Comparative Analysis of Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting with ADASYN for Predicting Student Graduation Delay

Authors

  • Tubagus Ahmad Marzuqi Department of Information System, Krida Wacana Christian University, Indonesia
  • Marcel Department of Information System, Krida Wacana Christian University, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52436/1.jutif.2026.7.4.5487

Keywords:

ADASYN, Decision Tree, Gradient Boosting, Graduation Delay, Machine Learning, Random Forest

Abstract

The issue of graduation delay is one of the common issue in higher education institutions. This issue impacts the accreditation and reputation of study programs and the university. Delayed graduation increases the likelihood of student dropout, which remains a pressing concern many universities in Indonesia. The resulting consequences include a decline in institutional reputation and ranking, as well as reduced public trust in higher education standards. This research seeks to create a predictive model for delays in student graduation at University XYZ utilizing three machine learning techniques: Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting. The academic dataset displays a class imbalance, with a notably larger number of students graduating later than those graduating on time. To counter this issue, the Adaptive Synthetic Sampling (ADASYN) method was implemented. The findings indicate that Random Forest with ADASYN achieves the best performance, with an accuracy of 75.55%, precision of 82.15%, recall of 81.64%, and AUC of 82.96%. The most influential factors are GPA (IPK) and the number of course repetitions. The resulting model can serve as a foundation for an early warning system to support universities in implementing timely academic interventions for at-risk students.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

E. Purnamasari, D. P. Rini, and Sukemi, “Prediction of the Student Graduation’s Level using C4.5 Decision Tree Algorithm,” in 2019 International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (ICECOS), 2019, pp. 192–195. doi: 10.1109/ICECOS47637.2019.8984493.

T. A. Marzuqi, E. Kristiani, and Marcel, “Prediksi Mahasiswa Drop-Out Di Universitas XYZ,” Jurnal Teknologi Informasi dan Ilmu Komputer, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1345–1350, 2024, doi: 10.25126/jtiik.2024118689.

M. R. Al Fatah, A. A. Murtopo, and E. U. S. Utami, “Implementasi Algoritma K-Means untuk Pengelompokan Risiko Drop out Mahasiswa,” Riggs: Journal of Information Systems and Technology, vol. 4, no. 3, 2024, doi: 10.31004/riggs.v4i3.2374.

S. Mutrofin, A. M. Khalimi, E. Kurniawan, R. V. H. Ginardi, C. Fatichah, and Y. A. Sari, “Detection of Potentially Students Drop Out of College in Case of Missing Value Using C4.5,” in 2019 International Conference on Sustainable Engineering and Creative Computing (ICSECC), 2019, pp. 349–354. doi: 10.1109/ICSECC.2019.8907014.

F. L. Hanis, U. Khaira, and D. Arsa, “Klasifikasi Status Mahasiswa Berisiko Drop Out Menggunakan Decision Tree C5.0 dengan Seleksi Fitur,” Malcom: Journal of Information Technology and Computer Science, vol. 5, no. 4, 2024, doi: 10.57152/malcom.v5i4.2239.

D. Witteveen and P. Attewell, “Delayed Time-to-Degree and Post-college Earnings,” Res. High. Educ., vol. 62, no. 2, 2021, doi: 10.1007/s11162-019-09582-8.

C. Aina and G. Casalone, “Early labor market outcomes of university graduates: Does time to degree matter?,” Socioecon. Plann. Sci., vol. 71, 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.seps.2020.100822.

Á. Kocsis and G. Molnár, “Factors influencing academic performance and dropout rates in higher education,” Oxf. Rev. Educ., vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 414–432, 2025, doi: 10.1080/03054985.2024.2316616.

N. M. Khiem, H. Văn Tu, and N. H. Dung, “Predicting graduation grades using Machine Learning: A case study of Can Tho University students,” CTU Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, vol. 15, no. Special issue, pp. 83–92, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.22144/ctujoisd.2023.038.

T. L. Nguyen, H. T. Nguyen, N. H. Nguyen, D. L. Nguyen, T. T. D. Nguyen, and D. L. Le, “Factors affecting students’ career choice in economics majors in the COVID-19 post-pandemic period: A case study of a private university in Vietnam,” Journal of Innovation and Knowledge, vol. 8, no. 2, 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.jik.2023.100338.

R. Hasan, S. Palaniappan, A. R. A. Raziff, S. Mahmood, and K. U. Sarker, “Student Academic Performance Prediction by using Decision Tree Algorithm,” in 2018 4th International Conference on Computer and Information Sciences: Revolutionising Digital Landscape for Sustainable Smart Society, ICCOINS 2018 - Proceedings, 2018. doi: 10.1109/ICCOINS.2018.8510600.

Y. T. Samuel, J. J. Hutapea, and B. Jonathan, “Predicting the Timeliness of Student Graduation Using Decision Tree C4.5 Algorithm in Universitas Advent Indonesia,” in 2019 12th International Conference on Information & Communication Technology and System (ICTS), 2019, pp. 276–280. doi: 10.1109/ICTS.2019.8850948.

A. Solichin, “Comparison of Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes and K-Nearest Neighbors for Predicting Thesis Graduation,” in 2019 6th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics (EECSI), 2019, pp. 217–222. doi: 10.23919/EECSI48112.2019.8977081.

