New Perspectives in Science Education

The ineffectiveness of graduation systems in higher education is not an isolated problem in the long list of university work, to understand it we must refer to complementary processes such as access and permanence in the system. In this sense, access to higher education is an increasingly reduced possibility for the population at a general level due to the prevalence, in the Latin American and Caribbean region, of restrictive systems; if we add to this the drop-out and repetition rates, we can say that there is a great social capital that ends up excluded from that system called to be the proponent of social inclusion. Without detracting from the above, the problem is exacerbated because there is a significant number of students who, having completed their formative stage, do not meet the last of the academic requirements to receive their degree, "the so-called Graduation Thesis". Regarding it, as a probative mechanism and validator of what was learned in the development of the university curriculum can be said that it has failed, so in Ecuador to promote the graduation to thousands of young people, the Consejo de Educación Superior (CES), entity that regulates the action of higher education in that country, promoted in 2013 the implementation of Special Graduation Units in each institution of higher education (IES). In this article, the experience of the Salesian Polytechnic University is socialized in the process of implementation of its Special Graduation Unit (UTE), allowing young 'not graduates' to achieve their graduation as professionals. This work details the design and implementation of this Unit, as well as the analysis of the results obtained. It is concluded that 80% of students who, according to regulations, were able to take part in the Unit, reached their graduation, and that the most effective instrument to achieve this objective was the graduation exam.

Keywords: Special Graduation Unit, graduates, graduation, complex exam, graduation work.idad;