Determinants of Student Dropout in Higher Education: A Case Study of Surkhet Multiple Campus, Nepal

Student dropout in higher education represents one of the most persistent challenges to educational equity and institutional effectiveness worldwide. This research examined the dropout rates of students enrolled in the Faculty of Education at Surkhet Multiple Campus, a constituent campus of Tribhuvan University in Nepal, using a mixed-methods case study design for five consecutive intakes between 2017/18 and 2021/22. The quantitative data, obtained through institutional records, and the qualitative data, gained through the interviews with dropout students, faculty members, and administrators (15 dropout students, 5 faculty members, and 3 administrators), were analyzed using a mixed-method case study design. The findings showed a total cumulative decline in the number of students who dropped out (2,226 out of 4,061 students enrolled), with an average dropout rate of 54.07%. Although the first-year turnover was low in the first two cohorts, subsequent intakes, especially those of the COVID-19 pandemic, experienced significantly higher attritions, with the first-year dropout increasing to over 13%. The second year proved to be the most vulnerable period with the attrition rates of more than 18 to 24% in a number of intakes. The fourth (2020/21) was an extraordinary year with student union elections artificially increasing enrollment, which then led to an unprecedented first-year dropout rate of 26.66%. These data suggest that financial strain, academic unpreparedness, psychological strain, crisis disturbance, and political enrollment relations were all factors that led to attrition. It concludes that the phenomenon of dropout in Surkhet Campus is not a single phenomenon but a systemic problem. Specific financial assistance, organized academic assistance in the initial years, improved counselling services, and institutional changes to stop politically motivated admissions should be the appropriate measures taken.