ODL programmes continue to experience low student retention and high dropout rates, that range between 10% to 20%. It has been established that between 40% to 80% of students enrolled in ODL programmes are likely to withdraw before they complete their courses. In Kenya, it was established that students taking Bachelor of Education-related programmes in Open distance education mode account for 15% of the overall student dropouts. Despite this gloomy situation, few studies have been conducted to establish the influence of technical support services on the retention of learners taking ODL programmes. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of learner technical support services on the retention of students in Open Distance Learning (ODL) programmes at the selected Universities in Kenya. The study hypothesis was that learner technical support services do not significantly influence the retention of students in ODL programmes. The study followed the pragmatic paradigm and used a mixed methods approach to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The target population of the study was 1990 students enrolled in ODL programmes. From these, a sample of 322Open Distance Learning (ODL) students pursuing Bachelor of Education-related degree programmes was selected using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) formula. To ensure that the sample was representative, stratified random sampling with proportional sample size allocation was deployed. The study used regression analysis to test the research hypothesis at 5% significance level. The study used the theoretical frameworks of the Non-Traditional Undergraduate Student Attrition Model by Kember (1995). The study established that learner technical support services had a significant effect on the retention of learners in ODL programmes. The study recommended capacity building of lecturers to enhance this support.
