AN OPPORTUNITY MISSED: FEATURES OF COLLEGE DROPOUTS A CASE STUDY: THE ACADEMIC COLLEGE OF JUDEA AND SAMARIA

The massification of higher education, which took place since the second half of the 20th century, gave rise to the grave problem of student dropout. The paper deals with the issue of student attrition and student retention. It presents a case study examining the profile of college dropouts and their reasons for dropping out of undergraduate studies at the Academic College of Judea and Samaria (below: ACJS) in Israel. The paper compares dropout rates worldwide and nationwide. It then proceeds to analyze the profile of the 1,580 students, who dropped out of studies in the years 2001-2005.The authors' analysis is based on both computerized data of the college and a representative sample survey. Following Tinto's Student Integration Model and Bean's Model of Student Departure the authors dwell on the interplay between the academic system and the social system, between institutional variables, personal variables, background variables and study system variables as contributor to withdrawal from studies. The paper attempts to define the term “dropout” and distinguishes between those who withdraw from studies altogether and those who transfer to other schools. It illustrates the dropouts' profile and illuminates predictors to help locating potential dropouts and students likely to transfer to other schools.