PALOP Students in Portuguese Higher Education: From Access to Progression

Abstract

The access of the students from the Portuguese-speaking African countries (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa - PALOP) to Portuguese universities is made easy by the existence of cooperation agreements. As much as possible, students are placed in the institution and course they have applied to. Yet, there are some problems in their progress in higher education. In Portugal, their previous learning experience in another country involves challenges with different consequences. For some students, these challenges fulfill and stimulate their personal and social development, whereas other students find this negative experience marked by social, economic and emotional hardship. When there is a limited multicultural perspective, the adaptation to a new culture may be difficult, as it is inevitably linked to language proficiency, to understanding rules guiding behavior, and to adopting new values, attitudes and patterns of behavior. As far as students from these Portuguese-speaking African countries are concerned, their progress in higher educational is clearly made more difficult because of inadequate previous learning, limited proficiency in Portuguese, lack of support, difficult understanding of the subjects and difficult integration in the new community. Intervention in social skills and proficiency in Portuguese would probably ease their adaptation and integration in the welcoming society. As in other European countries, Portugal has an increasingly heterogeneous student population from the point of view of the ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity. In fact, this diversity should cause the country to pay closer attention to the issues considered in this context, in order to look for a more adequate answer.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v14i2.507