Abstract:
The objectives of this study were to study the dropout causes of the Bachelor Degree students in the Faculty of Technical Education KMUTNB, and to propose the appropriate strategies and solutions. The targeted sample consisted of 798 students from 3 different courses including the four-year course in Technical Education of the Department of Teacher Training in Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering (students ID batches 2009-2011) and the five-year course in Engineering of the Department of Teacher Training in Civil Engineering (students ID batches 2010-2011). The qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. Data were analyzed by content analysis and descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency, mean, standard deviation, Pearsons product moment correlation, t-test and F-test. The finding revealed that 1) most of 295 students who dropped out studied in upcountry and enrolled by the universitys direct admission; 2) the causes of dropping out were classified into 4 problemsthe students themselves due to 2.1) insufficient knowledge on main subjects and misbehavior, 2.2) teaching and learning process in the difficult curriculum, no professional license offering on teaching and/or on engineering work, inappropriate teaching ethics of some teachers and lacks of systematic advice and attention from the guiding teachers, 2.3) insufficient funds to study and 2.4) the demand of their families; 3) the guidelines and solutions were analyzed by cause-effect relationship analysis through ZOPP method. The outputs were shown in the Objective Tree of 10 categories which was divided into 2 main groups. The first group involved the individual students and the second group was teaching and learning process.