The Factors Affecting University Retention/ Attrition By Big Data Analytics

Abstract

[EN] Using the enrolment data at the Faculty of Business (FOB) in one Canadian University, we perform the big data analysis to examine the cause of attrition: a) the existence of potential risk group and b) the potential courses, which can be the predictors of student attrition in the first few years in the university. The logistic regression was used to find the potential predictors for students’ retention, and the cluster analysis also suggests the existence of inherently high-risk groups in students. By providing support for the high-risk group to successfully complete courses, the retention rate could be improved.