University Student Desertion Analysis using Agent-Based Modeling Approach

Abstract

Student dropout at universities is a worldwide phenomenon that exceeds a 40% rate of the students admitted to first semester. In Colombia, it exceeds 45%, an alerting rate that makes studies on the subject very important for Governments and universities considering that it has a huge social impact and affects the resources of the education area. Traditionally, studies are performed by statistical and mathematical methods and the Ministry of National Education acknowledges that they have been insufficient since they fail to explain the dropout behavior. Agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) has been considered a new way of doing science when managing social problems that are complex systems forcing an evolution simulation as a useful approach to develop this phenomenon.