Samenvatting

The objective of this dissertation was to find out how The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) can maximize student success and student retention, specifically how The Hague University can combat the continuously decreasing number of students enrolling and successfully completing their studies in the nominal study time of four and a half years in the European Studies (ES) program.
Considering that this topic revolves around education, one must take into consideration that there are many educational policies that have been implemented at the European, national and institutional level.
Generally, there are several ways of defining and thus calculating student success, however, given that THUAS is a government funded institution that has performance contracts in place with the government, student success is calculated based on two components: the amounts of ECTS credits obtained by the students and the program completion time.
Furthermore, the literature review performed for this research has shown that several studies on student success have been conducted before. Although, these previous studies outline a general concept on what is important in terms of student success and student retention, and although many of the concepts are applicable to THUAS, the issue remains that every institution is different.
This makes it a seemingly impossible task to create a universal guideline that would guarantee student success and retention at any university.
The findings of this research suggest that ES students at THUAS face many of the challenges that have been mentioned on a general scale, namely: - the lack of information on the program’s content - the lack of a clear scope (in academic trajectory) - the disengagement from the university environment and
- the lack of international students.
It is thus suggested that THUAS addresses these issues with a mix of policies, aimed at improving various interrelated fields, that would be more efficient than a single policy aimed at one specific target.