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Complementary Admission Processes Implemented by Ecuadorian Public Universities Promote Equal Opportunities in Access: An Analysis Through Knowledge Discovery in Databases

Abstract:

In Ecuador, since 2012, the admission process to public third level education has been regulated through an admission test called “Ser Bachiller”. Starting on 2019, the National Leveling and Admission System (SNNA), through an update of its policies allowed public universities to create their own complementary admission processes. Therefore, the evaluation’s grade stopped being the only resource to apply to an undergraduate program at a public Ecuadorian university. Under this frame, Universidad Nacional de Chimborazo (UNACH), implemented the “UNACH Complementary Admission Process”, which exhaustively assesses the academic record of students’ secondary education as well as the affirmative actions reported on their application. Through the use of knowledge discovery in databases (KDD), Unach generated an improved methodology that specifies the Educational Data Mining (EMD) in one of its sub-processes, establishing the Educational KDD methodology. As a result, once the student data was collected, a data warehouse (DW) was obtained. Additionally, through EDM and Bayesian networks, patterns and trends were identified in order to provide information and knowledge of the relationship between the admission process and the socio-economic and vulnerability conditions of the applicants, their ethnicity, disabilities and academic performance. In parallel, pertinent and valuable information was generated through business intelligence reports so that UNACH can make decisions that guarantee equal opportunities in the access to its undergraduate programs.