In this study, we seek to understand if the changes students make in light of academic failure are consistent with this literature. Little is known about students who fail but subsequently persist in their studies. Through an online survey with students who had failed and persisted, we identified drivers for persistence and how students adapted in response to academic failure. Thematic analysis showed that the majority of students did not seek institutional support following academic failure but they did seek support from peers, family and friends. These adaptations occurred at multiple levels: dispositional, situational and institutional. Drivers reported were internal (desire to complete) and external (desire to meet expectations). Although the majority of our students showed positive adaptations following academic failure, a significant portion reported no changes to their academic strategies. The paper poses the question of how students who fail can be better supported to continue successfully.
Highlights
Academic failure is relatively common in higher education
Academic failure contributed a four-fold increase to the risk attrition compared to students who did not fail a unit of study (Ajjawi, Dracup, Zacharias, Bennett, & Boud, 2019)
The current paper answers the following specific research questions: 1) What are the drivers for persisting following academic failure? 2) How do students adapt in response to academic failure?
Summary
Our own analysis of 2016-17 institutional data from a large, comprehensive Australian university showed that the incidence of academic failure varied across courses with roughly 40% of students failing one or more academic units during their degree. Academic failure contributed a four-fold increase to the risk attrition compared to students who did not fail a unit of study (Ajjawi, Dracup, Zacharias, Bennett, & Boud, 2019). Academic failure is often attributed to multiple factors, which suggests that multiple strategies are required for successful course completion following a failure. The diversification of the student body including “the growing realities of non-linear student pathways, diverse student cohorts, and increasingly partial, part-time, deferred and liminal enrolment status” attunes us to the need for flexible and tailored/individualised support strategies
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