IMPACT OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS' HABITS AND LIVING CONDITIONS IN THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AT THE UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

At Universidad Veracruzana, students in the undergraduate level are considered full-time students. The institution's Integral and Flexible Educational Model, called MEIF (Modelo Educativo Integral y Flexible), poses several challenges to students, especially when it comes to the schedules they have to meet in order to attend their courses. Due to the flexibility of the educational model itself, it is frequent that undergraduate students have to take one or two classes early in the morning, then another class at noon and then, in some cases, other classes in the evening. Such a schedule has a direct impact in the students' academic performance. Many of them have to leave home early in the morning and return late at night. Living conditions and study habits of students are affected. Surveys have been carried out to have a picture of the overall students' life conditions at the beginning of a scholar period (semester); then, the result in terms of the grades obtained by the students is presented in order to analize if there is a direct relationship between both facts. Surveys have been conducted in selected groups of Mechanical-Electrical Engineering students and Electronics and Communications Engineering students at the Facultad de Ingenieria Region Veracruz.