Student Retention Versus Student Drop-Out: A Self-Determination Approach to Motivational Profiles Motivational Vulnerability Engagement and Pedagogies in HE Sport Students within an FE College

In the last academic year 31 755 full-time higher education students dropped out of study (Higher Education Statistics Agency 2012).

But is there a common cause? Students have been found to typically demonstrate mixed motives for enrolling onto a higher education programme and the wrong motives may lead to the development of a sense of helplessness and incompetence leading to disengagement and performance difficulties (Hill 2011). Such students then become motivationally vulnerable and at risk of drop-out.