Although figures on student completion and drop-out rates can be obtained from the statistical branches of the further and higher education funding councils, different sectors define and measure completion and non completion in different ways and blanket figures camouflage considerable differences between institutions and subject disciplines. Completion rates vary significantly according to the type and size of institution, the student cohort, the subject studied, the qualification sought and attendance mode. The completion rates of adult learners are particularly difficult to determine as statistics are not usually disaggregated according to different age cohorts and adult learning patterns tend to be part-time and spasmodic. Flexible learning patterns, modularised courses and transfers between learning modes, courses and institutions. The terminology used for abandonment of a course of study implies that leaving a course of study is always a negative step and non completion statistics often lump together those who have left because of academic failure, transferred to other courses or institutions or been obliged to interrupt a course for reasons related to employment, caring responsibilities, maternity or ill health.
Many tutors object to the term 'drop-out' being applied to all students who fail to complete.
Moreover, it is frequently found that non attending students intend to return to study when their personal circumstances allow. From an administrative point of view, however, they are deemed to have 'dropped out' if they fail to return within the cut-off periods specified by the funding councils. Students usually abandon courses of study not for a single reason but for a mixture of causal factors. Often they have received little or prior information and preparation for the courses they follow. 12.00 Additional support, retention and guidance in urban colleges Adjei Barwuah, Muriel Green and Liz Lawson.