The bar chart illustrates the status of graduation theses written by students in a British university from 1990 to 2010 with a 10-year interval.
Overall, the number of students who completed their dissertations, whether on time, late or after rewriting, increased over the period, while those who failed to submit decreased significantly. It is also notable that the majority of students completed their graduation thesis on time in all three presented years.
In 1990, 150 undergraduates finished their dissertation projects on time, after which this number rose considerably to 300 by the end of the period. Meaning that students in this university were most likely to submit their graduation theses within the due date. Similar changes were witnessed in the status of late completion but with a much lower rate. Its figure began at around 20 students, followed by a subsequent gradual increase to just south of 50 in the final year. Despite these increases, the late submission state was still noticeably lower than that of punctual completion.
By contrast, a declining trend was seen in the state of failing to write, which decreased dramatically from 50 students in 1990 to just approximately 10 students in 2010, rendering it as the smallest group by the end. The rewriting status was initially the lowest at just around 10 students, before fluctuating around 20 until the final year, hitting a high of about 25 in the year 2000. This change made it one of the smallest cohorts yet slightly higher than that of students failing to write their dissertations.