UDLA recognizes the need to prepare lifelong learners who develop knowledge and skills in classroom settings and deepen learning through experiences beyond those walls, as well as communicate and collaborate across cultures in an increasingly competitive world. For these reasons, assessment is essential to guide, empower, and integrate student learning. Assessment is not an isolated activity or merely the evaluation of student work, but a means to encourage active engagement in learning, especially through reflection, and a tool to measure the effectiveness of the university’s programs, curricula, and teaching-learning processes. Thus, the principal objective of assessment is to support the learning process of each student and stimulate meaningful learning, academic achievement, and personal growth, aligned with established institutional and program learning outcomes.
UDLA’s institutional learning outcomes form both the foundation for all teaching and learning activities and the framework for initiatives that contribute to students’ overall development. These outcomes are linked to the university’s mission of forming “capable, enterprising individuals with an international perspective and a firm commitment to society, based on ethical principles and values,” as well as to the core competencies specified by WSCUC and other transversal learning outcomes.
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Demonstrates the ability to evaluate claims and make decisions based on evidence, logical reasoning, and accurate estimations, enabling the development of goals, arguments, and effective actions to achieve a defined purpose. | ![]() |
Develops problem-solving proposals through creative thinking, using analogies, heuristics, and the ability to manage projects effectively. |
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Integrates principles from the learning sciences, leadership, emotional intelligence, and human behavior to engage effectively within social systems and achieve individual and team goals, while actively challenging conformity. | ![]() |
Integrates systems thinking and ethical, personal, and professional principles to participate responsibly and with self-regulation across diverse environments. |
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Communicates ideas clearly and effectively through critical analysis of communication, using strategies that incorporate appropriate sources and adapt to the context and audience. |
UDLA implements an assessment cycle approach to capture evidence of student learning and drive continuous improvement systematically. The following key components support this process:
Assessment Cycle. Adapted from Driscoll & Wood, 2007.
Demographic Data - provides information about student enrollment disaggregated by gender and ethnicity, offering insight into the diversity of the university’s student population.
Student Completion - provides information about retention and graduation rates through the 2021–2022 academic year, based on cohorts of new, first-time students who entered each respective year's fall semester. These calculations exclude incoming transfer students. Specifically, retention rates are measured at one-year and two-year intervals.
In addition, graduation rates are calculated at 5-year, 6-year, and 7.5-year intervals. Gender-specific graduation percentages are based solely on those who completed their degrees, not on the original composition of each cohort.
Scholarship Information - provides information about student financial support, with data disaggregated by the type of scholarship awarded.
Geographic Data - provides information about the geographic composition of the student body, based on students’ place of origin.
Additional Demographic Data - provides information about students’ marital status, disability status, and first-generation college attendance.