ESTUDANTES DO ENSINO SUPERIOR IGUALDADES VERSUS DIFERENÇAS

Abstract

By looking at the current students of Polytechnic Institutes, one can notice that, regardless of their social background, students’ behaviours/realities? converge and diverge in various dimensions, such as age, attitudes, choices, motivations, info-exclusion, among others. Polytechnic institutes offer several courses from different areas in different types of study cycles, such as Higher Vocational Technical Courses (CTeSP) (2 curricular years), Bachelor’s degree programmes (3 curricular years) and Master’s degree programmes (2 curricular years). This study focuses on some of the courses offered by the School of Technology and Management (ESTIG) of the Polytechnic Institute of Beja, namely the Web Technologies and Mobile Devices course (CTeSP), the Computer Networks and Information Systems course, Computer Engineering (Ba), based on the digital competences; Attorneyship (Ba, face-to-face), Attorneyship (Ba, e-learning), due to the difference in teaching methodology; finally the Master’s in Health and Safety at Work, and the Master’s in Computer Security Engineering, based on their working time. This paper will focus on students’ choices considering two of these levels of study, namely CTeSP courses and the Bachelor’s Degree programmes. For the three levels indicated, the following elements will be analysed: age, knowledge background, motivation, demotivation, and working methods. All of these variables are paramount in these students’ academic success, i.e., in the conclusion of each study cycle, the students’ ultimate goal.