Abstract
Many colleges and universities have recently experienced a larger percentage of student attrition. While some of these departures can be contributed to individual student situations and labeled drop-outs, it is evident that a portion of these students were forced-out or pushed-out by institutional policies and practices. This study examined the impact of current educational policies and reforms and their effects on force-outs through qualitative interviews with senior-level administrators in two different institutions of higher education. These interviews were analyzed using a qualitative interpretive approach, and the results were synthesized with a critical review of the literature on current higher education policies and practices. The analyses revealed neoliberalism's impact on higher education in areas such as: campus culture, enrollment, institutional mission, and financial stability, resulting in a shift in colleges and universities to profit-driven corporations creating a "culture of exclusion." Finally, this study provides an alternative lens though which to view student attrition with recommendations for overcoming these threats to student success and for coping with neoliberalism's impact, the for-profit take-over in institutions of higher education.