Causes of Early Termination of University Studies in Relation to the Existence of Bridging Courses from the Perspective of Students and their Teachers

The paper deals with the issue of early termination of university studies and summarizes the results of an international survey on the existence of bridging courses for high school graduates entering the 1st year of science studies. The introduction describes the current situation at universities and technical colleges, and points out a number of factors that cause early termination. Based on the analysis of student failures in the first year of undergraduate study of teacher training in science and mathematics, a research survey was conducted in the Czech Republic in cooperation with universities in Austria, Slovakia, Lithuania and Italy. The aim of the research was to describe and analyze the current state of the so-called bridging courses for students of natural sciences and to verify other possibilities of implementing these courses at participating universities. Within the survey, the method of qualitative research was used, and an induction procedure with the following phases was used: formulation of the research question, data collection, data evaluation and formulation of conclusions. In the end, the results of research at individual universities, including their analysis, are presented. At the same time, recommendations are given for the creation of further courses, namely in physics, chemistry and biology, which will be prepared within the international project ERASMUS + Bridge2Teach.