Students buck the trend in Liverpool

Jul 27 2007 by Paula Owens, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL University is bucking the national trend for university drop-out numbers.

A new national report has found that thousands of students are not staying at their chosen university because of home-sickness or failure to make friends.

But according to figures for 2004-5, 91.5% of all first-year students remain at Liverpool University compared to the UK average of 88.5%.

However, according to the data, collated by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, Liverpool’s John Moores and Hope universities do not fare so well, falling below the national average with the former retaining 84.6% of first-year students and the latter 82.2%.

A spokeswoman for Liverpool University said: “Liverpool has an excellent track record in student retention which is underpinned by the support services we offer when students arrive at university.

“We are currently investing £200m in our capital programme which will add further to the unrivalled student experience at Liverpool.”

In a new report, the National Audit Office estimated that students who quit before graduating were losing a total of £30m in income which they would have earned with a degree.

About 28,000 full-time undergraduates who started courses in 2004-5 had left after a year, despite costing the taxpayer up to £13,700 each. Former polytechnics were among those with the worst retention rates.

The spending watchdog said the UK measured up well internationally.