Probation is not new in the academic arena, but the importance of such
problems in a developing country is a recent issue. In this regard early research
conducted by Titus (1938), ‘The Disqualified Student’ appeared in
The Journal of Higher Education and Brown (1953) about ‘The Problems
of Probation and Honor Students’ published in Educational Research
Bulletin. Brown's (1953) work revealed 122 different problems that were
common to 20 per cent or more of the entire sample group. Through item
analyses, an effort was made to identify specific problems (for instance:
Adjustment to College; Curriculum and Teaching; Social and Recreational
Activities; Personal-Psychological Relations; Health and Physical Development;
Future - Vocational and Educational; Finances, Living, and Employment;
Courtship, Sex, Marriage, Social-Psychological Relations, Morals
and Religion; and Home and Family) which the probation students
marked more often than the honor students. On the following eight problems
the count was significantly higher for probation students: getting low
marks, fearing failure in college, not knowing how to study effectively,
being forced to take uninteresting courses, obtaining marks that do not
measure ability fairly, not taking things seriously enough, failing in many
efforts, and not attaining goals. Merrill's (1954) study was to evaluate
the effectiveness of a particular system and to describe partially the probation
students involved.