Why do black students quit university more often than their white peers?

an article by Georgina Lawton published in the Guardian (17 January 2018)

Kaya is one of a worrying number of black higher-education students who have failed to make it to graduation day. A recent study found that 10.3% of black students quit university early in England, compared with 6.9% for the student population as a whole.

“I had so many racially-tinted, miserable experiences at my university,” says Kaya, who has asked the Guardian not to use her real name. “My male housemate used to say the ‘n-word’ in front of me, bragged about the fact he’d once racially abused a man in a club, and was so aggressive when I asked him to stop. Yet when I told my university counsellor, she said I couldn’t know for sure if my housemate was actually racist ... that I needed to live and let live.”

Kaya completed just under two years of her sociology degree before quitting. “I felt as if I was going crazy in my own home, and the counsellor exacerbated that by not taking my distress seriously.”

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An Information System for Coping with Student Dropout

an article by Ester Aflalo and Eyal Gabay (Hemdat Hadarom College, Israel) published in International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education Volume 7 Issue 3 (July-September 2011)

Abstract

Student dropout prevention is one of the most important challenges of the education system. This study examines the effectiveness of a Local Authority Information Center (LAIC), developed in Israel to cope with that problem. The research population included 418 regular attendance officers (RAOs), educators who deal with students who drop out and those who are at risk of dropping out. The RAOs were divided into an experimental group, who performed their work using the information system, and a control group who used manual means.

The research findings show that the information system improved the comprehensive nature of the information and its relevance for students at risk of dropping out, and resulted in an increase in the number of students treated by the RAOs. This improvement was maintained over a period of three years. The LAIC is likely to offer an effective and professional approach to reducing the problem of student dropout.

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RETAIN Conference

Careers Europe Newsflash:

RETAIN Conference takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden from 22 to 23 October 2009

In most European countries drop out from education and training is a major issue. Young people lacking proper qualifications and exams have difficulties finding stable jobs and the risk of unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, is much higher among this group.

The RETAIN project is a 2 year project, funded with support from the European Commission, to identify innovative approaches to retention. The the project is developing a manual/hand-book for teachers, trainers, mentors and guidance counsellors and training sessions built on the manual/hand-book.

A conference to present the results will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden this October. There is no delegate fee for the conference (although delegates will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs).

For more information and to register see: www.retainproject.net/English/Partners/Events/Events.htm

Retain is a project supported by the European Commission's Life Long Learning Programme

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