Student Drop‐out from German Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

28% of students of any one year currently give up their studies in bachelor degree programmes at German higher education institutions. Drop‐out is to be understood as the definite termination in the higher education system without obtaining an academic degree. The drop‐out rate is thereby calculated with the help of statistical estimation procedures on the basis of cohort comparisons. Based on Tinto's ‘student integration model’, German research on higher education has experienced partially different developments of theoretical approaches to student drop‐out. Today, preference goes to those models of drop‐out that describe the issue as a complex process in which individual, institutional and social factors affect the socialisation in the education process and studies. According to the findings of empirical studies, the inability to cope with the performance‐related demands of the higher education institution, wrong expectations and less identification with the subject, as well as problems in financing studies are considered to be the most important reasons for dropping out. Higher education institutions and higher education policy in Germany react to this situation with broad assistance measures that include the flexibilisation of the curricula, better information for students and the expansion of the support offered during the start of the studies.