Postgraduate Thesis Completion in a Public University in Peru

The objective of this study was to determine the percentage relationship between defended research theses and the number of students admitted to the master's and doctoral programs of the Graduate School of the Faculty of Economic, Accounting, and Administrative Sciences at the National University of Cajamarca during the period 2012–2018. The research adopted a non-experimental, descriptive, and longitudinal design by tracking thesis defenses across annual admission cohorts. The unit of analysis consisted of all students admitted during the study period. Data were collected through documentary analysis using data collection forms based on institutional records from the Graduate School. The information was systematized and analyzed using descriptive statistics and the analytical-synthetic method. The results revealed an overall thesis defense rate of 13.26%, corresponding to 59 theses successfully defended out of a total of 445 admitted students. It is concluded that a considerable gap exists between the number of students admitted to graduate programs and those who ultimately obtain their degree. This situation may be associated with deficiencies in academic management, outdated research procedures, insufficient methodological guidance, limited individualized monitoring of thesis candidates, and the lack of qualitative information from both faculty members and students regarding the research process. Received: 11 February 2026 / Accepted: 22 June 2026 / Published: July 2026

Academic year · Data collection · Descriptive research · Descriptive statistics · Graduate students · Public university · Qualitative research · Educational Research and Science Teaching · Health and Medical Research Impacts · Scientific Research and Technology