Intensive Course Programme at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia: Finding Correlations between Course Shortcomings and High Dropout Rates

ICP in Saudi institutions of higher education is a university preparation course based on an academic curriculum aimed to hone the school leavers’ intellectual skills to succeed in the challenge of higher education. Universities all over the world, and especially in the west, offer similar programs, rather they mandate prospective international students whose mother tongue is other than English to opt for such programmes. These are popularly known as ESL (English as Second Language) intensive courses. In the KSA these are limited to the period at the very start of the academic session. However, in the west, students can opt for longer and more frequent programmes with the choice of sitting for these during the vacation periods. In this sense, they are more flexible to suit student needs. The aim is similar as that in KSA: To set the non-English speaking student at a language pedestal where he/she has a fair a chance to pursue higher education as the English-speaking one. Seen from this vantage, this is a bridge course to select incumbents for the English courses offered by the universities. Pilot studies in the KSA on the success of ICP failed to yield conclusive results amidst rising agreement to scrap the programme as tangible learning outcomes were not visible. However, before doing so it would have been worthwhile to find correlations. If any, between attrition rates and course shortcomings. This aim motivated the current study across three campuses in the departments of English at Qassim University Colleges of Sciences and Arts in Methnab, Al-Asyah, and Buraidah. The study collected all enrolment and follow up data for the three departments and interviewed fifteen subjects each from among those who completed the course but decided against pursuing higher education, those who dropped out before course completion, and those who enrolled for higher education after undertaking the ICP. Our greater concern was with those who dropped out during the course as they neither pursued higher education nor benefitted as they would have on completing the programme.