Una Revisión Sistemática sobre el Problema del Abandono Académico Universitario

Abstract

Dropping out of university studies is not only an important quality criterion, but also a problem whose impact is felt by the students themselves, the family, educational institutions, and society in general. In relation to this problem, this paper presents a systematic review of the literature following the PRISMA method, with the aim of analysing studies that identify factors, characteristics or proposed explanatory models of the risk of dropping out of university studies. A search was conducted for records published in scientific journals between 2005 and 2022, consulting three electronic databases (SCOPUS, ERIC and WOS). In total, 27 pa pers that met the criteria for inclusion in the study were analysed. The results showed three ways of identifying study dropout: 1) the identification of individual characteristics or varia bles; 2) the identification of dropout risk factors; and 3) the identification of predictive models. With respect to the first, a multifactorial explanatory basis was found where variables such as self-confidence, academic commitment and motivation were found to be important in explaining dropout. In the second case, individual, academic, socio-economic, or institutional factors were found to explain dropout. In the last case, models focusing on the learning process, the learning environment, the socio-familial or contextual context were proposed to pre dict the intention to drop out. These results are relevant for planning actions to prevent university dropout.