Differences in Student Characteristics by Withdrawal Timing Following Military Service

Military service often serves as a critical turning point that reshapesstudents’ perspectives and may influence their academic persistence. This studyaims to derive policy implications by analyzing students who were dismissed fromuniversity after completing military service, classified according to the timing of dismissal. Using data from a regional four-year university, students were firstdivided into those who continued enrollment after service and those who droppedout. Among the dropouts, two groups were identified: students dismissedimmediately after discharge and those dismissed after taking additional leaves ofabsence following re-enrollment. The findings indicate that the “immediatedismissal” group showed higher proportions of students whose high school anduniversity locations did not match, higher admission through the regular screeningtrack, and lower participation in extracurricular programs. In contrast, the“post-return dismissal” group was characterized by lower grade point averages,more accumulated leaves of absence, and similarly lower extracurricularparticipation. Based on these results, this study proposes differentiated supportstrategies tailored to students subject to compulsory military service