Attrition and new entry pathways: factors contributing toward attrition for students entering an Australian university through new VET entry pathways

This PhD thesis forwards a new (multi-level) theoretical model that seeks to explain attrition amongst first year university students that enter though vocational education and training (VET) entry pathways in a university where such students may be considered to be part of a numerical minority group. In particular, the model, or models, presented seek to account for the theorized effect of the VET student 'Peer Group Sizes'. The model is tested using a comprehensive data set collected for 140 VET pathway students that had entered an Australian university between 2005 and 2012. Using HLM modelling, the size of the VET entrant (program-level) group is shown to have a significant moderating influence on student level attrition for the sample of students. Of note also, one newly theorized variable, Academic Efficiency, is shown to have a significant indirect mediating influence on student attrition.

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