Abstract:

The landscape of higher education is continuously changing - from an institution for elites a few decades ago to one addressing the masses nowadays. In the context of globalisation and the increasing internationalisation of higher education institutions (HEIs), certain aspects like equity has become an important factor when considering recruitment, motivation and retention of students. A strategic project addressed this issue in Romania and formulated in 2013 several recommendations for higher education institutions. However, few concrete interventions materialised since, and even fewer reached an impact assessment phase. In this context, our aim was to monitor and adjust further interventions based on a recent (2017) experience in addressing this educational inequality issue through an institutional level project. The institution concerned is Babes-Bolyai University, one of the largest in the country and the one with the best overall performance in international rankings.

The purpose of our presentation is threefold.
(i) First, we present the results of testing the robustness of the socio-economic predictors in identifying first year bachelor students' vulnerability to academic drop-out - in terms of targeted recruitment - fitting two profiles at the same time: the one of ”university of proximity” and also of ”university of prestige”.
(ii) Secondly, we will present the preliminary results of the efficiency of a 2017 government funded academic support program aiming to increase the ratio of academic success in the case of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.
(iii) Thirdly, we will also discuss the efficiency of using a bottom-up approach in primary drop-out academic prevention (based on mainly socio-economic criteria such as: personal and geographical disadvantaged backgrounds, ethnicity, rural areas of origin and disability) in predicting and addressing the potential academic drop-out versus a top-down approach of testing/explaining the actual drop-out rate (mainly by the variance in the programmes' admissions criteria, the students’ prior academic success, followed by educational and personal background).

We used a quasi-experimental research design comparing the academic performance of three groups of students: two coming from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds (with and without participating in a program targeting to increase academic success) with a third of students coming from sound socio-economic and academic backgrounds.

Keywords:

Higher education, primary drop-out prevention, HEI`s equity, students` motivation, academic drop out.