Symbolic challenges of the university: students’ perspective on permanence

Abstract

This article is part of the discussions about social inclusion in public universities, specifically about university permanence. With the contributions of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological theory, we analyze the perceptions of students about their experiences related to university permanence, delving into the symbolic mechanisms present in student journeys at a federal public university. The methodology employed for the research used questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students enrolled in different periods and courses. The research results indicate that there is recognition of the relevance of financial aid to enable attendance, but students raise symbolic challenges that interfere with staying in the university. The symbolic dimension is present in the students’ accountability for their performance, related to the academic difficulties with the required cultural content and the teachers’ practices that little help students with greater gaps in academically profitable cultural capital. We consider that the data from the interviews, as well as the suggestions indicated by the students to improve permanence, reveal arguments present in the university field. Therefore, the presence of new agents enables changes in the disputes of the field, which presents symbolic limits conducting the proposal of social inclusion in an institution that tends to consecrate the relations of force in society.