The Integration of Students from the Outskirts into the Physics Program: institutional reasons for dropout according to social background

Abstract: The lack of academic and social integration has been considered important to explain the institutional reasons for student dropout. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the integration of students of the Institute of Physics of UnB and their social background. An instrument based on the Tinto model was elaborated and applied to a representative sample of the student body (n = 160). Evidence indicates that: (1) among the freshmen, the occurrence of motivation for teaching is independent of the motivation for research; (2) we should suspect the belief that enjoying social life competes with academic success, since intellectually confident students are also those who report more regular and enjoyable social life with peers; (3) outskirt students tend to be less socially and academically integrated. Taken together, the results recommend a sensitive look at the unfolding of social differences on human relations in the Physics Institutes.