Examining the antecedents of dropping out of higher education and identifying prevention solutions Study context: Catalan public universities

Higher education dropout has been considered a major concern for several researchers in the field of education around the World. Although different studies were carried out to deal with the topic, they all faced common limitations. This PhD thesis explores the twofold research conducted to investigate higher education dropout in Education studies at two of the main Catalan public universities. First, a review of the different theoretical perspectives that tackled dropout was carried out to combine the direct and indirect dropout predictors. The study investigates the antecedents of higher education dropout in the selected Catalan public universities by focusing on their faculties of Education to identify their main predictors of dropout. Second, the study identifies the prevention solutions implemented in the faculties to understand the gap and come up with some innovative strategies and advice to help in decreasing dropout rate. The utilized instruments are document analysis, interviews and surveys. The findings were analyzed through the mixed method, and  revealed that dissatisfaction from the program and academic failure are the most important antecedents of higher education dropout in education studies in Catalonia. This study discussion has lead to two models that dealt with the limitations of previous studies. One model projects the predictors of higher education dropout in a 5-layer figure called the “Dimensions of Academic Dropout” wheel and the second presents ways to institutions to support students and prevent dropout during the student´s study journey and it is called “Student Support Model for Higher Education Institutions”.