Abstract:

Between 2019 and 2020, Czech society overcame a regular decrease in the number of applicants for undergraduate programmes at universities, when the number of teenage potential applicants reached its minimum and began to grow again the following year. However, this fact did not alleviate the pressure on the rational spending of funds on tertiary education of the young generation. Such pressure naturally leads to a deeper monitoring of completion rate in the study. In this paper, we analyse the data of the time series from 2010, which contains data on students of full-time and distance learning programmes of the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics, Prague University of Economics and Business. We compare the duration of successful studies on quantitatively focused study programmes and on programmes with orientation on informatics. Another dimension of the comparison will be the comparison of full-time, distance and full-time study paid by students. In addition, another area of comparison will be performed to unsuccessful students - how long they studied before unsuccessful end of study.

The source of data was the university database, which was deployed in productive operation during 2009. This is why, we used data from 2010 and the following years, which provide complete information – i.e. entrance examination results as well as all relevant attributes characterizing both the applicant and the study programme to which he or she applied. The data are updated in our data warehouse once a year, always at the beginning of November. In this case, we worked with data from November 2021. Of course, students who were admitted in 2020 and 2021 have not yet completed their studies. Nevertheless, they are included in our research as students, and if they successfully complete their studies, they will only increase the "Completion Rate." We need to emphasize that all data in our data warehouse are anonymized in compliance with the requirements of Act no. 110/2019 of Coll. on the processing of personal data (GDPR). Data are processed, using analytical tools in the form of Microsoft Analysis Services and Microsoft Excel and the SPSS statistical system and, in some cases, the statistical tool "R".

For the purposes of this article, we have selected the following research questions:
- RQ1: How does the average time (median) of completed studies in informatics and quantitative study programs differ?
- RQ2: What is the average (median) study time for students who do not complete successful their studies?
- RQ3: How does the type of study (full-time or distance paid from public sources, full-time self-paying) influence the time to degree?

The results of the analysis show that the total completion rate is between 75.50% and 40.29%. The average length of successful study ranges from 5.69 semesters to 4.58 semesters in a program where students are self-paying. The median duration of successful study is then from 4 to 6 semesters. Unsuccessful students, on the other hand, study from 2,673 semesters to 3.90 semesters. The median of this quantity is then from 2 to 3 semesters. Study pay by students has a significant impact on shortening the length of study.

Keywords:

Time to degree, completition rate, study programmes.