Longitudinal rates of completion, drop-out and leave of absence: method for analyzing the student trajectory in higher education

Faced with the need to know the reality of higher education institutions, a multiplicity of academic indexes was developed with different methodologies. However, there is a scarcity of methods that describe in detail the trajectory of students with multiple enrollment periods. The data analyzed in a longitudinal way has the potential to demonstrate more the reality of the university, although it is laborious to calculate. In this sense, this article aims to systematize and apply a methodology to analyze the longitudinal trajectory of the students with respect to completion, drop-out and leave of absence, according to the year of entry and the term of completion of the courses over 10 years (2008 to 2017). To this end, some flow methodologies have been adapted, dividing the classes by year of entry, and standardizing the period of completion. The results allow to analyze the trajectory of the students in the minimum and maximum period of completion, as well as to compare the values with rates already published, allowing greater knowledge of the reality, providing more adequate instruments to guide the planning of institutional development policies.

Keywords:
Method; Academic indicators; Completion term