Some difficulties which are offered to students during their first year of university studies:

Choosing a career, a university or higher studies institute, beginning to build a life project… To make such an important decision it is necessary be aware of the variables implicated. In many cases, young people reach this stage with much more uncertainty than certainty.

To become a “university student” involves a high commitment and effort in the first year which set a trend and define the continuity or not of the studies.  

Several investigations show that approximately 40% of the students drop out or change careers during first year of university. What are the causes? There are various. Predictable in some cases, not in others. For example:

• Failure to adapt to university life.
• Difficulties in getting organized.
• Insufficient knowledge about the basic underlying concepts of the career chosen.
• Lack of the adequate learning strategies or tools: Study techniques – Use of reflexive thinking in problem solving – Critical reading of sources – Use of academic writing etc.
• Dissatisfaction with the career and/or university chosen due to personal interests, preferences and aptitudes.
  

The students who are studying away from their place of birth have to face additionally an adaptation process to a new country and to being away from friends and relatives.

Various foreign students, who are living or have lived the experience of studying in Argentina, agree in that this experience has made them grow in every aspect of their lives. Also, they coincide in that they would have preferred to have guidance in resolving some situations they encountered.  

Other aspects which are greatly valued by students are those related to the possibility of getting thorough information about careers and universities which are appropriate for their interests and aptitudes.  They also insist in the importance of having counseling when it comes to getting their academic life organized. All of these facts are ratified by data collected by universities.

These data also shows that the level of desertion or drop outs of a career decreases when students have people or institutions they can count on and who guide them during this process.

The beginning of university life is a crucial moment in the life of teenagers. Studying away from home is an experience which leads to personal growth. Counting with the greatest amount possible of guidance will allow the students to overcome this moment of their life with confidence.

Lic. Patricia Ducart
Director of Pedagogical Assistance and Academic Tutorship
pducart@estudiandoenargentina.com