Retention a cause for concern in Queensland universities

August 27, 2013

Queensland’s universities were among the worst in the country for student retention, according to The Good Universities Guide 2014.

Griffith University, James Cook University, the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Southern Queensland each received one star in the Guide’s new ‘Student Retention’ rating, which is the first of its kind in Australia, while CQUniversity and Queensland University of Technology rated two stars.

This means that four of Queensland’s universities have a rate of student retention beyond the first year of study that, when compared to the national average, is low enough to put them in the bottom 20 per cent of Australian universities for retention.

So why is retention such an issue in Queensland? 

University of the Sunshine Coast Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill suggested that retention rates are generally lower in smaller regional universities for a number of reasons, including the greater financial pressures placed on regional students, the longer distances regional students need to travel and higher proportions of mature age students.

Professor Hill also said there is a “stepping stone” factor at USC, which means that around around a quarter of students who leave go on to study at other universities.

“Many of these students do one year here at home on the Sunshine Coast and then go elsewhere to do a course that we may not offer,” he said. “This is an important community service.”

Four of the state’s universities that received poor ratings for ‘Student Retention’ were also found by the Guide’s ‘Socioeconomic Equity’ rating to enrol a higher proportion of students from a low socioeconomic background, suggesting a correlation between poor retention and disadvantaged socioeconomic circumstances in Queensland.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Jan Thomas from the University of Southern Queensland, which received a five-star ‘Socioeconomic Equity’ rating, said that many of the university’s students come from low socioeconomic regions and are the first in their family to attend university.

"Universities in regional areas often need greater emphasis on supporting students as they often have backgrounds of low aspiration and educational disadvantage or extended periods away from education,” Professor Thomas said.

“Like a number of other regional universities, USQ has put in place targeted support programs for at-risk students that provide ongoing assistance, counselling and peer-to-peer mentoring.” 

Interestingly, NSW’s Charles Sturt University, the University of Newcastle and the University of Wollongong all managed to achieve five-star ‘Student Retention’ ratings despite their regional locations, indicating that regional universities interstate are capable of achieving retention rates that match or exceed metropolitan universities.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged students are being admitted to universities in greater numbers than ever before under the demand-driven funding system, which the federal government introduced to bolster its pledge that, by 2020, 20 per cent of undergraduate university enrolments will be from people of low socioeconomic backgrounds.

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