Browsing by Author "Ahlfors, Dennis"

While the role of IT and computer science in the society is on the rise, interest in computer science education is also on the rise. Research covering study success and study paths is important for understanding both student needs and developing the educational programmes further. Using a data set covering student records from 2010 to 2020, this thesis aims to find key insights and base research in the topic of computer science study success and study paths in the University of Helsinki. Using novel visualizations and descriptive statistics this thesis builds a picture of the evolution of study paths and student success during a 10-year timeframe, providing much needed contextual information to be used as inspiration for future focused research into the phenomena discovered. The visualizations combined with statistical results show that certain student groups seem to have better study success and that there are differences in the study paths chosen by the student groups. It is also shown that the graduation rates from the Bachelor’s Programme in Computer Science are generally low, with some student groups showing higher than average graduation rates. Time from admission to graduation is longer than suggested and the sample study paths provided by the university are not generally followed, leading to the conclusion that the programme structure would need some assessment to better incorporate students with diverse academic backgrounds and differing personal study plans.