IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v9y2021i3p130-141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

University Applicants from Refugee Backgrounds and the Intention to Drop Out from Pre‐Study Programs: A Mixed‐Methods Study

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Grüttner

    (DZHW—Educational Careers and Graduate Employment, German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies, Germany / LCSS—Leibniz Centre for Science and Society, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany)

  • Stefanie Schröder

    (Academic Quality Management and Higher Education Development, Bochum University of Applied Sciences, Germany)

  • Jana Berg

    (DZHW—Educational Careers and Graduate Employment, German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies, Germany)

Abstract

The mixed‐methods project WeGe investigates key factors for refugees’ integration into pre‐study programs and conditions for successful transitions to higher education institutions (HEIs). In this article, we first examine the dropout intentions of international students and refugee students participating in formal pre‐study programs at German HEIs to disclose both barriers and resources. We use insights from migration research to extend theoretical student dropout models and analyse novel data from a quantitative survey with international and refugee students in pre‐study programs. Our findings show that refugee students intend to drop out from pre‐study programs more often than other international students. This difference disappears when other characteristics are controlled for. Effect decomposition shows that financial problems and perceived exclusion are driving dropout intentions of refugee students, whereas German language use in everyday life and a strong connection to the prospective field of study function as a resource and reduce the dropout risk. Depending on the reference group, deficits or resources of refugee students become apparent. This result suggests that refugees should be addressed as a student group in their own right. As a second step, we analyse qualitative expert interviews to reconstruct the staff’s perspectives on barriers and resources of refugee students to analyse how the driving factors of dropout intentions are represented in their knowledge. In particular, we show if and how this knowledge is used to address refugees and to develop inclusive educational concepts within pre‐study programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Grüttner & Stefanie Schröder & Jana Berg, 2021. "University Applicants from Refugee Backgrounds and the Intention to Drop Out from Pre‐Study Programs: A Mixed‐Methods Study," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 130-141.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:130-141
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/4126
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marie-Agnès Détourbe & Gaële Goastellec, 2018. "Revisiting the Issues of Access to Higher Education and Social Stratification through the Case of Refugees: A Comparative Study of Spaces of Opportunity for Refugee Students in Germany and England," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-20, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liudvika Leišytė & Rosemary Deem & Charikleia Tzanakou, 2021. "Inclusive Universities in a Globalized World," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 1-5.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefanie Schröder, 2021. "Study Preparation of Refugees in Germany: How Teachers’ Evaluative Practices Shape Educational Trajectories," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 383-393.
    2. Gaële Goastellec & Jussi Välimaa, 2019. "Access to Higher Education: An Instrument for Fair Societies?," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 1-6.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:130-141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.