UK universities predict record student dropout rate

LONDON: Record numbers of young people in the UK are starting a university course this autumn, with many anxious to escape a collapsing employment market. But as students embark on a very different university experience, vice-chancellors are worried that many may not last the year, foreign media reported.

Universities are reporting unprecedented pressure on their student hardship funds, after the abrupt loss of thousands of part-time student jobs in bars, restaurants and shops as a result of the pandemic. They fear students will be much less able to cope with the demands of their course if they are preoccupied with serious worries about paying for food or rent.

Meanwhile, experts are warning that this year’s freshers have “lost the discipline of learning”, having spent months at home with no A-level exams to revise for. They predict many will struggle to adapt to independent university study, especially as many classes will be online. They may be “digital natives”, but they are not used to online learning.

The head of one leading research university said that most prestigious universities had been factoring a rise in dropouts into their recruitment numbers.

The vice-chancellor of another university, in the elite Russell Group, said some students who had been given a place would not have met their offer requirements in an ordinary year, but had done so with teacher-assessed A-level grades. “We know they will struggle. I’m expecting that we may have a high dropout rate and that worries me. For an individual, the impact of dropping out can be far worse than not getting in in the first place.”

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank, says university bosses are right to be worried about dropout rates, which will be bad for both students and university finances. “To be frank, the university experience won’t be as good because so much has to be different, from how they are taught to how they socialise,” he says.

Many institutions are already facing an uncertain future. “If you lose a first year you don’t just lose their £9,250 fees for the year – you lose nearly £28,000 over the three years of their degree,” Hillman says.

At Kingston University, staff have been contributing out of their own pockets to an emergency campaign to help poorer students. Forty per cent of the university’s students are from households with an income of £25,000 or less a year, and the vast majority work to support themselves through their degrees. For them, the sudden loss of part-time jobs has been a disaster, and during lockdown Kingston paid out £900,000 to help.