In the ninth semester of her Graphic Design degree, Michelle Cardiel left her studies due to the lack of teachers for the only two subjects she had left and that she studied at Ciudad Universitaria (CU), located in the southeast of the city, outside the urban stain.
“In the last semester I had to take my bag for transportation to IADA (Institute of Architecture, Design and Art), since for my thesis class there were no teachers at CU, that was a problem since I worked and studied and I then had to travel from Las Torres to there, it was very complicated for me.”
Official figures from the 2023 Statistical Yearbook of the General Directorate of Academic Services, place Ciudad Universitaria as the one with the highest student dropout rate of all the campuses and institutes of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) with 10.90 percent of registration in that complex.
In comparison, among the schools, IADA is the least affected, with a 6.27 percent dropout rate, followed by the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (ICB), which has 7.56%, and then by the Institute of Social Sciences and Administration (ICSA), with 9.14 percent; the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IIT), with a 9.96, while the Nuevo Casas Grandes campus (NCG) 9.03 percent, and the Cuauhtémoc Multidisciplinary Division (DMC), which has a 7.63%.
The majors most affected by dropouts at CU have been Architecture with 27.61%, Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnician with 25.77%, Industrial and Systems Engineering with 16.09% and Graphic Design with 17.44%.
Lizbeth Álvarez is another Journalism student who left the university in October 2023, in her fifth semester, because she worked and struggled with transportation.
David Hernández Pérez, head of the Student Orientation and Welfare Coordination, stated that the reasons for dropout are multifactorial but the university has a program that seeks to reduce the rate.
“The reasons why students stop attending are multifactorial, this program seeks to ensure that they do not drop out due to academic situations, they are given advice to guide them and provide them with tools, in terms of their academic situation,” he commented.
He added: “Another factor is the distance, to be able to travel to Ciudad Universitaria, there are different Indiobús runs, there are established schedules at 8:00 in the morning, 12:00 in the noon, 4:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon. , to and from strategic points in the city.”
According to the experience of the students interviewed, the transportation schedules stipulated by CU do not correspond to day-to-day reality.
For example, there is a schedule of 8:00 in the morning that is supposed to run round trip as established by the academic, but in actual practice students do not have buses at the times stipulated by the university.
“The number one reason was because the schedules did not coincide with my work schedules, I was looking for some jobs that adapted to my school schedules, but it was almost impossible, and obviously if I found them they were very exploitative and poorly paid jobs,” Lizbeth narrated.
“Another reason was obviously transportation, it was very complicated for me to go to school from 7:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon and there was no bus, which for example was at 10:00 in the afternoon. tomorrow so I don’t have to wait so many hours for my classes that day, they don’t exist. We also fought a lot for the 2:00 p.m. bus on the Panamericana to exist,” he added.
“Even,” he added, “there were situations in which some drivers had complications, that they ran out of gas or broke down, and it caused me to arrive late to work on my return, claiming that we only notified our jobs, but in reality “It is not that simple for someone who studies and works.” (Cecilia Cadena / El Diario)
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