In the autumn of 2014 there were 2,310 new entrants in three year Bachelor degree programmes in universities in Iceland. Three years later, 38.1% had graduated on time. An additional 0.2% had graduated from other tertiary programmes, such as two-year diploma programmes. A total of 24.2% of those new entrants had dropped out of school or taken a temporary leave from study, while 37.5% were still in education without having graduated. A total of 40.4% of female and 35.5% of male entrants had graduated from tertiary programmes in three years. This is a higher graduation rate than among new entrants in the autumn of 2011, when just under 34% had graduated three years after entering.
Just over two-thirds of new entrants had graduated six years after entering
When comparing the completion rate of new entrants in the autumn of 2014, who had graduated six years after entering and three years after the programme should have been completed, it can be observed that 68.5% of new entrants had graduated with a Bachelor degree and 0.4% had graduated from another tertiary programme.
In comparison, 67.2% of new entrants in the autumn of 2011 had completed the Bachelor degree six years after entering, while 0.7% had completed another tertiary programme.
One out of five new entrants had dropped out one year after entry
A total of 20.3% of new entrants in the autumn of 2014 had dropped out in the first year of study, but 79.0% continued studying for a Bachelor degree and 0.7% had transferred to another tertiary programme.
Statistics Iceland now publishes for the first-time data on the completion rate and dropout for public and private universities. The data show that three years after entering more students in private schools have graduated, or 41.7%, but 37.0% of students in public schools. Six years after entering, on the other hand, the completion rate is slightly higher in public schools, or 69.3% as opposed to 68.0% in private schools.
Around 49% of new entrants in information and communication technologies had graduated in this field
Data on completion rate and dropout are also published for the first time by field of study six years after students entered Bachelor degree programmes. The highest rate of graduations was found among new entrants in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and veterinary programmes, as 70.7% of new entrants in these programmes had graduated from this field. The rate was lowest in information and communication technologies, where 49.0% of new entrants had graduated from programmes in this field of study in 2020.
What is dropout?
Dropout from education can be defined in several ways. The method used for these data is to follow up on new entrants in full-time study in the autumn after three and six years, the so-called cohort rate.
About the data
New entrants in these data are students who were registered in three-year Bachelor degree programmes in the autumn for the first time, since the start of the Statistics Iceland Student register in 1975. These data include all Icelandic citizens in full-time education in the first year of study. Full-time is defined as being registered in 75% or more of a full-time study load. Graduates are those who have graduated from the tertiary level three years and six years after entering. Students still in education are those students who are studying in tertiary education in Iceland in the autumn, who have not graduated.
These data as based on OECD definitions on completion rate and dropout. In October, the OECD will publish comparable data for other OECD countries. The methodology used for these data is different from the methodology used in the past to compute the completion rate at the tertiary level, which has been published on the Statistics Iceland’s website every two years. Those numbers include both new entrants in full-time and part-time study and both Icelandic and foreign citizens.