The Analysis of the Factors That Weaken Engineering Students' Engagement and Lead Them to Transfer to Other Universities

Abstract

The purpose of current study is to analyze the factors that weaken students' engagement and lead them to transfer to other universities in Turkey. This study focuses on the engagement of engineering students with a qualitative descriptive design. Participants of the study are composed of the total 13 students who had been transferred from some other universities and enrolled in a new university in different engineering departments. Participants were selected by criterion and snowball sampling methods. In the study, the data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically. From the data, three main themes were emerged as student level factors, institution level factors and environmental factors weakening student engagement and leading them to transfer. When compared with the western college engagement and retention literature, it was found that there are several different factors related to educational aspirations, program characteristics, faculty-student interaction and external environment (characteristics of the city the university located in). Based on the findings of the study, some recommendations for universities, policy makers and researchers were provided.