Discontinuing, Fading Out or Just Simply Leaving? The Importance of Measuring Student Departure Behaviour in Different Ways

This chapter discusses student departure, students leaving their programme before degree completion, and how that phenomenon can be measured in different contexts. Hence, the chapter is largely methodological and uses Norway and Italy as contrasting cases to illustrate different kinds of measurements and how this involves the conceptualisation of dropout or student departure. From the different meanings the concept of dropout takes on, the authors identify different definitions and ways of operationalising it, which also depend on the theoretical perspective and the resulting research questions. Moreover, by using the country case studies, the authors show how context-specific educational system traits, as well as country policy characteristics, are intertwined with the methodological definition of the concept of dropout in higher education.