Success/Failure in Higher Education: how long does it take to complete critical 1st. year subjects?

Author(s):

Graça Leão FernandesMargarida Chagas Lopes

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 11A, Moving into Higher Education: Studies in Transitions

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-12

16:45-18:15

Room:

B2 213

Chair:

Jani Petri Ursin

Contribution

Success on academic performance at 1st cycle becomes even more important now that Bologna Chart is on the way for tertiary education. However University remains the least researched segment among individual scholar trajectories in Portugal, despite the high rates of retention and drop out during higher education 1st cycle attendance. Those rates are particularly high in the first year of the cycle. It seems therefore most pertinent to investigate the main factors affecting the transition from high school to university as well as the success\failure at the beginning of higher education. Therefore the main purpose of this paper consists in systematically assess semi-longitudinal data on individual trajectories retrieved from ISEG Pedagogic Observatory in order to approach the main determinants of success\failure at the beginning of 1st cycle as a dynamic and past dependent process.

Method

We took life cycle theories as the main theoretical framework. In this paper we are concerned with dynamic transitional processes instead of single turning points (as the transition into university) and intend to assess the interplay between processes usually taken as independent and rather static as the interaction between schooling, labour market insertion and own family raising, if so. Actually, success and failure are the outcome of dynamic and complex interacting features spread quite diversely along individual’s trajectories and whose effects impart along larger or shorter spells of time. Therefore, we apply duration models to data on individual life cycle trajectories. We measure (un)success in tertiary education by the time required to complete a bundle of three critical subjects previously established. The econometric adjustment will rely upon Cox Regression model.

Expected Outcomes

From previous case studies we are aware of the influence exerted upon individual school trajectories of a set of conventional determinants as individual characteristics, socio-economic status of the family of origin, own prior scholar performance, kind of study at high school (for upper secondary’s), as well as own situation towards employment, career requirements and raised family characteristics (for post-graduates). Nevertheless, as to our knowledge, no research of the kind has been developed for Portuguese undergraduate students trajectories, specially in their critical starting point, taking into consideration dynamic success factors. Therefore we expect to derive an useful insight into the determinants of success in the 1st cycle of Bologna Chart by analysing semi-longitudinal data obtained from one of the Portuguese higher education institutions (ISEG). We also expect that the outcomes from the current research will be useful for politics of education purposes by shedding light on the articulation between upper secondary and tertiary education, still a critical point among Portuguese students scholar trajectories.

References

• Ambrósio, T. et al (2006), Projecto Telos II – Aprendizagem ao Longo da Vida: Efeitos em Diplomados de Ensino Superior, POCTI/CED/46747/2002, Monte de Caparica, UIED-FCT/UNL; • Ammermüller, A. (2005), "Educational Opportunities and the Role of Institutions", Research Memoranda 004, Maastricht, ROA; • Belley, Ph. & Lochner, L. (2007), “The Changing Role of Family Income and Ability in Determining Education Achievement”, NBER Working Paper nº 13527; •Black, S. et al (2003), "Why the apple doesn’t fall far: understanding intergenerational transmission of human capital", American Economic Review 95(1), 437-449; • Box-Steffensmeier, J. & Christopher Zorn (1998), "Duration Models and Proportional Hazards in Political Science", Department.of Political Science, Ohio State University, Columbus; • Burgess, S., Gardiner, K. & Propper, C. (2001), "Growing up: School, family and area influences on adolescents’ later life chances", Casepaper 49, CASE, London, London School of Economics; • Chagas Lopes, M. & Medeiros, J. (2004), "School Failure and Intergenerational "Humam Capital" Transmision in Portugal", paper presented to the ECER 2004 Conference, University of Galos, Crete, 22-24 September; • Chagas Lopes, M. et al. (2005), Trajectórias Escolares, Inserção Profissional e e Desigualdades Laborais : uma análise de género, Lisbon, Portuguese Agency for Science and Technology (http://www.fct-mces.pt ); • Chagas Lopes, M. (2007), “Time to Complete a Post-graduation: some evidence on “school effect” upon ISCED 7 trajectories”, paper presented to the ECER 2007 Conference, University of Ghent, 19-21 September; • Chevalier, A., Parental Education and Child’s Education: a natural experiment, Bonn, IZA DP nº 1153. http://www.iza.org/index_html • CNE (2002), Sucesso e Insucesso no Ensino Superior Português, Lisbon, Conselho Nacional de Educação. • Direcção Geral do Ensino Superior (2005), Condições Sócio-Económicas dos Estudantes do Ensino Superior em Portugal, Lisbon, Ministry of Science and Tertiary Education; •Dolado, J. & Morales, E. (2007), “Which Factors Determine Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students in Economics ? Some Spanish Evidence”, Documento de Trabalho nº 23; • Garson, D. (2005), Statnotes: An Introduction to Multivariate Analysis, Statistic Solutions ( http://www.statisticssolutions.com ); • Grácio, S. & Sacuntala de Miranda, (1977), "Insucesso escolar e origem social: resultados de um inquérito-piloto", Lisbon, Análise Social, vol.XIII, 51. • Hassink, W. & Kiiver, H. (2007), “Age-dependent Effects of Socio-Economic Background on Educational Attainment – Evidence from Germany”, Tjalling C. Koopmans Research Institute, Discussion Paper nº 26; • Hillmert, S. & Jacob, M. (2004), "Social Inequalities in Education: in search of a life-course perspective", ISA Conference, Rio de Janeiro; • Hobcraft, J. (2000), "The roles of schooling and educational qualifications in the emergence of adult social exclusion", London, LSE Casepaper nº 43; • Kachigan, S. (1986), Statistical Analysis – An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Univariate & Multivariate Methods, New York, Radius Press; • Lawless, J. (1982), Statistical Models and Methods for Lifetime Data, New York, Wiley & Sons; • Leão Fernandes, G. et al (2004), ‘’Skill development patterns and their impact on reemployability: evidence for Portugal", TLM.NET Conference Managing Social Risks through Transitional Labour Markets, SISWO, University of Amsterdam; • Noyes, A. (2003), "School transfer and social relocation", International Studies in Sociology of Education, XIII (3); •OECD (2006), Reviews of National Policies for Education – Tertiary Education in Portugal: Examiners’ Report, Paris, OECD – Directorate for Education /Education Committee (06/12/2006); • Plug, E. (2002), "How do parents raise the educational attainment of future generations?", Bonn, IZA DP nº65; • Sá, C., Florax, R. & Rietveld, P. (2007), “Living arrangements and university decisions of Dutch young adults”, NIPE Working Paper 14, Braga, Universidade do Minho; • São Pedro, M. E. & Castanheira, C. (1987), A origem sócio-económica do aluno e o sucesso escolar, Lisbon, GEP/ministério da Educação; • Strauss, J., & Thomas, D. (1995), "Human resources: empirical modelling of household and family decisions", (J. R. Berhman and T.N. Srinavasan eds.) Handbook of Development Economics, Volume III, Amsterdam, North Holland.

Author Information

Graça Leão Fernandes

School of Economics and Management,Technical University of Lisbon

Mathematics

Lisboa

174

Margarida Chagas Lopes

SOCIUS (Research Center in Economic and Organizational Sociology)

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER.

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.