Academic experiences: adaptation of Civil Engineering students

Abstract

This study used the “Academic Experiences Questionnaire”, in version reduced (QVA-r), to investigate how students at a public university realize their integration and adaptation to the university environment. Participated in this study 98 (ninety-eight) civil engineering students, freshmen between 2018 and 2022. The application of the QVA-r was carried out online and remotely, through the Google Docs platform, on an individual and voluntary basis. In this study, we sought to explore correlations and differences between general variables, such as “VUNESP grade” (entrance exam) and “Academic Performance Coefficient”, and variables specific in each dimension of the QVA-r, which included gender (female and male) and the types of entry through the entrance exam (self-declared black quota participants, pardos and indigenous people (PPI) and/or from public schools). The results indicate that, in general, students are well adapted to the University, but the personal dimension, which corresponds to items related to physical and psychological stability, emotional stability, self-perception and self-confidence are harmed by others. From the specific analyses, it is clear differences due to the gender and race of students, with students self-declared black, pardos and indigenous people presented mean frequencies lower in the questionnaire (QVA-r). The data indicate that the University must pay attention to the difficulties that face adaptation and that new studies need to be carried out to enable a better understanding of the psychosocial aspects of students at different stages of the institution.