Predictores del rendimiento académico en las titulaciones de Administración y Dirección de Empresas: el efecto de la especialidad en bachillerato

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of high school specialty on academic performance, both in the first year of university and in the degree as a whole, for business related degrees. In order to study this effect, an analysis has been carried out, with data corresponding to seven different degrees and six cohorts of students, who entered the university between the academic years 2012- 2013 and 2017-2018, obtaining a final sample of 3412 students. Multiple linear regression models have been adjusted, using the adequate techniques to deal with heteroskedasticity produced by dropouts during the first year, as well as multicollinearity due to interactions. These models, in addition to the variable under study, incorporate as control variables those identified in the previous literature as key predictors of academic performance, and a Backward Stepwise Selection strategy has been used for variable selection. The results indicate that, in business related degrees, students from science specialty generally obtain better results during the first year than those who studied the specialty of humanities and social sciences. However, when the degree as a whole is analyzed, these differences disappear. Therefore, we conclude that high school specialty in sciences confers an advantage at the beginning of the university studies. It has also been confirmed that, in degrees with hardly any quantitative load, the effect of the specialty in high school is not a relevant variable to explain academic performance at the university, that is, results are similar regardless of the specialty of origin.