Sociodemographic characteristics of a group of first-year students in the bachelor’s degree in French, 2018-2021, University of Costa Rica

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the sociodemographic characteristics of first-year students of the bachelor’s degree in French at the University of Costa Rica, following the group from their entry into the first language course of the degree in 2018, until 2021, when the research period was concluded.
The study is based on sociodemographic perspectives in higher education, focusing on how the personal, social and economic contexts of students impact their university performance. Methodologically, the research is exploratory, based on quantitative data collected through structured surveys applied to 54 students.
The sociodemographic components identified were age, gender, geographic origin, uprooting from the family home, financial support and employment status at the beginning of the study, information on admission to the university and the degree, as well as factors that would hinder the completion of the study plan within the established deadline.
Finally, the information of the initial 54 people is compared with the 12 who graduated within the stipulated period and factors that would have favored this achievement are identified, among which would be the age of the people, having stable financing, academic integration and favorable family conditions. Likewise, among the reasons expressed by students who had not complied with the study plan were: need to work, failure to pass courses, and incompatibility of course schedules with work hours