Interest and its associations with university entrance grades, lecturers’ perceived support, and student dropout

Motivation decreases in higher education programs and is associated with dropout. Consequently, analyzing the development of motivation and subsequent student behavior is needed. We focused on factors that influence subject interest through the cognitive–rational aspect (university entrance grades) as well as the emotional aspect (perceived support from lecturers) and associated these variables with student dropout. We used data from 2301 co-op students in their first academic year collected by cross-sectional survey and university administration. We identified direct effects of interest, support, and university entrance grade on dropout rates and found that interest mediates lecturers’ perceived support and student dropout.