SENATOR Joel Villanueva on Tuesday expressed alarm over the number of college students who left a program of study or failed to finish their courses for the past few years.

During the hearing on the proposed 2025 budget of the Commission on Higher Education, Villanueva said batch 2021 registered 40.6 percent while batch 2022 registered 39.3 percent of attrition rate in higher education.

Attrition rate measures the number of students who leave a program or the college course before actually completing it.

“If you look at the totality, it appears now that at least 4 out of 10 students in higher education, either temporarily or permanently, left school last academic year 2022 to 2023,” Villanueva said.

“Out of 17 regions, BARMM posted the highest attrition rate at 93.4 percent while seven out of 17 regions posted attrition rate of more than 50 percent. These are Cordillera Administrative Region, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, BARMM, Soccsksargen, and National Capital region,” he added.

CHED Chairperson Prospero ‘Popoy’ De Vera III said college students dropped out of school due difficulties in finances, academics, family problem, relocation, medical and mental health concerns.