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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
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21 September 2021

Table 1: The Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test to identify the significance of each attribute on
dropout decision

Factor Statement Mean Test P- Comment
value value value

I experienced physical/ mental -0.96* -3.23 0.001 Significant,

harassment from the batchmates Disagree
I experienced physical/ mental -0.76* -2.69 0.007 Significant,
harassment from the academic Disagree

staff
I experienced physical/ mental -0.76* -2.65 0.008 Significant,
harassment from non-academic Disagree

staff

Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test: Significance Level is 0.05
Cronbach’s Alpha: 0.885

However, the results demonstrated that the effort made on acquiescing paper materials,

accommodations, and other expenses did not directly influence dropouts. The reason is that 50% of
undergraduates' average monthly income of the family is 25000-50 000 LKR, while for 23.33% is 50

000- 75 000 LKR and for 13.33% ranged from 75 000 – 100 000 LKR per month. Meanwhile, 13.33%
of undergraduates possess an average income of more than 100,000 LKR per month. Moreover, 40%

of participants have had financial assistance (Mahapola, Bursary, Scholarships) while 60% did not

receive any funds during the university period.

The deficient teaching and the lack of assistance at the institutional level have caused potential
students’ dropouts at the preliminary level (Voelkle and Sander, 2018). However, considering the

degree programs of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, the participants proved that

academic vulnerability in view of subject complexity, workload, language problems, and examination
matters have not significantly influenced their dropout decision.

Apart from that, potential psychological trauma and considerable marginalization can accelerate

students’ dropouts (Ortiz and Dehon, 2013). However, the test results revealed that a healthy
relationship of the undergraduates with batch mates, academic and non-academic staff have prevented

students from social isolation during the university period. Undergraduates' overall satisfaction with

the ultimate decision was analyzed. The test statistics revealed that undergraduates are highly satisfied
with the dropout decision with an associated significance level of 0 .000(α<0.05).

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