Dora Isabel Herrera ^1* Lennia Matos ¹ Rafael Gargurevich ¹ Marjhori Gomez ¹ Benjamin Lira Luttges ² Ana Cecilia Ferreyra Díaz ¹

• ¹ Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru
• ² University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The alarming dropout rates among university students in Peru deplete the country's human resources and reduce prospects for personal growth and societal development. Explaining those rates calls for a comprehensive and holistic approach beyond the students' socio-economic characteristics. This study seeks to identify the socio-demographic, academic and psychological variables that predict dropout intention among university students in Peru. The sample was composed of 768 students from nine universities, both public and private, across the coastal, highland and rainforest regions of Peru. Students completed questionnaires assessing factors that favor resilience, future orientation, and dropout intention. As hypothesized, we found that students who scored higher on factors favoring resilience and future orientation subscales, with the exception of the exploration sub-dimension, were less likely to develop dropout intentions. We found differences by sex and type of university; then evaluated whether the model parameters varied by sex. Our findings show higher dropout intentions among male students. No significant relationships were found between grades, tutoring programme and future orientation. These results contribute to support these university students as valuable human resources who, due to Peru's characteristics, lack easy access to higher education and should be protected. Our findings also provide general guidelines for further interventions to counter the risk of increased dropout rates at the university level.Education is widely acknowledged as pivotal for human development and it is essential to promote sustainable economic growth (Higuera et al., 2023). In Peru, the 15-29 demographic cohort comprises 23.58% of the labor force. Within this group, only 19.4% hold university degrees, while 16.8% have non-university qualifications, and 52.7% only completed secondary education (INEI, 2022). In addition, according to the Ministry of Education of Peru ([MINEDU], 2022), 23.2% of individuals under 30 have dropped out of university. These statistics highlight a significant loss of valuable human resources and raise questions about the ultimate fate of these students, with a considerable number likely to end up working in fields that may not align with their personal interests. This underscores the urgent need to investigate the underlying predictors of university