ANALYSIS OF THE “SUPPORT COURSES” CARRIED OUT BY THE PROFESSORSHIP “B” OF INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY TO OVERCOME REPITENCE AND DESERTION
The issue of repitence and desertion has became an important problem that has a high impact in our country due to the increment in the higher education enrollment and the growing entry of students of lower income and preparedness sectors to incorporate to university studies, becoming potentially more vulnerable. As was stated above, it is necessary to undertake tasks to reduce repitence and desertion and its impact to people and educational systems. That is why a support course was organized in order to prevent repitence and desertion, generating thus support at pedagogical level. The aim of this study is to compare and assess the academic performance in the exam dates of the students that have token the support course compared to those that did not. This study was carried out with two successive cohorts of students: years 2006 (n = 18 students) and 2007 (n = 23 students) and was destined for regular and non-regular students. 18 students finished the support course at the 2006 cohort. 17 (94.44%) of them were present at the November 6th 2006 and November 13th 2006 exam dates and 11 (61.11%) of them passed the exam. From those students that did not take the support course, 24 were present at the same exam dates and 8 (33.33%) of them passed the exam. 23 students finished the support course at the 2007 cohort. 21 (91.30%) of them were present at the November 2nd 2007 and February 8th 2008 exam dates and 13 (61.90%) of them passed the exam. From those students that did not take the support course, 9 were present at the same exam dates and 4 (44.44%) of them passed the exam. These results shows the advantage of the implementation of better pedagogical and didactic proposals achieving the goal of providing students solid bases, to deal with the higher level studies, strength the academic performance, reduce desertion and enhance the future professionals education. Keywords:desertion,repitence,supportcourse.