Why Study Time and Duration in Higher Education?

According to John Willett and Judith Singer, educational researchers stuying student dropout and teacher attrition typically ask whether specific events occur by particular points in time. In their article "From Whether to When..." (rotate clockwise to read), these authors argue that a more powerful and informative way of framing such questions is to ask when the transitions occur. They suggest that survival analysis (also known as event history analysis) lends itself naturally to the study of the timing of educational events.