Figures have shown that the student drop-out rate has remained the same at the University of York but has increased nationally.
In 2008/9 four per cent of students withdrew from the University, while in 2009/10 the amount of students dropping out decreased to three per cent. There was an increase of four per cent from 2010/11, a figure which has remained the same for 2011/12 and for the current academic year so far.
However, nationally there has been a rise of 13 per cent in university drop-out rates, with an increase of 31,755 students from 28,210 in 2011.
The National Union of Students (NUS) have conducted a survey that has revealed that 42 per cent of students have considered dropping out of university, with financial worries being the main reason cited.
The NUS President Liam Burns has stated that young people currently have a strong “sense of desperation” about their futures.
Many universities in Britain have experienced a huge drop-out rate of students including the University of Bolton, which holds the worst drop-out rate with 21.4 per cent of students quitting university after a year. The drop-out rates have risen to almost a third at the University of the Highlands in Scotland, and it has been estimated that in some universities more than one in seven students have dropped out.
In Wales figures show that the drop-out rate has raised to nine per cent from 7.4 per cent in 2009/10. The Higher Education Wales Chair John Hughes has stated that the economic downturn is a reason for the increase. By comparison, Cambridge and St Andrews have the lowest drop-out rates in 2012 with just 1.4 per cent of students leaving university.
The University and College Union (UCU) have warned that the drop-out rates will continue to rapidly increase over the upcoming years due to the recent £9000 maximum tuition fees increase.