At the Electrical Engineering (EE) department of Eindhoven University of Technology
(TU/e), the drop out rate of freshmen is about 40%. Apart from the department’s aim to
enforce an upper bound to the drop-out rate, there are other reasons to want to identify
successful and unsuccessful students in an early stage. In the Netherlands, there is the
legal obligation that universities have to provide students with the necessary support to
evaluate their study choice. In general, students who choose to pursue their study career
at another institution, should do this at an early stage. For EE students there is a very
concrete reason to evaluate before the end of the first semester: the EE program of the
nearby Fontys University of Applied Science accepts TU/e drop outs in their curriculum
until the beginning of January, without any time losses involved. Besides, there is always
a subset of students which the department considers a "risk group", i.e. students who may
be successful but who need extra attention or specific individual care in order to succeed.
Detecting this risk group in an early stage is essential for keeping these students from
dropping out. It enables the department to direct its resources to the students who need it
most.