Factors of Student Attrition at an Urban University
Zachary Christo, A. Olu Oyinlade

Abstract
This study investigated likely sources of student attrition from an urban university, using the University of Nebraska at Omaha as a case study. Research participants, N=177, were selected through random sampling. Reasons for attrition were investigated under voluntary and compulsory pressures while controlling for demographic factors. Hierarchical regression showed that demographic, voluntary and compulsory factors accounted for 14, 9 and 16 percent, respectively, of attrition likelihood. While enrollment in the College of Business and the College of Information Science and Technology predicted attrition likelihood in the first model, college of enrollment was fully mediated in the third (last) model. Only two compulsory pressure variables, campus self-estrangement and life-school conflict, predicted attrition likelihood in the last model which accounted for 39 percent of attrition likelihood. This study concluded that while both demographic and voluntary factors were important, the most important predictors of attrition likelihood among the students were compulsory pressures.

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