University dropout is a problem that has raised great concern in institutions of higher education. For this reason, academic institutions need to study the phenomenon and come up with alternatives that contribute to the improvement of students’ individual commitments. The aim is to examine the dimensions influencing the decision of university students to drop out. A quantitative approach study was carried out, based on a cross-sectional exploratory-descriptive field design, in which 372 students participated. According to the participants, one of the dimensions that influence the decision to leave the university is the support of the institutions to the continuity of the motivation processes to the student body, since the easy access to the credits is greater than the scholarships granted, which coincides with the financing restrictions of university students in developing countries. In conclusion, it is observed that the communication between managers, teachers, and students is a key factor in the processes of academic retention as a strategy to combat the phenomenon of university desertion.

Higher education institutions must generate added value through the continuous improvement of services offered to the academic community. Students’ needs and expectations must be met to increase their satisfaction within the system. Bearing this in mind, this paper proposes a service quality assessment model for higher education institutions in developing countries. In total, 845 questionnaires were self-administered by university students. The instrument was composed of 119 closed questions. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to create the proposed model. An 18-component model resulted from the data analysis, with an emphasis on academic aspects, infrastructure, web services, wellbeing, and financial procedures. It is expected that higher education institutions in other developing countries may validate, replicate, and adapt this model to their needs.

El estudio tuvo como objetivo realizar un análisis comparativo de la malla curricular de Instituciones de Educación Superior que ofrecen programas de tecnología de mercadeo. Para esto, se hizo una revisión de los planteles educativos que ofrecían el programa, según el sistema de información del Ministerio de Educación Nacional de Colombia, resultando 8 universidades, a las cuales se les hizo una comparación del plan de estudio y una revisión bibliográfica para contemplar las asignaturas de interés; finalmente, se aplicó una encuesta a los docentes en esta área, arrojando como resultado una discrepancia sobre las asignaturas por área específica de formación, número de asignaturas, entre otras.

In recent years, the introduction of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) into several aspects of daily life has become more relevant, particularly in higher education. This phenomenon has resulted in a digital integration that involves the infrastructure of higher education institutions as well as the materials used in the teaching process. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the factors that determine usage intention of Virtual Learning Objects (VLOs) by college students in finance and accounting programs in the city of Medellín. This quantitative research employed 86 self-administered questionnaires that enabled us to identify a positive association between attitude toward usage, subjective norms, and the intention to employ this type of content as a learning strategy. In conclusion, models like this need to be developed to understand the acceptance of new technologies in learning processes from different perspectives, and even more so considering that most of the existing literature regarding the subject has been focused on qualitative studies.