Research Skills and Degree Completion Efficiency: A Diagnosis of the Obstacles to Graduation by Thesis

Abstract : The expansion in the number of options for obtaining a professional degree at Mexican universities has not translated into an improvement in students’ scientific output. On the contrary, indicators show a gradual decline in the choice of the thesis over standardized examinations, amid an ongoing debate about the usefulness of degree-qualifying projects given the lengthening of graduation times and the delayed entry into the labor market. This article analyzes the socioeconomic, personal, pedagogical, and methodological problems that students of the Bachelor’s program in Communication and Media at the Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit (UAN) face when developing their thesis. Using a quantitative approach and a descriptive cross-sectional design, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 78 eighth-semester students. The results reveal a contradiction: although the curriculum includes five consecutive research courses, 71.7% of the student body prefers to graduate through the EGEL-CENEVAL examination because they regard it as a faster process. Meanwhile, the 17.8% who consider writing a thesis face long working hours (91%), a lack of accessible advising (73.1%), and a theory-based form of teaching that does not translate into practical scientific-writing skills. It is concluded that the lag stems from factors related to pedagogical and institutional support; therefore, restructuring the research courses into production-workshop formats is proposed.