Abstract
This literature review addresses higher education dropouts in five Costa Rican public universities. The objective is to synthesize current research on this issue and identify the students’ main motivations to quit studying a major and universities’ actions to deal with this problem. The relevance of this review lies in the importance for university authorities, professors, and students to understand a phenomenon that may have social and economic implications for society. This review is framed within higher education, especially on socioeconomic, pedagogical, psychological, and other factors that might be influencing student dropout. By conducting a meta-analysis of studies published in Costa Rican journals since 2000, the findings have been synthesized to determine the main variables responsible for student dropout in higher education. The results have confirmed that there are high levels of student dropout in various campuses of the public universities. Some majors have shown low graduation rates at a branch of the Universidad de Costa Rica. Furthermore, some faculties at Universidad Nacional and Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica are more prone to higher rates of student dropout. There have also been found factors responsible such as motivation and methodology at Universidad Técnica Nacional or the number of courses, difficulties in adapting to the academic demands of the courses, and lack of support at the Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad Estatal a Distancia, and Universidad Nacional. As a result of the information analyzed, diverse measures can be formulated to help more students finish their majors in the country’s public universities.
Presenters
Saiden Ortiz-GómezProfesor, Enseñanza del Inglés , Universidad de Costa Rica-Sede del Caribe, Limón, Costa Rica
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Dropout, Higher education, Costa Rica, Majors, Public universities
