Resumen de Preparing students for success in engineering degrees: a combined strategy between high school and university

Lorenzo Salas-Morera , Antonia Cejas Molina, José Luis Olivares Olmedilla, María Salud Climent Bellido, Laura García-Hernández

• A combined strategy for improving students’ recruitment, academic performance and retention rate during the last year ofhigh school and the first year of engineering programs, including Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering,Industrial Electronics Engineering and Software Engineering, was conducted in collaboration with high-school teachers,university teachers, and peer-mentors. The entire working group included four high-school teachers, eight universityteachers, four third-year university students, and sixty six last-year high-school students. During the first year of theexperience, the working group analyzed the main weaknesses of the students in terms of knowledge and skills needed fortheir entrance to engineering degrees. Specific activities were designed and put into practice. During the second year, amentoring and peer-mentoring strategy was established with the goal of giving students better information and advisingabout university services and resources as well as about the subjects of and strategies for studying. With this two-yearcombined strategy, the academic performance of freshmen was substantially improved, with significant differences incomparison with the students who did not participate in the project.