Dificuldades e redes de apoio de estudantes de psicologia transferidos à Universidade Federal do Ceará

Abstract

The transference to federal public universities is a reality of many students of Brazilian higher education. The occupation of vacant places resulting from waiver by other students contributes to the formation of professionals with no extra cost to the government, and also benefits the whole society. Entering as a transferred student – different from being a freshman in the first semester where most are freshmen in the process of forming new bonds –, the student usually stops being part of a specific class and starts taking subjects in several classes, which can difficult the formation of bonds and support systems. As a result, the student ends up feeling helpless and vulnerable in the academic environment, which can lead to a series of consequences, such as difficulty in adapting, lack of feeling of belonging, feeling of exclusion and psychological suffering. Thus, this research aimed to identify and analyze the main difficulties related by Psychology students at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) who have been transferred from other Higher Education Institutions (IES), and their social support systems. Students transferred from other IES to the UFC who were regularly enrolled in Psychology graduation were invited to participate of this research. For data collect, an online form was used, and data analysis was performed using the Content Analysis technique. It was noticed that the main difficulties of the students are related to little information about bureaucratic processes and to the difficulty in forming bonds in the UFC. Psychological suffering was evidenced due to the feeling of rejection, helplessness and exclusion. The support systems, formed by parents, teachers, University employees, friends and other transferred students, deemed to be relevant, contributing to emotional support of the students, helping them to face the difficulties and sufferings of the transference to UFC. Social support is a variable of protection to the mental health of the students; it is considered important to build intervention planning and social integration strategies in order to provide a context of transference of positive experiences for the students, and a good adaptation to the University.