Attributed Reasons and Suggested Remedies for Academic Failure: An Initial Exploration among Young Adults in Malappuram District

Higher education equips people to inculcate the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in today's world. In India, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 focuses on key reforms in higher education that make ready the next generation to flourish and succeed in the new digital age. So the higher education system should ensure the quality meets the same. In this regard, the system needs to instill in students the hope for their success. Despite this, some students are lacking it because of the prevailing educational practices. The pass percentage of undergraduate students is not so high. This means that higher education is lacking something. The present paper reports on a qualitative exploration study using sequential semi-structured interviews on the perceptions and attributions of academically failed undergraduate students from the Malappuram District of Kerala (N=10). Reasons for their academic failure attributed to the Teacher, Curricular, Transactional, Learner and Institutional related practices in their undergraduate programme were identified and suggestions there for improvement of higher education practices were derived. The recommendations by the young learners can be implemented to make the higher education system more learner-friendly and the findings here will help to enhance the curricular reforms and improve the excellence of higher education.