It's interesting to note that the Higher Education Statistics Agency says that even though more than one student in fourteen is leaving higher education before finishing their first year, the number of those dropping out is still down over last year - by around 4,500.
And that's a good thing, says the government's Office for Fair Access, who state that universities are working hard to ensure their students complete their studies and move on to employment.
All in all, it's been estimated that a total 10% of uni students won't complete the degree course they've started, for whatever reason.
It could be that they change courses, or decide to go for a lesser degree ... or just give up on higher education completely.
However, that doesn't explain why the drop-out rate of the University of the West of Scotland is the highest in the UK at, we are told - a staggering 23%.
To us, that doesn’t make much sense.
But why, we wonder, would the lowest drop-out rates be found at the most select of universities? Cambridge loses, on average, 1.3% of its students in their first year, and most other Russell Group universities have a drop-out rate of below 2%.
Possibly it’s because either there's something going dreadfully right there ... or even because far too many students are having such a good time at those universities that nothing would induce them to leave and join the real world until they positively, absolutely have to.
Sorry - perhaps that's unfair of us to think that way, but when we think of Oxford or Cambridge, we can't help thinking of the Bullingdon, Wyvern, Pitt and other clubs ... then we think of their past members ... and then where they've ended up (hint: it's a very old building in London, beside the Thames) … and then we're no longer surprised the country's in the state it's in.
A knee-jerk reaction there, we know, but in many cases, it could well make sense.
However, back to the fact that the number of dropouts is, well, dropping: could it have anything to do with a proportional drop in the number of new uni students this academic year?
It's distinctly possible that more and more people are thinking twice before committing themselves to three or so expensive years (with, it has to be said, perhaps just a bit of entertainment thrown in) before graduating with debts of over £50,000 and a seriously reduced chance of finding the job they've been studying for all this time?
And it's also distinctly possible that many of those who've thought twice about a stint at uni have decided, instead, to opt for some kind of vocational training - or even a formal apprenticeship - with no debt and very good job prospects afterwards.
And that, in this economic climate, makes perfect sense.
