Non-traditional students in Higher Education Institutions: searching solutions to improve academic success

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Non-traditional access to higher education – an evolution in Portugal

Publication . Bago, Joana; Santos, Lucilia; Fonseca, Henrique; Almeida, António Fragoso de; Gonçalves, Teresa; Ribeiro, Carlos Miguel; Quintas, Helena; Monteiro, Rute

In Portugal the access to Higher Education (HE), comprising Universities and Polytechnic institutions, can be achieved by several dedicated “doors”. Besides the “National Admission Process” that accounts for the largest number of candidacies and vacancies and constitutes the regular pathway, there are a number of other processes, such as particular admission processes and special regimes, created as a result of the effort to open Higher Education to more and different publics. Gateways have been built based on the profiles at entrance, identifying, in particular, Non-Traditional Students, in particular older than 23 years that have now a dedicated via on the “Special Admission to HE” (SAHE) that has it set of vacancies established on a yearly basis by each university, and targets candidates (M23 regime). As a case study, this work pretends to bring up the major changes between past and present protocols of the SAHE, i.e., “ad-hoc examinations” and the actual M23 regime.

2012Conference object

Open Access

Promoting success for non-traditional students in Portugal – a preliminary diagnosis

Publication . Bago, Joana; Fonseca, Henrique; Santos, Lucilia; Gonçalves, Teresa; Almeida, António Fragoso de; Ribeiro, Carlos Miguel; Monteiro, Rute; Quintas, Helena

The access to Higher Education for mature students older than 23 in Portugal was made easier on the sequence of the implementation of the Bologna processes, that allowed a national Law to be changed in order to take also into account the eventual professional experience of the candidates. In this paper we will present a research project6 involving the universities of Algarve and Aveiro, which aims to study deeply the non-traditional student’s situation in order to create conditions for improving their academic success and reduce dropout. In this context we report the first (still superficial) results on the profile of these students, its time evolution and retention/dropout rates, with some considerations regarding those results.

2011Lecture

Open Access

Estudantes adultos no ensino superior: o que os motiva e o que os desafia no regresso à vida académica

Publication . Monteiro, Rute; Quintas, Helena; Gonçalves, Teresa; Ribeiro, Carlos Miguel; Almeida, António Fragoso de; Bago, Joana; Santos, Lucilia; Fonseca, Henrique

O presente artigo reporta-se a um estudo acerca de estudantes adultos que, por via do processo de ingresso dos "Maiores de 23", acederam às universidades portuguesas. Pretende analisar os principais problemas com que estas pessoas se debatem, sobretudo as que já têm uma idade mais avançada e que, na literatura da especialidade, são designados de mature students). Ponderadas razões pessoais e profissionais, estes estudantes tomaram a decisão de alcançar um grau académico, mas não estão em igualdade de circunstâncias com os colegas que ingressam no Ensino Superior pela via tradicional, com quem não partilham as mesmas motivações e interesses. Algumas limitações que a idade coloca exigem um ajustamento constante entre a efetiva capacidade de realização e as exigências do mundo universitário, experimentando uma pressão para o sucesso que a vida pessoal e, muitas vezes, profissional impõem. Foram realizadas entrevistas biográficas a 5 sujeitos com idades mais avançadas (entre 45 e 60 anos), com o objetivo de compreender os desafios e as limitações com que se debatem, particularmente os adultos com mais idade, mas também conhecer as estratégias que utilizam para "sobreviver" e para alcançar o "sucesso" no meio universitário.

2014Journal article

Open Access

The transition of mature students to higher education: challenging traditional concepts?

Publication . Monteiro, Rute; Almeida, António Fragoso de; Gonçalves, Teresa; Ribeiro, Carlos Miguel; Quintas, Helena; Bago, Joana; Fonseca, Henrique; Santos, Lucilia

The Bologna Process, recently implemented in Portugal, has brought many changes to higher education institutions. One of these changes refers to a law that enables mature students (23 years and older) to gain special access to higher education, taking into account their professional experience and other biographical elements. The numbers of non-traditional students are therefore increasing in our country, making our academic population more diverse. We designed a research project to investigate the special circumstances of non-traditional students in our institutions and to provide recommendations that should improve their academic lives. In this article, we describe survey results, focus-group interviews and life histories and use them to understand the transition of mature students into higher education. Our results include interpretations of the factors that students view as barriers to their participation in higher education, the importance of peer support, and reflections on life histories that provide greater insight into the transitional process. Although several barriers were identified by mature students, there is also a positive impact from transition. It is clear that transition today is no longer punctual or linear either in time or space. We should therefore challenge traditional views of the transition concept, in which students are considered to be a problem to higher education institutions, because this diverts attention away from the responsibilities of those institutions towards facilitating change.

2013Journal article

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Estudantes não-tradicionais no ensino superior: procurar soluções para melhorar o sucesso académico

Publication . Almeida, António Fragoso de; Quintas, Helena; Monteiro, Rute; Ribeiro, Miguel; Gonçalves, Teresa; Fonseca, Henrique; Santos, Lucilia; Bago, Joana

A avaliação de capacidade para frequência do Ensino Superior dos maiores de 23 anos veio trazer para as universidades portuguesas um grande número de estudantes não-tradicionais. Conhecer a sua realidade social, económica e cultural, as suas maiores dificuldades e obstáculos que enfrentam na estrutura universitária, é condição necessária.

2010Other

Open Access