Factors influencing student dropout at La Salle University (2018-2020) Factores influyentes de la deserción estudiantil en la Universidad de La Salle (2018-2020)

Abstract

Colombia is the second country in Latin America with the second highest dropout rate in higher education — 42 %—. Faced with this panorama, the Universidad de La Salle has developed some projects to favor retention rates, improve the levels of satisfaction of the university community, and create a student retention program. In this sense, this article makes a first analytical approach to student desertion, from a descriptive-exploratory approach, to identify and analyze the different risk factors that led to student desertion at La Salle University during the period 2018-2020. This research explores the database of the 2018 Lasallian Census and other institutional sources of information for the period 2018-2020, in order to identify the effective dropouts and the reasons why these and the students who continue their formative process contemplate interrupting their studies. Thus, the results show that, from the total number of students who contemplated suspending their academic process —3090—, 15.2 % became dropouts by 2020, while 84.8 % continued their studies. From these actual dropouts, more than half —56.8 %— indicated that their primary motivation for dropping out was high educational costs or lack of money. However, aspects related to time management, expectations regarding the program, proximity to the place of study, and physical-emotional health were also found.