The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2024 Official Conference Proceedings

Abstract

University attrition rate is increasing around the world and there is a consequence for the student who is dropping out, the university, and society as a whole including costs, psychological issues associated with the perceived feeling of failure, and issues around employability and job satisfaction (Sosu & Pheunpha, 2019). The university attrition rate is increasing in Mongolia too. About 80% of the students who study at the Teachers' School, Mongolian National University of Education (MNUE) are from the country of Mongolia and most of them come to the capital city to do their tertiary education. Due to the differences between rural and urban lifestyles, and expectations of tertiary education, the dropout rate is increasing especially at the beginning of the first semester. There is an urgent need to better understand the need to drop out of the university and find ways to support these students to adjust to university life and life outside the university. This study aims to explore the issues associated with adjusting to university studies and its relationship with attrition. It used the SPSS-20 program to collect data from 80 first-year students. The findings revealed that the students needed support in many aspects of their studies, including support with time management, stress management, and well-being. The study suggests policymakers and university managers to develop a plan to better support students to seamlessly transition into the university and life outside the university during the first half of the first semester.