Biological Sciences students’ aspirations and frustrations

Entering the academic environment is characterized by challenging paths, where a special moment is idealized in which the individual will study what he or she has been called to do. In addition, expectations are created about yet another life project to be embarked upon, i.e. an optimum balance between studies and personal routine, obtaining internships for professional qualifications, an adequate study structure, among others. When faced with reality, the initial idealizations begin to be shattered to the detriment of the existing difficulties experienced by the students. Discovering the reality of university is one of the factors that most students have already gone through. We therefore set out to investigate the motivations and frustrations of students on the undergraduate Biological Sciences course at CCEN/UFPB. The profile of 136 students was then surveyed using a questionnaire, the data for which was collected between March and April 2017, thus comprising the 2016.2 period. The aspirations and disappointments of these students were then analyzed. These include the teachers’ lack of didactics, the frustration of a course, among others.