In the last few years the number of applicants for technical studies has dropped, as have the knowledge levels they bring with them. The main challenge for our department with two intense engineering degree programs is to deal with this situation while satisfying the ever increasing requirements of industry and society. Due to the regulations at our university, which include a numerus clausus, we are keen to have as many enrollees as possible. However, a larger number of applicants does not guarantee quality, although the probability of increased quality does rise. In contrast to other universities, to become a student in the department of Automotive Engineering, enrollees must participate in an admission procedure consisting of three parts: formal application, written test and personal interview. For many young people this is the first time in their life in a competitive environment and some of them prefer to go to other universities without acceptance tests. The number of enrollees and the quality of knowledge they bring with them when they begin their studies, both correlate significantly to study success. In our work we investigated the main reasons for enrollment and later non-persistence by processing application and survey data. We inquired as to how young people inform themselves before choosing the study program and what factors they consider as they come to a decision. We proved a correlation between the admission procedure and the students' study success. One of the key questions was whether bad marks or other diverse factors were the main reasons for dropping-out from the degree program. The outcome of our work is a hypothesis regarding the main reasons for enrollment and non-persistence. We hope that these results will be useful for other academic institutions.
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