Remain or Quit?

Through-put in Educational Programmes and Student Trajectories in Swedish Higher Education

In recent year, throughput has been subject of focus in higher education. Several reports show that many university educations have low throughput numbers. The issue primarily concern education programs that are aimed at professions where there is also a shortage of labor, such as technicians, engineers, nurses, social workers, police officers, preschool teachers, primary school teachers, and upper secondary teachers. Additionally, it is not uncommon that it concerns educations that have difficulty recruiting students and where student spots are empty from the start. This makes questions on throughput even more acute.

Research on drop-out and throughput shows that the phenomenon is complex and requires multifaceted studies. However, there is a lack of a more comprehensive perspective that compares both similar and different types of programs and takes into account how students move within the system and in and out of the labor market. The aim of the project is to broaden the understanding of student drop-out rates by analyzing students' entire trajectories through higher education and into working life, and which places the throughput of higher education in a social, cultural, meritocratic, and geographical context.

To achieve the purpose of the project, four sub-studies are carried out that focus on three levels: a national and overall, a comparative education analysis and two case studies, one on an individual education and one with a focus on study support for students with disabilities. The first study covers all types of education and higher education institutions in the country and is analyzed over time, from 1993 to 2024. The comparative education analysis focuses on a number of vocational education and training programs, as recruitment and throughput problems are often most acute in these. The primary teacher program is selected because it is offered at a large number of higher education institutions, because that there is a shortage of teachers and that drop-out rates sit on a problematic level.

The project has a sociological basis in education and uses a wide range of methods, from statistical methods such as regression analysis, geometric data analysis and network analysis to interviews and observations.