Hacia una metodología para el análisis de las trayctorias académicas del alumnado universitario

El caso de las carreras del ciclo largo de la Universidad de Murcia

Abstract

A great pressure from society itself and the labour market affects the university, in the interests
of obtaining quality degrees and diplomas that respond to the transformations of the environment.
Although all universities have information about the students enrolled in them, this is not unified,
therefore preventing a comparison of the evolution of the student body among the different
universities. The aim of this study is to answer critical questions regarding the evolution of higher
education at the Universidad de Murcia from 1980, in its global dimensions (offer and demand for
places, participation rates, performance, success, retention and desertion), and in more detailed
aspects, such as longitudinal analysis of academic performance of the student body, in relation to its
social origin. The methodology used centres on the analysis of the total universe and besides a
transverse view, contributes a longitudinal approach, since through the use of an integral system of
codification by cohorts, the continuous evolution of the student body is followed year by year, until
they leave the system with or without a university qualification. This approach constitutes an
innovative view, since it permits the total crossing of available information and shows us the
evolution of the student body and the flow of the system, with the possibility of multi-criterion
identification, as opposed to the perspective of cross section, which only gives us a still photograph
of the reality of the system.