Student Persistence At And Drop-Out From Universitas Terbuka (The Open University Of Indonesia)

Putra, Anak Agung Made Sastrawan (1993) Student Persistence At And Drop-Out From Universitas Terbuka (The Open University Of Indonesia). Masters thesis, University of Victoria.

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Abstract

Drop-out has been a problem at Universitas Terbuka (UT), The Open University of Indonesia. Many efforts have been made to reduce the drop-out rate and to increase student persistence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of students who persist and those who drop-out from the UT program. In this study, a persister was defined as a student who had already completed 120 credit hours of courses with a grade point average of not less than 2.0. A drop-out was a student who did not register in any courses for more than four consecutive semesters. Differences in characteristics between persisters and drop-outs were examined. Individual characteristics, institutional environment and integration, social integration, and goal and institutional commitments were chosen as variables to examine both persisters and drop-outs. Questionnaires were developed around these categories. The questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 1200 students (400 persisters and 800 drop-outs), with 482 subjects (195 persisters and 287 drop-outs) returning the survey materials. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were utilized to analyze the data. In general, individual characteristics such as age, educational background, and employment status tended to be associated with student persistence or drop-out from UT. Both groups of respondents felt satisfied with the academic environment and integration; however, social integration was low in both groups. The most significant indicator that differentiated persisters from drop-outs at UT was goal and institutional commitments. Persisters tended to have a higher level of goal and institutional commitment than drop-outs.

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