Afinidad entre Intereses Profesionales y Carrera Elegida: Un Análisis de su Relación con la Deserción Universitaria Temprana

The compatibility between students' professional interests and their choice of career is an explanatory factor of growing interest for the understanding of the problem of dropout in higher education. Within the framework of the efforts of the Salesian Polytechnic University (UPS-Ecuador) aimed at developing strategies to increase student retention, this paper aims to investigate the effect on early dropout of the affinity between professional interests and the career chosen by students. The measurement of professional interests was carried out through an instrument developed by UPS, the Professional Interests Questionnaire (CIPRO-UPS) based on John Krumboltz's theoretical approach to social learning for decision making. The data used correspond to students who participated in the UPS admissions and placement program to enter the undergraduate programs offered for the 2017-2018 academic period at the Quito campus. As part of the program, university applicants completed the CIPRO-UPS. Early desertion was determined based on the students who, having enrolled in the first level during the 2017-2018 period, did not remain in the selected career until the 2018-2018 period. To evaluate the relationship between early dropout and the professional-vocational affinity of the chosen career, a logistic regression model was formulated including a series of control variables conceptually associated with university dropout: age, gender, place of origin (province or not), family income, type of school (public, co-financed or private) and type of baccalaureate obtained by the students. In addition, a disaggregated analysis was carried out for the case of exact sciences and humanities and social sciences, with the aim of detecting differentiated effects of compatibility between the chosen career and professional interests on early dropout. The findings of this study allow for a better understanding of the way in which the selection of a career that does not match the student's professional preferences affects his or her probability of remaining in the university education process in the short term. It also explores the effect of other factors on this problem.