ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES OF COLLEGE
STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITIES OF THE
SOUTH REGION OF BRAZIL
Cláudia Basso1, Dulce Penna Soares1,
Marucia Bardagi1,Maria do Céu Taveira2, &
Ana Isabel Mota2
1Federal
University of Santa Catarina (BRAZIL)
2University of Minho (PORTUGAL)
INTRODUCTION
 Despite that increase number of studies concerning higher
education institutions policies and its curriculum, there are
few studies focused on college students, specially about
how they experience and what they feel about their own
academic route (e.g., Joly, Santos, & Sisto, 2005).
 Although the Brazilian government´s investment in
education has increased in the last twenty years, there is
still a low percentage of young people who access the
university, and a high percentage of college dropouts,
specially students coming from rural areas (Silva Filho &
Lobo, 2012).
INTRODUCTION
 The way students experience the academic environment
and integrate themselves into higher education contexts is
an unique and complex process, characterized by the gap
between students´ characteristics and expectations and
the academic standards, structure and community
(Polydoro, Primi, Serpa, Zaroni & Pombal, 2001).
 Academic experiences can be defined by all the issues
directly or indirectly related with college students´
participation in graduation courses, and also with the
academic events lived before the enrolment in higher
education (Pachame, 2003).
THE PRESENT STUDY
MAIN GOALS
 Understand why college students decide to give up their
higher education universities;
 Understand which factors influence the decision of giving
up college courses;
 Contribute to prevent college dropout decisions.
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
 126 students from universities of southern region of Brazil.
 36 females (29.6%) and 90 males (71.4%).
 Aged 18 to 44 years old (µ=23.1±4.30).
 Attending courses in Agronomy (38.1%), Environment
engineering (11.1%), Agro-Business Technologies (23.8%) and
Business Administration (27%).
 From public (49.2%) and private (50.8%) higher education
institutions.
 Living in rural (32.5%) and urban (61.9%) areas.
METHOD
MEASURE
Academic Experiences Questionnaire (QVA-r) (Almeida, Soares, &
Ferreira, 1999; adapted by Granado (2004) and Santos, Noronha,
Amaro, & Villar (2005).
 Used to access student’s perception
experiences in higher education.
about
their
academic
 Five dimensions:
 Personal
 Interpersonal
 Career
 Study-Learning
 Institutional
 Reduced version was used with 55 items using a 5 points Likert scale.
RESULTS
 Higher positive correlations between Career and
Institutional dimensions (r= .44, p= .001).
 Negative
correlations
between
Career
Interpersonal dimensions (r= .29, p= .001).
and
RESULTS
 Significant differences between females and males (t
(124) = -2.08, p= .039), and between students from
public and private higher education institutions (t
(124) = -2.94, p= .004), in Study-Learning dimension.
 Significant differences between students living in
rural and urban areas in Personal dimension.
CONCLUSIONS
 The results obtained suggest that, in general, the participants of this
sample are satisfied with their professional choice, related with the
graduation course and the higher education institution they attend, felling
satisfied with their vocational perspectives and projects.
 The results offer important clues about personal aspects in academic
experience, related with the importance of fostering students’ selfconfidence, optimism, physical and psychological well-being, their ability
to deal with difficult situations, time management, among others.
 Students attending private higher education institutions show higher
satisfaction levels in Study dimension, which is an important information
about how employed students can manage their time and arrange study
and work.
CONCLUSIONS
 Students coming from rural areas seems to feel more optimistic
and self-confidence, being able to better deal with the academic
changes, especially in the end of their graduation courses, when
the professional future plan’s expectations becomes more intense.
 Positive academic experiences play an important role in the
decision to continue or give up the graduation course.
 As long as students are progressing in their graduation courses,
they start to have more practical experiences like internships, which
involves them deeper in their academic live and all issues related,
as well as they tend to feel more confident with their academic
choice and identify themselves with a professional role.
REFERENCES
Almeida, L. S., Soares, A. P., & Ferreira, J. A. (1999). Adaptação, rendimento e desenvolvimento dos
estudantes no Ensino Superior: Construção/validação do Questionário de Vivências Académicas
[Adaptation, performance and development of higher education students: Contruction/ Validations of the
Academic Experiences Questionnaire]. Braga: Centro de Estudos em Educação e Psicologia (CEEP).
Retrieved from http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/handle/1822/12082.
Granado, J. I. F. (2004). Vivência acadêmica de universitários brasileiros: estudo de validade e precisão do
QVA-R [Academic experience of Brazilian college students: Study of the validity and accuracy of QVAr]. Dissertação de Mestrado. Itatiba: Universidade São Francisco.
Joly, M. C., Santos, A. A. & Sisto, F. F. (Orgs.). (2005). Questões do cotidiano universitário. São Paulo: Casa
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CONTACT AUTHORS:
Cláudia Basso – [email protected]
Dulce Penna Soares – [email protected]
Marucia Bardagi - [email protected]
LIOP (Laboratory Information and Career Guidance) – www.liop.ufsc.br
Maria do Céu Taveira - [email protected]
Ana Isabel Mota - [email protected]
Universidade do Minho - http://www.cipsi.uminho.pt/
Portuguese Association for the Development of Career http://www.apdc.eu/