Factors affecting engineering students dropout: a case study

Engineering professions havea highdemand in the globallabor market but, in spite of this, thereare high dropout rates andlow graduation rates specially in engineering and STEM in general all over the world. A research has been conducted in thePolytechnic School of Co rdoba University (Spain) to determinate the reasons for engineering degree dropouts using datafrom a quantitative and qualitative survey (n = 315) and analyzing the behavior of students during a period of one year. Aset of causes of dropout and attrition has been identified, including students’ lack of motivation, bad planning of the courseby the students, high level of the course’s starting point, syllabus too long, too many targeted activities, exams too difficult,inadequate class timetables, and inadequate examinations calendars, as a consequence a set of measures to improve thesituation has been proposed.