Why do we lose undergraduate physics students?

Abstract

The situation in physics teaching and issues such as physics students’ tertiary enrolment, attrition, persistence, attainment and rates of return to society is a matter of concern. One University in Ethiopia was used as case study to identify the salient attrition and retention factors associated with physics students with the purpose to propose a framework for student retention. Two rounds of the Delphi survey of academic managers, physics department staff members and science education researchers were employed. The first round focused primarily on the first objective (determining reasons of student attrition) and the second objective (how best to respond to student attrition). Three basic themes, namely: (i) cognitive attributes; (ii) institutional/departmental attributes and (iii) social interaction attributes were identified as salient attrition factors associated with the physics students along with possible reasons rated by participant expertise as high (mean score greater than 3.17). Department-wide retention theoretical constructs, namely: (i) student admission and placement; (ii) academic facilities; and (iii) physics curriculum and instruction were explored as framework that fits the needs of the students and institution. These indentified theoretical constructs could be informative to universities worldwide which can support academic managers optimize the implementation of an institutional-wide student retention framework.