Why is there a high dropout rate in South African universities?
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| Source: UPTuks twitter |
Dropping out of university refers to students who give up on their studies before they finish their academic programme. In south african universities it is very common that students drop out after their first year of study. It has been found that 50-60 percent of South African students drop out during their first year of study (Dr. Andre van Zyl, 2015).
Financial problems
According to research it is said
that the main reason why many student dropout during their first year of study
is because of financial problems (Karen Mac Gregor, 2007). Many students do not
usually realise that the cost of studying at a university/technikon is much
higher than the cost of high school studies for most schools in South Africa.
Only very few of the students who enroll in university come from expensive high
schools which are equal or higher in cost than south african universities. The
majority of students who do not come from these expensive schools are usually
surprised when they have to pay registration fees which are near the same amount
of money they usually pay for a whole high school year. Some even end up not
registering for their courses. But fortunately for students there are many ways
of finding funding for their studies such as the National Student Financial Aid
Scheme (NSFAS), bursary schemes, loans, scholarships and other funding.
Academic pressure
Another reason students end up
dropping out of university is because most students find it difficult to adapt
to university academic pressures which are usually a lot higher than that of
high school pressures. These students usually find the academic pressure
overwhelming because each course they do requires so much time from the
students and has assignments which are set independently from the other
courses. This pressure is usually at its peak during the first few weeks of the
semester which then leads to some of the students changing their original
course of study to something else earlier on the year. Other students usually
find the exam period quite stressful because to most of these students the exam
period is a time to catch up as they were not working hard throughout the
semester. This then increases the dropout rate since these students decide to
abandon their original course of study after their first semester as they see
they will not be able to pass enough courses to avoid exclusion at the end of
the year.
Social life
The social life in university is
quite different to that of high school. In high school most students live at
the home and have less freedom of doing what they want to and are therefore
confined to their parents will. For those students who live in boarding schools
their freedom is limited by the rules of the boarding school making the
students less likely to make irresponsible decisions. In University on the other
hand, most students live in University Residences which usually have less rules
than school hostels. When students arrive at university they are introduced to
a more social aspect of university known as orientation week, orientation week
is usually a very fun experience because many events take place and many
students are under the impression that the rest of the year will be an
orientation week and end up not putting as much effort in their academic work
than they do in their social life. Which then leads to failing of courses and
dropping out to avoid exclusions from the university.
Teaching environment
The teaching environment in high school is
very strict. There are attendance registers taken to ensure that learners are
attending all of their classes, which ensures that they are learning as much as
possible. As a University student it is
assumed that you have matured enough to make responsible decisions. As a result in university most lectures do
not take attendance registers and have no contact whatsoever with your parents
to try and find out why you do not attend lectures. This is a dream come
through to most high school learners. But is a lead to failure for some
students in university because some students see this as an opportunity for
them to bunk lectures which makes them more vulnerable to failing courses. Some
students think that they can get better marks if they study on their own
instead of attending lectures. But this is not the case. The work in University
is usually much harder than the standard matric work so it becomes very
important that students help each other with the work, this is what the
tutorial sessions are used for.
Forced into doing a course
Another popular cause of dropouts
is when students are forced into a certain course by their parents. These
students end up doing this course without a slight passion for it and end up
not putting much effort in their studies which results in them not performing
as well as they should be. Some students end up dropping the course after some
time increasing the dropout rate.
In conclusion, there are many reasons for dropouts in South
African University, more reasons and other university experiences will be
discussed in articles to come. For further reading go to http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20071025102245380
and http://www.enca.com/south-africa/student-dropout-rate-high
