Identification of behavior patterns within graduated students and undergraduate modules at the Technical University of Cartagena, Spain

As a consequence of the governmental decision to adapt the Spanish graduate and post-graduate studies to converge to the 'European Higher Education Area', the goal of the so-called Bologna Process, committees of experts were set up at the Technical University of Cartagena, located south of Spain, to design the new curricula that would build up the restructured offer of courses. It was decided to provide as supporting material to these committees statistical information about the academic behaviour and results of the students in modules of the existing courses. In this paper the main aspects of this study are presented, discussing the set of variables selected to characterize modules and students. Information about the structure of variability between students on one hand and between modules on the other hand is presented, based on a principal component analysis. Finally patterns were identified among modules and among students using a cluster procedure. The influence of relevant factors like gender, course and marks obtained at the School Leaving certificate on the resulting groups composition was explored as well.