The impact of student dropouts on Scotland’s Widening Access Agenda

The student dropout problem has historically attracted worldwide curiosity, where using a wide-range of predictors is common practice; from academic information – prior attainment, degree programme, faculty – to contextual background – sex, school attended, socio-economic status. Since 2016, the Scottish Government’s “Widening Access” agenda has been to ensure that by 2030, students from the most deprived areas are equally represented within higher education. Since 2021, this agenda has been shifting towards also ensuring these students are retained and successfully graduate – in other words, that they do not dropout. This research re-examines literature and methodology on the student dropout problem with reference to the Scottish context. The aim is to highlight how analysing student dropout data can contribute to global conversations on educational policy on both the institution and national level. In Scotland, for example, this could lead to more informed key performance indicators for the entire higher education sector and measure progress towards the Government’s Widening Access targets.