Academic Performance of Final-Year Students in On-Campus Bachelor’s and Engineering Programs at the Multidisciplinary Faculty of Ilobasco During Semester I-2017

Abstract

This study presents the results of research on the academic performance of final-year students enrolled in on-campus bachelor’s and engineering programs at the Multidisciplinary Faculty of Ilobasco of the Catholic University of El Salvador. The findings are organized into four sections: approval and failure rates, failed courses by degree program, factors influencing failure, and overall academic performance by program.

The first section presents a list of the courses taken during Semester I-2017, including the percentages of approval and failure. The second section identifies the courses most frequently failed by students between Semester I-2013 and Semester I-2017. The third section discusses the factors that, according to students, negatively affected their academic performance. Finally, the study analyzes the Grade Point Average (GPA), known in Spanish as the Coeficiente de Unidades de Mérito (CUM), for each academic program and provides a comparison among them.

To obtain the information, the researchers used academic records provided by the Faculty’s Academic Registry Office. In addition, a survey and a focus group were conducted with students to identify the main causes that led to course failure. In general terms, the findings indicate that academic performance tends to improve as students progress through their degree programs, since the subjects with the highest failure rates are concentrated in the early years of study.