Análise da evasão e da adaptação acadêmica no contexto da gestão universitária

Abstract

This thesis investigates university dropout rates in Brazilian public higher education, with an emphasis on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it has triggered in the academic adaptation processes of incoming students. It is assumed that, although access to university has expanded considerably in recent decades, retention remains one of the greatest challenges for public higher education institutions. Thus, it is argued that university dropout rates are a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has acquired an even greater dimension in the context of the pandemic. In the post-pandemic context, this process takes on even more challenging contours, given the worsening of social inequalities, the restructuring of economic dynamics, and the fragility of public retention policies. The investigation starts from the following research question: how does academic adaptation manifest itself indropout rates in the post-pandemic context? The general objective is to understand how academic adaptation manifests itself in dropout rates in the post-pandemic context. The research adopts a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory approach, consisting of three articulated studies that make up the main body of the thesis. The first two articles are based on semi-structured interviews with students of the Administration course at the Federal University of Ceará, analyzed with the support of the IRaMuTeQ software, through the techniques of Descending Hierarchical Classification (CHD) and Similarity Analysis. The first article addressed university adaptation and the second, dropout from higher education. The third article performs a documentary and statistical analysis of dropout rates in the Administration and Accounting courses at three public universities in the Northeast, highlighting the contradictions between access policies and the fragility of retention actions. Data analysis reveals that dropout rates are caused by the intersection of multiple factors, including: lack of career guidance, dissatisfaction with the chosen course, difficulties in adapting to the pace and academic demands, conflicts between study and work, precarious infrastructure and transportation, and a lack of institutional policies to welcome, listen to, and monitor students. These factors gain strength in a scenario marked by the legacy of the pandemic, which has aggravated social vulnerabilities, emotionally isolated students, and exposed the structural limitations of universities. The results indicate that dropout rates do not occur abruptly, but rather are configured as a progressive symbolic distancing, marked by feelings of inadequacy, frustration, and helplessness. The conclusion is that addressing dropout rates requires a redesign of institutional practices, with an emphasis on qualified listening, individualized monitoring, reformulation of curricula, flexibility of trajectories, and expansion of affirmative action policies. The thesis thus proposes an integrated and dialogical approach to permanence, capable of articulating pedagogical, social and subjective dimensions in confronting the mechanisms that produce university exclusion.