Students’ Attitudes Towards Research and Dissertations in a Mexican Southeastern University

Résumé 0

Research conducted in universities has been devoted to the “All but Dissertation Syndrome” (ABD). Some interventions have been made to encourage students to write a dissertation, but the results have not had the expected results. The objective of this study conducted in a Mexican Southeastern University was to measure students’ attitude towards research in an indoors program. This study sought to assess if teachers and institutional conditions encourage research activities. These concepts were previously measured in a former study conducted in the online program of the same institution. This was a convergent mixed method study with a questionnaire variant and a non-probabilistic sample. This approach was used to understand the reasons why students refuse to write a dissertation. The instrument was designed to measure students’ attitudes towards research, their willingness to write a dissertation; their opinions about the institutional conditions. The findings suggest that the attitude towards research is low, professors do not conduct research and the tutoring they provide in this kind of activities is not adequate. It was also determined that the institutional conditions do not encourage research activities. Even if the students consider that these skills are important, they ignore the existence of research groups and they are not invited to participate in their projects. The evidence supports the notion that future research will have to confirm whether this problem persist in the other faculties of the institution. It should also be considered to encourage research training for the professors who teach methodology related subjects in the program.