Uni dropout rate focus

AN increasing number of external students is contributing to the University of Tasmania’s poor retention rates, a study by the Higher Education Standards Panel has found.

Latest data for the tertiary sector shows that Tasmania had an attrition rate of 33.64 per cent in 2015 — down from 37.7 per cent in 2014.

It came yesterday as Education Minister Simon Birmingham released a report on ways to improve the outcomes and prospects of higher education students in Australia.

“From 2020, additional funding for bachelor courses will be linked to performance outcomes,” he said.

“Linking funding to performance in areas such as completion and retention will encourage institutions to better support their students, which ultimately benefits them and delivers better value for taxpayers.”

External students, who are around 2½ times more likely to withdraw from higher education than internal students, are those that do not physically attend but study online or by correspondence.

The “Improving retention, completion and success in higher education” report by the Higher Education Standards Panel set out reforms to better support students throughout their studies.

“It’s clear there is still room for improvement with attrition rates having remained at a similar level for over a decade now,” Senator Birmingham said.

A panel discussion paper last year noted that the University of Tasmania was among four universities that accounted for more than half of all external students.

Charles Sturt University and the University of New England have a history of large external student numbers.

“In contrast, Swinburne University of Technology and University of Tasmania have increased their external student numbers significantly, correlating strongly with these institutions’ rising attrition rates over the same period,” the discussion paper said.

Tasmania’s attrition rate compares with a national aver- age of 15.18 per cent. A UTAS spokesman said it used “innovative pathways” to attract people to the university but accepted it must be delivered with an eye to ongoing improvements in attrition performance.

“And we have been making improvements in this area,’’ he said. “The latest figures, which are from 2015, show an attrition rate that is lower than the previous year and our own modelling shows that the downward trend will continue.”