APPLYING DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN UNIVERSITIES: STRUCTURING AND MODELLING SUMMER COURSES

One of the main problems of universities is student desertion. This problem delays and inhibits the formation of professionals, therefore weakens the productive and social structure. Consequently, the deceleration or decrease in the rate of graduates of Universities is understood as a threat to the development of the region of influence of these institutions.

In this work, we study the factors that affect the academic performance of students. The results are diverse, there are social, environmental, psychological and economic factors. The acquisition, validation and dynamic presentation of data through Business Intelligence platforms has allowed the recognition of negative patterns or groups at risk, which are subjected to the cycle of decision analysis in order to increase the education quality and optimize the use of academic resources.

We present an analysis based on decision making for the planning of summer courses, with the objective of increasing the offer of teaching cycles in the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Lomas de Zamora in Argentina. It contains the structuring of the problem, the modelling of preferences, the optimization of the decision and the subsequent sensitivity analysis using two software packages for the evaluation of alternatives. The results have a direct impact on the pedagogical aspects of students and economics of the academic institution.