In the last academic year 31 755 full-time higher education students dropped out of study (Higher Education Statistics Agency 2012).
But is there a common cause? Students have been found to typically demonstrate mixed motives for enrolling onto a higher education programme and the wrong motives may lead to the development of a sense of helplessness and incompetence leading to disengagement and performance difficulties (Hill 2011). Such students then become motivationally vulnerable and at risk of drop-out.
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