After Succeeding Against the Odds: Dropout Intentions of Students from Refugee Backgrounds at German Universities

Germany is one of the countries worldwide that has received the most refugees. Despite many challenges, some refugees have meanwhile made their way to a German university either via domestic schooling or via a foreign higher education entrance qualification and additional study preparation (e.g. “Studienkolleg” or “Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang”). In addition, Germany is one of the most popular destination countries for international students. While there are already some studies on the integration process and dropout intentions of international students at German universities, this perspective has so far been completely lacking in relation to refugee students. Moreover, there is no comparative research on the mentioned student groups and domestic students. We use data from a large representative survey of students at German universities conducted by the DZHW in the summer semester 2021 (The Student Survey) to investigate the level and determinants of dropout intentions of refugee students from a comparative perspective. Therefore, we compare four student groups: domestic students, domestic refugee students, international students, and international refugee students. We adopt theoretical considerations of both the student integration model of Tinto as well as rational choice theory to investigate dropout intentions of refugee students and to explain differences between the mentioned student groups in the tendency to consider to dropout of higher education. We present bivariate results on group differences as well as multivariate regression models. Taking domestic students as a reference group, it turns out that higher dropout intentions can only by observed for domestic refugee students, but not for international (refugee) students. This is partially explained by disadvantages in social and academic integration as well as financial difficulties. We discuss implications for further research and for migration and higher education policy.