Conclusion
Non-completion is of considerable significance to any government which is concerned to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of its national system of higher education. The study reported here shows that non-completion in England is costly. Non-completion has complex causes, some of which can be addressed by institutions and some on a supra-institutional basis: some causes are related to situations which are beyond the powers of institutions or systems to resolve.
The difficulty of attributing causes of non-completion makes the non-completion rate problematic as a performance indicator. The incorporation of non-completion data into funding methodology would be likely to have pernicious side-effects, but scrutiny of institutional efforts to deal with non-completion may be a more effective approach to the reduction of non-completion.
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Yorke, M. Undergraduate non-completion in England: Some implications for the higher education system and its institutions. Tert Educ Manag 4, 59–70 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02679397
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02679397