The landscape of higher education in Madeira is becoming increasingly challenging, with a growing number of students dropping out after their first year. While the country has an abandonment average above 13%, the autonomous region, despite recording slightly lower values, faces alarming situations in several courses.
Growth of Abandonment and Regional Specificities
At the national level, about 13.2% of new students do not reenroll in higher education the year following their enrollment, corresponding to approximately 35,000 dropouts from a cohort of over 265,000 students. In Madeira, the dropout rate was 10.7% in the 2021/2022 academic year, but the most concerning data is the existence of 11 courses in which no students continued their academic journey after the first year.
Professional Higher Technical Courses (CTeSP) have the highest dropout rate, with 28.1% of enrolled students abandoning their training in the first 12 months, a figure that increased by 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year. In master’s programs, dropout reached 15%, while bachelor’s degrees rose to 11.2%.
Factors at Play and Intervention Needs
- Academic difficulties and failures to adapt to the university rhythm
- Overload and physical and psychological fatigue
- Financial conditions and costs associated with housing
- Family distance and insufficient social support
Despite an investment of 518.7 million euros in Education, Science, and Technology in the region, the phenomenon of dropout in higher education shows a trajectory opposite to the decline of early dropout in primary and secondary education, which already stands at 8.6% in 2024.
To reverse this trend, strategies are needed that enhance personalized support, adjust curricula to meet student needs, and offer socioeconomic assistance to the most vulnerable.
