School dropout in graduate distance education: evidence from a study in the interior of Brazil

Abstract

The rapid development and dissemination of information technologies in the last decades has allowed a great expansion in the offer of undergraduate and graduate distance programs. However, this dissemination has been accompanied by high dropout rates, consistently reported in different programs and countries. This is the reality of distance education in Brazil too: a great expansion, including the establishment of Universidade Aberta do Brasil (UAB - Open University of Brazil), but with high failure rates. This study evaluated school dropout and its causes in a graduate certificate program of Programa Nacional de Formação em Administração Pública (PNAP - National Training Program in Public Administration), which aims to train public administrators in the interior of Brazil. High failure rates in these programs have been an obstacle to achieving the objectives of PNAP, because they prevent the training of labor precisely where it is most needed. This article investigates the main factors that lead to this phenomenon, by means of documentary analysis and collection of data on students from Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, in Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil, via survey. After the collection, conducted through questionnaires and interviews, we did a statistical analysis of the data, which revealed a graduate student profile consistent with that reported in the literature and conducive to school dropout. It is verified that, given this student profile, some administrative strategies are necessary to prevent dropout rates from being so high. Such strategies are notoriously not enough to reduce dropout rates to acceptable levels; on the other hand, not developing strategies ensures dropout rates will not decrease.