Josefina del Pilar Contreras Arellano; Héctor Paulo Sandoval Vidal & Luis Alberto González Osorio

Summary

Academic Performance is a multifactorial concept in which internal factors, such as the student’s personal characteristics, and external elements, such as the curricular design of each educational institution, come into play. The purpose of this essay was to improve the resources of educational support for students at risk of failure, in order to strengthen the quality of the professional training of dentists at Universidad de la Frontera, identifying key factors in Applicant’s Profiles that affect Academic Performance during the first three years of studies. Analytic quantitative observational study with Retrospective Cohort design, the population consisted of 222 Dentistry students of 2014, 2015, and 2016 cohorts. The analyzed variables were the scholastic aptitude test (PSU) average, NEM average, class ranking average, sex, Mapuche ethnicity, region of provenance, establishment of origin (according to type of establishment and educational regime) and income quintile. Results showed that PSU scores only affect the first semester of studies (p=0,000); NEM score presented a positive correlation in the fifth (p=0,002) and sixth semester (p=0,048); class ranking showed a positive correlation in fifth semester (p=0,005); sex differences were statistically significant from the third until the sixth semester (p=0,012; p=0,041; p=0,000; p=0,006 respectively); differences in the type of establishments are statistically significant in the first two semesters (p=0,009; p=0,020) and in the fourth (p=0,038) and fifth semesters (p=0,011); there exists statistically significant differences between Private Subsidized schools, and municipal schools in the area of Basic Sciences (p=0,010); the region of provenance, the income quintile and Mapuche ethnicity do not impact the RA. A p < 0,05 threshold for statistical significance.

KEY WORDS: academic performance, education, students, school dentistry.

How to cite this article

CONTRERAS, A. J. P.; SANDOVAL, V. H. P. & GONZÁLEZ, O. L. A. Relationships between applicant’s profile and academic performance, in curricular design morphofunction, School of Dentistry, Universidad de La Frontera. Int. J. Odontostomat., 14(3):417-423, 2020.