FACTORS AFFECTING THE SUCCESS OF BACHELORS’ STUDY IN HARD SCIENCES: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ AND TEACHERS’ OPINIONS

Modern high-tech production requires highly qualified specialists. A freshman is often not ready enough to overcome the difficulties associated with mastering a degree in hard sciences. He may fail at some educational assignments, acquire some debts on the technical disciplines and, as a result, be expelled from the university. As a consequence, the state loses the resources invested in the training of budget student, and students, that pay for their education lose the money as well as the results of their study. Moreover, being expelled from the university is a psychological trauma and it affects the self-esteem of young people. Thus, the identification of factors that affect the success of study at university for undergraduate students and the development of pedagogical assistance in the development of the educational programme is an urgent task.

We conducted a survey of students and teachers to identify the factors that affect the success of mastering a bachelor degree in hard sciences and compared the results. The survey was aimed at identifying:
1) the difficulties encountered by students in mastering an educational program;
2) factors contributing to overcome these difficulties.

The study was conducted in March-May 2018 on the basis of the Polytechnic Institute of the South Ural State University. A questionnaire method was used, supplemented by interviews with students and teachers.

The study involved full-time students from the 1st to the 3rd years of study for a specialist degree (n = 223 people) and teachers of the Polytechnic Institute (n = 116 people). The questionnaire made both teachers and students reflect on the pedagogical, personal and socio-economic factors potentially affecting the study success.

To determine the level of significance of the factors ranged by the respondents we compared the views of students with different academic achievements and teachers who have different pedagogical experience in hard sciences. The results of the analysis made it possible to formulate the measures of organizational, managerial and pedagogical character aimed at increasing the success of the bachelor's study, depending on the key factors that cause difficulties in mastering the educational program.