| Summary: | Retaining of postgraduate Masters Degree students’ are often scrutinised, as are subsets
of graduate students such as under represented populations. However, little emphasis
is placed on the largest component of graduate education, namely, students enrolled in
master’s degree programmes. When a student registers in an academic programme at a
university, both enter into a partnership intended to culminate with the student earning
a masters degree awarded by the institution. Both have responsibilities in this
partnership, students must put in the effort to complete the intended programme
successfully, while institutions must provide appropriate resources to allow students to
succeed. An increasing number of students are enrolling in the Master Degree
programmes through Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL) in Open
University Malaysia (OUM). Although students enrol into a programme for a variety
of reasons, their completion rate for the Masters programme does not commensurate
with the initial enrolment numbers. The purpose of this research is to explore factors
affecting postgraduate students’ retention when enrolling via accreditation of prior
experiential learning (APEL) in Open University Malaysia. Results will be analysed
through a series of descriptive statistics of factors like; 1) self-motivation and 2)
academic performance that contributes to the students’ commitment to stay in their
programmes. This study is important as it aids open distance learning institutions to
remain sustainable.
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