Strategies to improve retention of postgraduate business students in distance education courses: An Australian case

D Carroll; E Ng; Dawn Birch

Back

Strategies to improve retention of postgraduate business students in distance education courses: An Australian case

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Strategies to improve retention of postgraduate business students in distance education courses: An Australian case

D Carroll, E Ng and Dawn Birch

Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, Vol.14(1), pp.140-153

2013

Files and links (1)

pdf

PDF - Published Version (Open Access)191.42 kBDownload View

Published VersionPDF - Published Version (Open Access)CC BY-NC-SA V4.0, Open Access

Abstract

Education Systems

Australia

distance education

postgraduate

retention strategies

student retention

In spite of the clear value of postgraduate business students to many providers of distance education courses, the factors affecting the retention of these students have received limited attention in the literature. In addressing this gap, this paper presents the findings of a qualitative study into the factors affecting the retention of postgraduate business students at a major Australian distance education university. The findings of this study suggest that a range of situational, dispositional and attitudinal factors impact upon student retention on this context, both as enablers of and obstacles to ongoing participation. In many cases, these factors differ to those identified in the existing literature on student retention. Based on these findings, we present a range of strategies designed to improve the retention of postgraduate business students by maximising enabling factors and minimising the impact of any identified obstacles. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented.

Details

Title: Strategies to improve retention of postgraduate business students in distance education courses: An Australian case
Authors: D Carroll (Author) - Graduate Careers Australia
E Ng (Author) - University of Southern Queensland
Dawn Birch (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Business
Publication details: Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, Vol.14(1), pp.140-153
Publisher: Anadolu Universitesi
Date published: 2013
ISSN: 1302-6488
Copyright note: Copyright © 2013 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; USC Business School - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450175402621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

25 File views/ downloads

822 Record Views