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This study challenges the traditional binary view of student progression (retention versus dropout) by conceptualising academic trajectories as complex, quantised pathways. Utilising a 40-year longitudinal dataset from an Argentine…
Universities are widely expected to respond to technological transitions through rapid reconfiguration of programme demand and curricular supply. Using four decades of longitudinal administrative cohorts (1980-2019) from a large public…
This study extends the CAPIRE framework with a macro-shock module to analyse the impact of teacher strikes and inflation on student trajectories in engineering education. Using data from 1,343 students across 15 cohorts (2004-2019) in a…
Dropout in higher education is commonly analysed through observable academic events such as course failure or repetition. However, these event-based perspectives may obscure the underlying structural dynamics that shape student…
This study provides a causal validation of the dual-stressor hypothesis in a long-cycle engineering programme in Argentina, testing whether academic staff strikes (proximal shocks) and inflation (distal shocks) jointly shape student…
Engineering programmes, particularly in Latin America, are often governed by rigid curricula and strict regularity rules that are claimed to create a Regularity Trap for capable students. This study tests that causal hypothesis using the…
High dropout rates in engineering programmes are conventionally attributed to student deficits: lack of academic preparation or motivation. However, this view neglects the causal role of "normative friction": the complex system of…
University dropout remains a persistent challenge in higher education systems, yet causal evidence on the mechanisms triggering early disengagement is limited. This study estimates the causal effect of first-time academic failure on…
Curricula in long-cycle programmes are usually recorded in institutional databases as linear lists of courses, yet in practice they operate as directed graphs of prerequisite relationships that constrain student progression through complex…
The aim of this paper is to model the length of registration at university and its associated academic outcome for undergraduate students at the Pontificia Universidad Cat\'olica de Chile. Survival time is defined as the time until the end…
Progression and assessment rules are often treated as administrative details, yet they fundamentally shape who is allowed to remain in higher education, and on what terms. This article uses a calibrated agent-based model to examine how…
Student persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has long been a focus of educational research, with both quantitative and qualitative methods being used to investigate patterns and mechanisms of attrition.…
Universities often present the Common Basic Cycle (CBC) as a neutral levelling stage shared by several degree programmes. Using twenty years of longitudinal administrative records from a Faculty of Engineering and Exact Sciences, this study…
This study proposes a temporal modeling framework with a counterfactual policy-simulation layer for student dropout in higher education, using LMS engagement data and administrative withdrawal records. Dropout is operationalized as a…
Creating a study program for optimal academic completion is a complex assignment. Especially programs in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics field are known for extended completion time as well as high drop-out rates…
The transition from secondary to higher education represents a critical point in academic trajectories, particularly in programmes with a strong emphasis on basic sciences. Across different higher education systems, introductory Mathematics…
Each year, roughly 30% of first-year students at US baccalaureate institutions do not return for their second year and over $9 billion is spent educating these students. Yet, little quantitative research has analyzed the causes and possible…
Engineering degrees are often perceived as "hard", yet this hardness is usually discussed in terms of content difficulty or student weaknesses rather than as a structural property of the curriculum itself. Recent work on course-prerequisite…
Large-scale administrative data is a common input in early warning systems for college dropout in higher education. Still, the terminology and methodology vary significantly across existing studies, and the implications of different…
In contemporary educational systems, academic performance indicators play a central role in institutional evaluation and in the interpretation of student trajectories. However, under conditions of rapid technological change, the inferential…