Exploring HE retention and drop-out - a European biographical research approach

This symposium is based on the developing work of the research project ‘Access and Retention: Experiences of Non-Traditional Learners in HE’, funded by the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme under Key Activity 1 “Policy Co-operation and Innovation” of the Transversal programme. (Project number: 135230-LLP-1-2007-1-UK-KA1-KA1SCR). The project has eight partners from seven different countries: England, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Spain and Sweden and runs from 2008 to 2010. The overall aim of the project is to examine issues of access, retention and non-completion in relation to ‘non-traditional’ undergraduate students (young people and adults across a wide age range) in higher education on a comparative European basis