Forget the past: Students’ academic performances at FEUP’s Integrated Master in Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Knowing how academic performances of students evolve along their stay at University, and how those are conditioned by background, personal and institutional factors is fundamental to delineate policies towards excellence. This paper investigates possible correlations between six variables that characterize the academic performances over a period of five years of students admitted in 2016-2017 at the Integrated Master in Mechanical Engineering (MIEM) of FEUP. The analysis is performed considering all students at once and students organized in eight groups, giving their gender (Male/Female), type of secondary school they came from (Public/Private), living residence prior to university (Away/Home), and rank of MIEM on the University application forms (Option 1/Option 2-6). From the correlation analysis, a pattern emerges revealing that “the memory of the university application marks is progressively lost as time passes”. In other words, students with higher (lower) application marks tend to perform better (worse) in their first year. But, as time passes, the students’ performances evolve (getting better or worse) and, at the end of their fifth year at FEUP (no matter they concluded MIEM or not), the students’ performances are practically unrelated with their application marks. The pattern reveals the strength of FEUP/MIEM to take heterogeneous groups and give equal opportunities to all, no matter their past, thus fulfilling democratization and inclusiveness goals.