By aggregating the frequencies for each reason in the above table, we can compute the total frequency for each reason as shown in Table 5. Table 5 indicates that work-study conflict was a reason for dropout for students in both programmes, with both its importance and total frequency ranking #1. Personal time management was also a major problem shared by students in both programmes. Emergencies in life and work (specified in the questionnaire as work changes, family misfortunes, economic status and health problems) and other difficulties (specified as computer and internet expenses, competence of computer skills, inconvenient transportation and lack of a quiet learning environment) significantly influenced whether the students could complete their studies. Students in both programmes also reported that the difficulty of the English programme and their weak knowledge base were reasons for dropping out. Students of associate degree programmes especially recognized their difficulty in adjusting to distance learning methods. Meanwhile they thought they dropped out due to improper choice of programme. It was noteworthy that the option “Interaction with class supervisors” was not chosen as a reason for suspending studies by any dropout and its frequency was registered as zero. This result indicates approval of the role and in-course performance of the class supervisors at the 14 provincial radio and TV universities.

Table 5  Frequency Summary of Reasons for Dropping Out

Analysis of dropouts’scores
Academic scores for 195 dropouts were obtained from the education management system databases, including 79 bachelor's degree programme dropouts and 116 associate degree programme dropouts. Table 6 shows that the average passing rate of dropouts in the bachelor's degree programme was 42 %, and that in the associate degree programme was 71% (those who never studied the course were not included). It should be noted that not all dropouts failed to pass their courses. 10 dropouts in the bachelor's degree programme and 44 in the associate degree programme achieved a passing rate of 100%. This shows that the students chose to dropout for reasons other than failing the courses.

Table 6  Academic Scores of Dropouts

Table 7 presents the dropouts' various academic standings in the autumn semester in 2010. It can be seen from Table 7 that 10.1% of the bachelor's degree programme students chose to change their programme after the first semester and that a greater number, or 22.4%, of the associate degree programme students did so. A large proportion of students in both programmes never studied any courses, with 31.6 % for the bachelor's degree programme and 17.3% for the associate degree programme, including those who left school, remained registered or suspended schooling. As such, we could classify the dropouts into three categories: change of programmes or schools, no courses studied after registration, and dropped out after course study.

Table 7 Status of Dropouts