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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

Persistent Passion for Professional Education - Consequences for student completion and dropout

Alternative title: PERSIST: Fullføring og frafall i profesjonsutdanning

Awarded: NOK 12.6 mill.

The project has examined completion and drop-out from higher education. Comparison has been central in the project, both of different fields of study, institutions, and countries. In different ways, our project has demonstrated that dropout is caused by a multitude of factors, and that preventive measures against dropout need to be targeted both towards different groups of students, different educational fields, and different types of institutions. In WP1, we analysed register data from Statistics Norway, and found that the dropout rate is higher from traditional university studies than from short professional university college courses. This pattern is different in Denmark, where it is the university students who complete to the greatest extent, which in part may be due to the admission requirements for university studies being higher in Denmark. In Norway, less than half the students in social sciences, humanities and performing arts, complete their degrees, whereas in health-related programmes, three quarters complete their degrees. In general, students with working-class origin drop out more often than other students, but the size of this difference varies considerably between fields of study. It is greater in traditional university studies than in short applied professional educations. Fields that are both soft and pure, like humanities and social science, have the largest social inequalities in dropout, whereas in soft and applied educational fields, like teaching and social work, the social differences are small and insignificant after controlling for grades from upper secondary school. There is also a tendency for working-class students to transfer from university to university college more often, while students from the middle-class more often transfer in the opposite direction. This tendency is significantly stronger in Denmark than in Norway, which may be because the difference in academic orientation between universities and university colleges is significantly greater in Denmark than in Norway. In general, women have a somewhat lower propensity to drop out than men. For women, the dropout rate is higher in fields of study where women are in the minority, while being underrepresented is negatively correlated with dropout rates among men. We have also found that ethnic minorities have a lower completion rate than the majority in short welfare professional educations, with the exception of minority students with good grades from upper secondary school. In WP2, we analyse questionnaire data combined with register data from Statistics Norway, and analysis show that motivation predicts the probability of dropping out differently for different educational groups and for different student groupings (e.g., for women and men in the same education). High intrinsic motivation is negatively correlated with dropout among nursing students, while in business administration, students who rate external motives (such as high social status and income) highly, have the lowest dropout rates. In WP3, we have carried out a qualitative comparative study of nursing students in Norway and Great Britain. In both countries, nursing students differ from traditional university students in that they perceive the study as something they have to endure and in that their motivation is linked to the profession it leads to rather than to the education itself. The students' social and academic integration processes are often interrupted by shifts between practice and academic sites, combined with institutional practices which encourage frequent changes of peer group, physical location, and academic network. The students' dedication to the nursing profession at the start of their studies is far more important for their persistence than the social and academic integration at the place of study. In such vocationally oriented professional educations, the challenges associated with preventing student dropouts are therefore different than in traditional university studies. WP4 analyses register data from Statistics Norway and examines the possible labour market consequences of dropping out of higher education. We found that those who drop out fare somewhat better in the labour market in Norway than in Denmark. In both countries, however, the average income is lower and unemployment higher among those who drop out than among those who complete. On the other hand, those who drop out do better in the labour market than those who never start studying. Social background appears to be more important for the labour market situation of dropouts than for those who complete a higher education degree, so high social background compensates for some of the labour market penalty of dropping out. This difference seems to be somewhat greater in Norway than in Denmark. We have also found that the penalties for not completing a higher education degree are larger among immigrants than for the native majority.

Hvilken betydning og nytteverdi forskningsresultatene vil komme til å ha på lang sikt og på samfunnsnivå, er vanskelig å si noe sikkert om på det nåværende tidspunkt. Hvor stor usikkerheten er avhenger imidlertid av for hva eller hvem vi snakker om betydning og nytte for. For forskningsfeltet tror vi at det vil få betydning ved at vi har nyansert teorier og oppfatninger av frafallsfenomenet. Særlig har vi lagt vekt på viktigheten av skille mellom ulike utdanningsprogrammer, utdanningsinstitusjoner og mellom ulike studentgrupper. Studenter ved ulike utdanninger har ulike typer motiver for å velge utdanning, noe som med stor sannsynlighet også vil ha konsekvenser for frafall og for effekten av mulige forebyggende tiltak. Det kvalitative delprosjektet har avdekket at for korte anvendte, profesjonsutdanninger med betydelige innslag av praksisopplæring som sykepleieutdanning, er tradisjonelle forklaringsmodeller, som f.eks. Tintos, utilstrekkelige for å forstå frafall og fullføring. Den store variasjonen mellom land, utdanningsretninger og typer utdanningsinstitusjoner har også bidratt til å utvide vår forståelse av fenomenet. En av fagfellene som vurderte en av våre artikler for British Journal of Sociology skrev f.eks. følgende: “In addition to the paper’s empirical novelty, there is therefore also theoretic originality in what it contributes and offers to researchers in the sociology of higher education and in the broader area of stratification. I appreciate the opportunity afforded by the authors to read this work. I look forward to using and working with it, and to seeing how it draws other researchers in considering the importance of field variation in higher education processes.” Prosjektet har også vært nyttig for prosjektdeltagernes kompetanseutvikling. Spesielt viktig har det nok vært for postdoktoren og ph.d.-stipendiaten, men også de mer erfarne prosjektdeltagerne har lært mye gjennom prosjektet. For høyere utdanning og for utdanningsinstitusjonene gjenstår det å se hvilken nytte prosjektet vil ha. Men mange av deltagerne på den brukerrettede konferansen vi avholdt i desember 2022 ga uttrykk for at de fant den svært nyttig, og det gjorde også en administrator av sykepleierutdanning da vi sendte henne artikler vi har skrevet om nettopp sykepleieutdanning. Vi har også presentert en del foreløpige resultater for ansatte i Kunnskapsdepartementet som ga uttrykk for at de fant det nyttig. Hvorvidt det får konsekvenser for praktisk politikk, og i neste omgang for nasjonale eller fagspesifikke frafallsrater, gjenstår å se.

This project examines higher education (HE) dropout, with a particular focus on professional education, such as in nursing, teaching and social work. The project consists of four work packages. WP1 analyses registerdata to chart differences and similarities across programmes and disciplines in completion and dropout, and to provide in-depth knowledge about the professional degrees in focus. Further, through comparative analyses of Danish and Norwegian registerdata, we will improve the understanding of differences and similarities across HE-systems. WP2 aims to test Tinto's paradigmatic model for student departure, by using StudData to explore issues of commitment and integration. Commitment will be operationalized as professional commitment and job values, which is measured both at the start and at the end of the program. Hence, providing a unique opportunity to investigate how well Tinto's model work in other HE-settings other than the US one. WP3 has a qualitative approach, focusing on students' academic experience, their experience of professional placement and possible implications of their experiences for retention and completion. By mirroring a similar project in the UK, interviews with students and academic staff will be used to identify concerns and challenges nursing students face, prior to entry and during their HE-career. To ensure comparability we will collaborate closely with the researcher who conducted the UK study. WP4 compares labour market outcomes of programme completers and non-completers, and we assess labour market implications of non-completion. Registerdata makes possible analyses of the outcomes labour market status, employment, income and occupation. These analyses will be compared to similar analyses of Danish registerdata, to examine whether country differences in completion rates may be partly explained by labour market differences in the two countries.

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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren