¿COLLEGE DROPOUT OR FORCED ABANDONMENT? THEORICAL ANALYSIS AND PILOT INSTRUMENT OF EVALUATION IN PARAGUAYAN STUDENTS

Abstract

An analysis is proposed about the university desertion in all the modalities, in which to base a proposal of pilot evaluation instrument of the factors that cause desertion in students of Paraguay. With a pilot instrument that measures sociodemographic, academic, economic factors, pedagogical and operational quality of the courses, and perceived personal selfefficacy, preliminary data is presented. The Cronbach Alpha was 0,879, a high confiability value. Participated N = 119 Paraguayan students, 82 women and 37 men, single, mostly employed, between 17 and 68 years of age, of diverse careers, 31 enrolled in public universities and 88 in private. Only 45 (38%) are regular students, 48 (40%) are irregular with abandonment risk, and 26 (22%) have left the career. Among the factors that cause the desertion are the incompatibility between work and study due to the demand for time, presenting the economic cause as a probable determinant of forced dropout. Personal reasons, vocational, motivational, relative to career expectations are associated with the likelihood of dropout. The quality of the courses, their relationship applied to the work, the pedagogy taught, the university environment and the services of the university to solve problems in the process of course, would also have a specific weight. It is recommended to shorten the instrument, improve the validation mechanisms, expand the sample in sex, public and private institutions, degree of difficulty of the careers and assistance.