Factor that Impact Attrition and Retention Rates Among Accountancy Diploma Students : Evidence from Saudi Arabia

Studies to current day that examined dropout factors at higher education institutions has inclined to emphasis on groups of factors which may or may not influence college dropout. Also such studies are mainly focused on one-institution. This study expands the current literature and developed a model to assess attrition. Three essential groups of factors which influence dropout are acquired into the model. These are external factors, internal faculty factors, and demographic factors. The model was then tried on diploma accounting students and departmental heads of community colleges that offering accountancy diploma programs in Saudi Arabia. The model recognized numerous impacting factors from the three essential groups. Acceptable clarifications were also accessible as to why additional factors were not found to be important, in this specific challenging environment. The model is also helpful in that it offer an opportunity to assess whether some factors are more significant than others in impacting dropout rates in any specific setting. The outcomes are also important in that the model proves the tendency for factors impacting dropout are vary from institution to institution. The outcomes also exposed some arguments between the reasons specified by students and administrators as to the causes of dropout. The model can be tried in other countries and other setting (universities) not just community colleges settings