A trajetória do evadido no Curso de Ciência da Computação da UFCG.

Abstract

Dropout rates are one of the biggest problems in Brazilian public higher education, representing a huge waste of resources and a major social loss. There are many studies on the causes and solutions to this problem, but little is known about the trajectories followed by these students after dropping out, to better understand the extent of these losses. In particular, for professions related to the area of Information Technology, which are not regulated in Brazil, a higher education degree is not required to enter the market, allowing people who did not complete their courses to be absorbed. In this context, this study aimed to map the trajectories followed by dropouts from the Computer Science course at the Federal University of Campina Grande, in order to verify to what extent the invested resources were actually wasted. A preliminary, quantitative analysis was presented, using the institution's database, identifying groups and their characteristics. Later, professional and academic data were collected from the social network Linkedin, adding information to the groups found. Based on the qualitative analysis of this information, the research showed that some students use the knowledge acquired in the course, either by taking on positions in the area of information technology or in other similar undergraduate courses. These results, in a way, demystify the idea that the resources allocated to students who drop out of an undergraduate course in Computer Science are completely lost.