In the 1980s and 1990s, the higher education system in Portugal saw an upsurge in student numbers, whose features were a progressive democratisation of access to higher education and an increase in the inflow of women into higher education. This democratisation did not, however, signify a decrease in the social inequality which marked access to certain degrees, institutions and socially valued sub-systems in higher education in Portugal. Official statistics show high levels of retention, failure and dropping-out, with significant differences between universities and within each university.
This project sets out to accomplish four major aims. Firstly, to diagnose and systematise failure and drop-out rates in different institutions and disciplinary areas in higher education in Portugal. It will then proceed to analyse the factors which are directly or indirectly associated to academic failure and drop-out rates in the areas and institutions concerned. A further aim is to detect and explain possible patterns of failure and drop-out rates in the areas under consideration. Lastly, it seeks to identify priorities for action-taking of a preventive nature, and suggest action-lines.
To achieve these goals, three State institutions of higher education were chosen, with different historical trajectories, target-audiences, regional importance and institutional cultures. The institutions are Coimbra University, the Technical University of Lisbon, and the Higher Institute for Work and Business Sciences (ISCTE). The courses to be studied were combined in accordance with criteria of scientific and professional affinity and according to success and drop-out rates.
The project is based on qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Interviews will be carried out with institutional representatives of the various courses (pedagogic coordinators, student representatives), with students having achieved high academic success, with students having a history of failure, with workers in each disciplinary area under analysis. A survey will be carried out by means of a questionnaire to be distributed among the students of the courses selected, followed up by a telephone survey of students who have dropped out of higher education.
The ultimate goal is to put forward an explanatory model of academic success and drop-out rates in higher education in Portugal, and to outline strategies designed to reduce failure and drop-out rates, with a view to affording all students the opportunity successfully to complete their higher education studies.