Dropout and delayed student’s graduation: what the indicators and rankings leave out. The case of the Bioengineering Program at the U.N.S.J - Argentina

Abstract

In recent years, the quality of Higher Education has been increasingly evaluated and questioned. Indicators of desertion and delay, among others, have turned out to be a fundamental basis to ensure failure in relation to the efficiency of the System. This writing is structured around the following question: What do the indicators and rankings that evaluate institutional performance consider and leave out? The development is divided into 5 axes. The first introduces the demands that the University faces today. The second requires certain aspects related to the type of evaluation offered by these devices. The third one addresses the problem of desertion / delay, emphasizing the error of reducing them under quantitative and standardized criteria. The fourth, exposes some experiences that, from the Bioengineering Career of the U.N.S.J, account for the complexity of university social work. The fifth takes up the need to build a new form of evaluation. The critical reflection methodology was based on the bibliographic review of the subject and on the results of in-depth interviews held with students of the Degree in question. The objective is to encourage dialogue between universities, to achieve a comprehensive view of their functions.