Can Big Data Analysis Stop Students From Dropping Out of University?

If Canadian universities were private corporations, their customer turnover rates would be ruinous. Up to 20 per cent of students quit university, never to return to any postsecondary program, while 20 to 50 per cent drop out of the program they had initially chosen.

Of course, students are not customers, and universities are not businesses. Yet in many ways, they face similar challenges. Like businesses, universities invest in marketing their wares and retaining students. Like customers, students sample the product, stay loyal to a brand, or look elsewhere. Deciding to drop out, however, has lifelong consequences – for society and for students.

“For students, leaving is a failure,” said Harvey Weingarten, the executive director of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, an Ontario-government-funded think tank that has researched many programs aimed at helping students to graduate. “There is a loss of confidence, there is a psychological cost of failure.” And there are tangible costs, too. University and college graduates have higher lifetime earnings, are in better health and have closer ties to their communities than high-school grads.

More information: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/can-big-data-analysis-stop-students-from-dropping-out-of-university/article31939870/