Factors contributing to desertion among students in the Managerial Sciences Institute at UNAD-CEAD

The investigation on academic drop at ECACEN shows the major elements at play in this problem, based mainly in the light of these factors: academic performance, family income, educational level, type of institution, and age.

UNAD as a higher education institution, and therefore UNAD’s School
of Administrative Sciences, Accounting, Economics and Business —
ECACEN CEAD Simon Bolívar, in the city of Cartagena, is no alien to
this phenomenon —statistics of desertion in the previous two years show the following: from the second quarter of 2007 to the first quarter 2008, the drop was 37% for terms 2008 I – II; in 2009, the drop was 29%, and for the second quarter of 2009, it was 24%.

To prevent students dropping out from the School of Administrative Sciences, Accounting, Economics and Business in the CEAD ECAC Simón Bolívar, in Cartagena, many strategies have been deployed, namely: visits to townships, detention sites, homes, implementing the Sponsor plan, mandatory appointments with the Counseling department, a plan for student cooperation, inter-institutional agreements for the free use of classrooms, continued availability of the computing classroom at CEAD, telephone e-mail communications available, online and web-based campus, university welfare events, motivational talks led by the counseling department and
cultural events.

All these strategies were put forward without the support of a formal and thorough investigation of the causes generating it.