Factors influencing the satisfaction and persistence of university engineering students

This study has the aim to evaluate the factors that affect the satisfaction and persistence of higher education students. The study focused on factors such as tuition payments, academic tutoring, and faculty performance. The sample consisted of 280 students enrolled in the industrial and systems engineering program of a public state university in the state of Sonora-Mexico, who answered a 32 questions questionnaire that evaluates: tuition, tutoring, faculty, satisfaction, student persistence, and sociodemographic questions. An exploratory, confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation model were performed, the results of the model indicated that tuition, tutoring, and faculty have a significant and positive impact on satisfaction and, in turn, on student persistence. The performance of the academic staff is the most influential factor, followed by academic tutoring, and finally, support in tuition. Consequently, it is clear that those responsible for formulating strategies and policies in higher education institutions should redouble their efforts to implement actions that contribute to student retention, particularly in this period of virtual education due to the Covid-19 contingency.