Analysis of elective courses selection in post-Bologna programmes

Abstract

One of the most important results of the Bologna reform at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science at the University of Ljubljana is a much larger number of elective courses. The elective courses of the academic study programme were grouped into modules while the professional study programme permits selection of individual elective courses under minor restrictions. Both approaches fulfilled the reform requirements. However, the academic study programme is more rigid and thus easier to carry out than the professional one but students prefer the flexibility of the latter. In this paper we analyze the actual data of elective course selection by students of both programs. First, we examine the link between different module selections to optimize the distribution of elective courses into modules. This examination is possible as a number of students, i.e., the most successful ones, were allowed to select courses regardless of modules. Second, we investigate whether some commonly selected groups of elective courses of the professional study programme could be identified in order to simplify the programme and its implementation. The results show some important improvements could be introduced.