University Degree Completion as an Indicator of Effective Institutional Quality Management in Higher Education

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the characteristics of the universities and the university students that could explain the timely and effective graduation of the students of a cohort. The research studies the retention and university degree completion rates as universal concepts, for which it is used the experience of Chile. For this purpose, the study is focused on university bachelor’s degrees through a longitudinal follow-up of nine years (2011–2020) of an entering cohort. The materials and methods used are based on a quantitative correlational analysis of true cohort completion rates. The analysis is conducted with an R software in its RStudio interface. The main results are that only 16% of students complete their bachelor’s degree during the formal duration, and approximately 54% if analyzed up to three years later. Furthermore, alarming figures are presented, in which many of the current study programs do not surpass 30% of effective degree completion during the period studied. The same results can be found in evening or distance programs. It is argued that these results must be considered in the particular Chilean context since this country is one of the Latin American countries belonging to OECD that spend the most on higher education. In this sense, higher education institutions must question where to invest in the formative processes. It is concluded that it is crucial to enhance the public debate on tertiary education effectiveness and question the real impact of tuition-free education as state policy.