Macro And Sociological Factors In Pursuing Post-Secondary Education

Post-Secondary education can be a very important aspect to an individual’s life. Pursuing post-secondary education and obtaining a university degree opens up a wide range of high-paying career opportunities. However, there has recently been an increase in the number of students who do not finish their program and graduate. If a university degree gives us more job opportunities and a better salary, why are students leaving their universities and not finishing their degrees? There are many macro and micro sociological factors that students deal with every day. Macro sociological factors are events or predicaments that the individual has no control over (Steckley, 2014). Micro sociological factors are events that an individual does have control over (Steckley, 2014). The students who are leaving without finishing their degrees are faced with many social and economic problems that require their attention and have priority over school.

Macro sociological factors are often unpredictable and uncontrollable since the individual has no opportunity to change the

outcome. Two macro sociological factors that were brought up in our class discussion were not receiving funding on time and cultural shock. If you won a scholarship and did not receive the funding on time, that is completely out of your control. If you are an international student, adapting to a new culture may be difficult and uncomfortable. That could deter you from staying at the university and force you to return home. A report by Simon Fraser University has also identified course availability, academic experience and student services as macro factors that affect student attrition rates (Morris, 2007). If students have a low satisfaction with their professors, they are more likely to withdraw from the university (Morris, 2007). Students at SFU have indicated that low satisfaction with student services may relate to students dropping out (Morris, 2007).
Some micro factors that were brought up in class were mental and physical health issues, marriage, pregnancy, transferring to another school, getting a job, no motivation to continue, social integration and lacking the proper grades to continue school.

If you have depression or you have an injury, which can interfere with your marks and ability to attend lectures and finish assignments. New mothers have to withdraw from university so that they can focus on caring for their child. If you cannot afford to pay for your tuition and your living costs then you would need to get a job instead of focusing on school. If you are unhappy with your current university you may leave and transfer to a different one. If you simply do not have the proper grades to continue, the school may force you to leave. The micro factors that were brought up in class discussion were very similar the micro factors in the SFU

report.
There are many social and economic circumstances that lead to a student dropping out of school. We are able to come up with more micro factors than macro factors in our discussion. This is most likely due to the fact that most individuals used their traditional knowledge and came up with micro factors that they have experienced or heard about from a friend or family member. The SFU report has more macro factors most likely due to the fact that they employed scientific inquiry to get the most accurate results as possible. This exercise illustrates how scientific and non-scientific research methods can lead to a huge discrepancy between results. Another way to describe macro and micro factors is with issues and troubles. C. Wright Mills defined “troubles” as a problem that affects and individual and issues as a problem the affects a large group of people. Student attrition is an issue. Student attrition is a global problem. It does not only affect students at SFU and at UofC. Since it affects so many people globally, it cannot possibly be defined as a trouble. Student attrition has to be treated like any other public issue, students should not have to deal with this problem alone.