W. Tenpipat and K. Akkarajitsakul, “Student Dropout Prediction: A KMUTT Case Study,” in 2020 1st International Conference on Big Data Analytics and Practices, IBDAP 2020, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2020. doi: 10.1109/IBDAP50342.2020.9245457.

D. Andrade-Girón et al., “Predicting Student Dropout based on Machine Learning and Deep Learning: A Systematic Review,” EAI Endorsed Transactions on Scalable Information Systems, vol. 10, no. 5, 2023, doi: 10.4108/eetsis.3586.

A. Alfahid, “Algorithmic Prediction of Students On-Time Graduation from the University,” TEM Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, 2024, doi: 10.18421/TEM131-72.

L. G. R. Putra, D. D. Prasetya, and M. Mayadi, “Student Dropout Prediction Using Random Forest and XGBoost Method,” INTENSIF: Jurnal Ilmiah Penelitian dan Penerapan Teknologi Sistem Informasi, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 147–157, Feb. 2025, doi: 10.29407/intensif.v9i1.21191.

A. Villar and C. R. V. de Andrade, “Supervised machine learning algorithms for predicting student dropout and academic success: a comparative study,” Discover Artificial Intelligence, vol. 4, no. 1, 2024, doi: 10.1007/s44163-023-00079-z.

B. Carballo-Mendívil, A. R. Arellano-González, N. Ríos-Vázquez, and M. Lizardi-Duarte, “Predicting student dropout from day one: XGBoost-based early warning system using pre-enrollment data,” Applied Sciences, vol. 15, no. 16, p. 9202, 2025, doi: 10.3390/app15169202.

I. D. Ayulani, A. M. Yunawan, T. Prihutaminingsih, D. Sarwinda, G. Ardaneswari, and B. D. Handari, “Tree-Based Ensemble Methods and Their Applications for Predicting Studentsâ€TM Academic Performance,” Int. J. Adv. Sci. Eng. Inf. Technol., vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 919–927, May 2023, doi: 10.18517/ijaseit.13.3.16880.

A. F. Rozi, A. Wibowo, and B. Warsito, “Resampling Technique for Imbalanced Class Handling on Educational Dataset,” JUITA : Jurnal Informatika, vol. 11, no. 1, 2023, doi: 10.30595/juita.v11i1.15498.

A. A. Ab Rahim and N. Buniyamin, “Mitigating Imbalanced Classification Problems in Academic Performance with Resampling Methods,” Journal of Electrical & Electronic Systems Research, 2023, doi: 10.24191/jeesr.v23i1.006.

S. K. Sakpal Mamta and Sinha, “Comparing Smote and Adasyn for Detection of Credit Card Fraud,” in The Green Revolution: Building Sustainable Solutions, S. and R. S. Awasthi Kumud Kant and Srivastava, Ed., Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025, pp. 1757–1765. Accessed: Jan. 18, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-93444-5_124

R. Bakri, S. Alam, N. P. Astuti, and M. I. Bakhtiar, “Optimizing Machine Learning Models for Graduation on Time Prediction: A Comparative Study with Resampling and Hyperparameter Tuning,” Jurnal Online Informatika, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 270–285, Aug. 2025, doi: 10.15575/join.v10i2.1590.

A. Efendi, I. Fitri, and G. W. Nurcahyo, “Improving Student Graduation Timeliness Prediction Using SMOTE and Ensemble Learning with Stacking and GridSearchCV Optimization,” Data and Metadata, vol. 4, p. 917, Apr. 2025, doi: 10.56294/dm2025917.

M. A. Tariq, A. B. Sargano, M. A. Iftikhar, and Z. Habib, “Comparing Different Oversampling Methods in Predicting Multi-Class Educational Datasets Using Machine Learning Techniques,” Cybernetics and Information Technologies, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 199–212, 2023, doi: 10.2478/cait-2023-0044.

M. Beseiso, “Enhancing Student Success Prediction: A Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Technique,” TechTrends, vol. 69, no. 2, pp. 372–384, 2025, doi: 10.1007/s11528-025-01044-6.

M. N. K. Saunders, P. Lewis, and A. Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, vol. 3, no. 4. 2019. doi: 10.1108/qmr.2000.3.4.215.2.

M. Bellaj, A. Ben Dahmane, and L. Sefian, “Educational Data Mining: Employing Machine Learning Techniques and Hyperparameter Optimization to Improve Students’ Academic Performance,” International journal of online and biomedical engineering, vol. 20, no. 3, 2024, doi: 10.3991/ijoe.v20i03.46287.

S. G. A. Utami, H. Setiadi, and A. Rohmadi, “Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Algorithms with RFE-CV for Student Dropout Prediction,” Jurnal Teknik Informatika (Jutif), vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1319–1338, Jun. 2025, doi: 10.52436/1.jutif.2025.6.3.4695.

Additional Files

Published

2026-08-15

How to Cite

[1]
T. A. . Marzuqi and M. Marcel, “Comparative Analysis of Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting with ADASYN for Predicting Student Graduation Delay”, J. Tek. Inform. (JUTIF), vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 3334–3348, Aug. 2026.