Designing an academic support and development programme to combat attrition among non-traditional medical undergraduates

English: The overall aim of this study was to design an integrated and holistic programme for the academic support and development of non-traditional undergraduate medical students. The study was motivated by the need to increase the retention rate of these students. The conceptual framework of this study is based on the theories of Spady, Bean and Tinto. These theories were used to design a retention theory called “Circles of Progression” for non-traditional students in the South African context. As a framework, this theory has guided the empirical investigation and the outcome of this study. The study adopted a case study design to gain an in-depth understanding of the non-traditional undergraduate medical students in the medical school at the University of the Free State. A mixed methods approach was used to conduct the study. Data was collected by means of are a questionnaire and extensive engagement. These methods allowed triangulation and improved the reliability and validity of data and findings. From this study, it became clear that student retention is not due to an isolated factor, but it is a result of a whole range of interrelated factors and therefore there is no one single explanation and solution to student attrition. Based on the literature, generalisations about student retention can be misleading because each country, each institution and each student is unique. South Africa, for instance, cannot be compared to other countries because of its previous political history, its uneven schooling system and the different social backgrounds of the various population xixgroups. Moreover, issues related to retention in the different higher education institutions will not be precisely the same because of different educational systems that existed before political transformation started in 1994. Unfortunately, there is a tendency among both academics and non-academics to provide a single bold answer when asked why students do not perform well. One example of a common answer is that “students do not study”. This answer is often provided without even considering other interrelated factors. The question is “do institutions understand the nature of the problem?” If institutions and the key stakeholders in these institutions could understand the nature of problems faced by non-traditional students, especially undergraduate medical students, they could collaborate, communicate and work together as a team to provide an integrated and holistic programme of action to support and develop these students and therefore, increase their retention rate. The programme of action as proposed in this study could start even before the students enter the university and continue up to their clinical years where they begin to specialise and become professionalised in the medical field.