Observatorio regional de deserción universitaria: Adaptación del modelo y diseño de un piloto de funcionamiento para dos países de América Latina

Abstract

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the possibilities of entering university education have increased, despite this, there is a graduation rate close to 46%, evidencing a common problem, where more than half of those who begin their higher education studies, drop out throughout their academic training (Ferreira, 2017). For the educational system, dropout represents a major problem, since it is a phenomenon that causes high costs for institutions and evidences a deficiency at the educational level, as if that were not enough, dropout has a direct impact on the social development of a country, since it can become one of the causes of unemployment, lack of opportunities, unskilled labor, among others (Montoya & Castañeda, 2019). Therefore, in search of analyzing and attacking said phenomenon in different Latin American countries, the ACACIA project (international network formed by Higher Education Institutions with Educational and Professional Support and Development Centers) advances in the implementation of an observatory that facilitates the visualization of indicators in real time, to analyze the causes of university dropout, thus generating, strategies that allow the increase of the graduation rate in Latin American and Caribbean countries, through ODUR services and products offered to the community, Institutional Bodies and Higher Education Institutions (Zoque & Sanchez, 2019), which will be translated into teaching and learning quality, resulting in greater cohesion between teachers, students and the various actors involved in dropout. At the moment there is a proposal "Model of regional observatory of university dropout. Cases Peru, Nicaragua and Colombia", to collect, analyze and disseminate important information on determinants of dropout (Zoque & Sanchez, 2019), in addition, advances have been made in the methodology to perform the analysis through "Methodological foundations for the compilation, harmonization, Analysis and Reporting of Dropout Information, as input for a Regional Observatory of University Dropout. Case: Peru, Chile, Nicaragua and Colombia" (Benitez, 2019). While it is true that Zoque and Sanchez have largely addressed the problem with the approach of the Regional observatory model, it requires by 2022 a verification and adaptation phase, phases that will be addressed in this project; In addition to the development of the implementation plan for the first year of operation of the observatory and the stage of preparation of a pilot applicable to the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas and at least one other university in Latin America, according to the 2021 action plan of the Network of Higher Education Institutions with Acacia Centers (RIESC - Acacia, 2021), in order to determine recommendations for the proper implementation of the observatory.