The academic context of failing college students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the academic context of failing students enrolled in a Mexican public university. Information was available about 62,174 students enrolled in 77 undergraduate programs. The source of information was the Integral System of Institutional Information; the unit of analysis was the indicator of failure,in particular the failure of three or more subjects (N3); descriptive analyses were made. The results showed that the greatest proportion of students in condition of N3 lagging can be observed in programs that belong to the area of Engineering and Technology, followed by the area of Natural and Exact Sciences, and in the core curriculum that is taught during the first university year in diverse areas.