who is being left behind? a decade of dropout in brazilian undergraduate programs of business administration and accounting

Dropout from public and private institutions of higher education (IHE) is associated with considerable social, academic and economic losses. These losses affect all of society, as citizens directly or indirectly pay for their own education and that of their relatives. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the dropout behavior of students enrolled in undergraduate programs of Business Administration and Accounting at Brazilian IHEs between 2001 and 2010. Dropout rates were investigated per type of IHE and correlated with the percentage of students completing their courses within the ideal time frame. Our hypotheses were tested with ANOVA and the variables were submitted to simple and multiple correspondence analysis. Descriptive statistics showed higher dropout levels for Business Administration than for Accounting, but lower overall levels when compared to the literature. The median ideal-term course completion index was higher for Accounting, though not significantly. Less than a quarter of the students completed their courses within the expected five-year period. In general, our findings indicate that Accounting programs have lower dropout rates in universities and university centers, whereas Business Administration programs have higher dropout rates in colleges, schools, institutes and technological education centers. The results of this study are not intended as a generalization, but represent patterns observed within the classifications adopted in the study.