Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) of the Performance of Philippine Higher Education Institutions in the Electronics Engineering Licensure Examinations

Abstract

A significant indicator of quality in engineering education is the results of licensure examinations. Examination results as well as the performance results of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are made available through the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) website and other publications within a week that examinations are administered. Through the years PRC has in its databank an increasing accumulation of large data of examination results that need to be statistically and graphically summarized to unravel hidden patterns which could be significant basis for important decisions, strategies and plans. The objective of this paper is to give summary representations of the performance of HEIs in the Electronics Engineering Licensure examinations from the year 2012 to 2016. Results may be used as basis for strategic decisions such as but not limited to: evaluation or reformation of the monitoring of performance of HEIs in the licensure examinations, and the restructuring of accreditation requirements pertaining to the performance of HEIs in Electronics Engineering licensure examinations. This study made use of the descriptive research methodology using the data mining tasks which are: Data Preparation, Descriptive Data Modeling, Model Evaluation and Output Presentation. Results show that in all ten examinations from the year 2012-2016, the average passing rates of majority of HEIs are less than the national passing rates. Both the national passing rates and the average passing rates of HEIs have been fluctuating but mostly hovering between 30 to 40% over the ten examinations. Moreover, the most frequent occurring passing rate of HEIs with less than 25 takers is 0%. There is then a need to monitor and investigate HEIs with less than 25 takers to probe on the causes of low passing rates.