Fatores que influenciam o abandono no ensino superior e iniciativas para a sua prevenção: O olhar de estudantes

Abstract

School dropout in higher education has gained greater political and social relevance overthe last years and has become an object of reflection by the scientific community and the highereducation institutions (HEI). It is within this problem’s framework that this article lies. In it theresults of an exploratory study at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto (FEP) are reported,which involved students at risk of school dropout in the cycles of studies from 2010 to 2013 andthe 2013-2014 schoolyear. This was a qualitative research that aimed to characterize and understand the reasons/factors that lead students for dropping out their courses. The results indicate, in themajority of cases, that the economic and academic factors are the main reasons for students droppingout their courses. With regard to the support/institutional initiatives, the data refer to the insufficiencyof existing resources and, to a large extent, to the lack of the institutional awareness of thephenomenon.