Student desertion in member universities of the National Council of Universities

Abstract

Dropout, school dropout or student mortality is one of the biggest problems faced by the different levels of the Higher Education System, it has high economic costs for the University and the country. The approaches of some authors consider that desertion is multi-causal: psychological, institutional and social. The age, sex of the students, the type of school where they completed their previous schooling, the level of education of their parents, the area or orientation of the secondary level of Education and the chosen career are other elements that affect dropout or school dropout.

Tinto’s approach refers that the existence of universities is education, not schooling; While it is true, this is an individual responsibility. With this approach, the memories of the difficult moments that we Nicaraguans went through during the Somoza period and liberal governments and traitors with the failed coup d’état are relived, who believed in the same way as Tinto that universities were a luxury that only the wealthy paid for.

Several authors affirm that the problem of students who drop out of studies before finishing them is undoubtedly one of those that most concerns governments, authorities and specialists in higher education. Therefore, in opposition to Tinto’s approach, this new Christian, Socialist and Solidarity government recognizes that the only way out of poverty is education, restoring that right; which is why in recent years university careers have been expanded in inhospitable parts of the country.

Therefore, the main objective of this documentary article is to present the main causes of student desertion in the Psychology career of the Chontales UNAN-Managua Regional Multidisciplinary Faculty (2014-2018). In this sense, due to its great importance, this article is part of a larger investigation that will be carried out in the future, whose study objectives are classified as: psychological, social and institutional, where various methods and techniques will be used, considering as a mixed method.

According to Hernández, Fernández and Batista (2014); Ibarra (2020) the mixed method constitutes the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods in order to obtain a better understanding of the research phenomena. In this sense, the methods to be used include in-depth interviews, focus groups and surveys for information processing. In the same way, the IBM SPSS program will be used, and, finally, the information will be triangulated between the three applied instruments.

The previous results of the study, is the analysis with the general data of the student and statistical information, such as: sex, age, and other reports, the probability of dropping out is 23% for the first semester and not being able to enroll in the second semester, 10% who retire in the second and 2.5% finish their career. To conclude this study, it can be stated that desertion is multicausal and institutional, making the wrong career, when choosing. Likewise, it will allow the institution an analysis of the variables that intervene in the dropout phenomenon and at the same time, create strategies to combat the influence of school dropout.