Publish at October 05 2015 Updated May 09 2024
Persistent" students enrol several times in their first year of university. They either change stream, repeat a year, or simply wander from one faculty to another. They make up more than 20% of enrolees. 5% are enrolling for the third time or more!
Of course, most of these students change branches because of a career change or academic difficulties, but a certain number follow no logic whatsoever and seem rather content with the status of university student, without actually investing themselves in their studies.
Despite all the administrative hurdles created to discourage this attitude, many manage to meet the criteria while avoiding losing the advantages of the university experience: socialization, the possibility of pursuing several lives in parallel, the opportunity to "mature" sheltered from current economic responsibilities, and so on.
A veritable nightmare for administrations, these students remain discreet and question the purely pedagogical views of the university. For these students, academic failure does not necessarily mean failure in their personal or social life.
Vincent Enrico, Doctor of Education and author of the article "Les étudiants persistants: ceux qui prolongent leurs études en les désinvestissants", points out that:
"the massification of higher education has led to the arrival of 'new students', including, for example, the 'in spite of ourselves' of higher education". (...) The opposition between success and failure has led some students to place themselves in an in-between situation.
The university can also be seen as a milieu de vie, a rich social environment offering a variety of experiences, whose attendance can be stretched for no other reason. In many cases, the motivation for attending university lies in a logic other than the diploma, success or the acquisition of knowledge.
For these non-standard people, norms and standards don't mean much; pass or fail, courses make no difference to their condition. When you're looking for yourself, no one else can answer your questions.
What if, for the university, this were the first condition to be put in place with these people?
Illustration: Valery Sidelnykov - ShutterStock
Reference
Persistent students: those who prolong their studies by disinvesting in them.
Enrico Vincent - Fractal: Revista de psicologia, 2010, 22 (2)
https://www.scielo.br/j/fractal/a/j7CQjt3HcbrcFxRXVPRM5qx/?lang=fr
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