This is a background paper for the Dropping out: the benefits and costs of trying university report. The two documents contain overlapping material, so that each can be read independently of the other.

The main purpose of this background paper is to provide additional information on the Grattan Institute’s statistical analysis of completion from bachelor degrees at public universities. It includes more detailed consideration of some non-completion high-risk factors mentioned in the main report and possible explanations for their impact. It also discusses some lower-risk factors that were omitted in the main report, the statistical methodology used and the regression results.