Factors associated to the educational lag of students of a higher education institution in Mexico

Abstract

This article analyzes the factors associated to the educational lag of university students. The Astin model served as a conceptual and methodological guide for the assessment of the factors. A mixed approach was used with a concurrent triangular design (Creswell and Plano, 2007), and a representative sample of 300 students of a higher education institution. A measure was prepared under the Nunally and Bernstein (1994) criteria for validity and reliability. The results indicate that the personal factors associated to educational lag are: gender, high school average, points obtained in the entrance examination of the university, as well as motivational aspects related to the chievement of the dimensions of the work and competency. Among the institutional factors related to the lag there are: curriculum; registration behavior and continuance in class; orientation and preoccupation of the university for the student, and the administrative aspect of the curriculum.