Permanency and abandonment in the university. Benchmarks and indicators

Abstract

Addressing the problema of university dropout means taking decisive actions by all involved in order to reduce and prevent it. The first difficulty in this sense, arises from the lack of adequate records and the generation of specific information that allow to identify correctly the magnitude of the phenomenon. This would allow that managerial of careers, deans, rectors, civil servants ministerial and involved in general, know what is what happens in order to implement concrete policies that allow to reduce the phenomenon, policies that include actions of monitoring and suppor. These actions of follow-up must incorporate a number of indicators that allow managers to take immediate action at the first alarm given by the difficulties that lead to subsequent abandonment, whenever the permanency is threatened by action or omission of the participants. But before the implementation of institutional and public policies it is necessary to apply a battery of indicators that allow to give in general real and concrete account of the situation in every career, in every institution and in the whole system of higher education. The paper proposes and discusses different indicators to be used in different areas.