Non-completion of full-time and sandwich students in English higher education: costs to the public purse, and some implications

The costs to the public purse of the non-completion of full-time and sandwich students' programmes of study was calculated to be of the order of pound 91.5 million for the academic year 1994-95. The influences on non-completion arise at three levels: those of the educational system, the institutions, and the students themselves. The reduction of the costs of non-completion is of considerable importance to a higher education system that is under continuing financial constraint, and the article concludes by pointing to some areas in which savings may be possible.