Here, almost half drop out – VG

Figures from the Database of Higher Education Statistics (DBH) show that the problem is less in other institutions, writes Forskerforum.

Since 2016, only one in three UiO students has completed their degree. By comparison, half were completed on time at UiA and NTNU.

– Students change their minds

The institution highlights the Faculty of Humanities (HF) of the UiO. They have the highest dropout rate in the country, at 43 percent.

Vice Dean Gunn Enli tells Forskerforum that there is a known problem at the faculty. She says one of the reasons for the high dropout rate is that many students don’t know what they want to become.

– A large group of students change their minds during the first year of study. Those who drop out do so early in the career, Enli tells the forum.

According to the UiO website, the BA in Philosophy, History and Musicology is part of the HF faculty.

Universities are improving

The DBH figures show that the country’s colleges have a higher degree of implementation than universities. According to Forskerforum art academies are at the top with 77 percent completion in standard time. There are more than half as many endings as UiO.

– Why does UiO excel at defection?

– We are a university in the capital. The location means there are more students and more opportunities for re-election. Something may also be due to students working together and wanting academic make-up, but don’t want a degree, Enli tells VG.

Doesn’t lead to a profession

Many of the faculty study programs are called disciplinary subjects, which do not lead to a clear profession. The opposite will be professional subjects, such as a teacher or physiotherapist.

Previously, the forum has written that humanists struggle the hardest to land relevant full-time work.

Enli says they are working to make HF programs more relevant to working life.

– Are students afraid to complete a bachelor’s degree without a job at the other end?

– There is probably a great variation in the student body at this point, but we must not forget that it is the young people who complete them to a greater extent, precisely those who have their working life ahead of them, says Vice Dean Enli to VG.

Director Seunn Smith-Tønnessen of the University of Agder (UiA) tells the forum that there is a big difference between professional and disciplinary subjects.

– Compared to UiO, UiA has various professional backgrounds, such as teacher and nurse training, where implementation is usually high.

You need a better dialogue with the students

Beginning with the 2019/2020 school year, the requirement that students must complete the degree to receive a full scholarship was also introduced.

Elisabeth Novdhaugen is a researcher at Nifu and has worked extensively with dropouts in higher education. She tells Forskerforum that there is limited research on what kinds of measures work against dropouts.

– Most do not finish completely, but start another study, says Hovdhaugen to Forskerforum.

She believes that universities should have a dialogue with students at the beginning of their studies to identify who plans to complete the degree. Vice Dean Gunn Enli says they have implemented various measures and, among other things, have focused on the relevance of working life and career planning during the course of studies.

– It takes a long time to measure the effect, because we have to measure the entire carbon. We have better tools than before and the measures we are working on now are more comprehensive and specific, Enli concludes.