This study aimed to investigate the factors that led to the desertion of new students in 2005 from the undergraduate Physical Education program at the Federal University of Piauí. Initially, we used information (name, phone contact, time of desertion and address) provided by the coordination of the program of about 66 freshmen of the year 2005. Other data, personal and academic, were collected through questionnaires to graduates in optimal time and to students who declared themselves as dropouts. The sample consisted of 10 graduates and 11 dropouts. The empirical research was conducted between August and November 2010. The survey results showed that the factors responsible for student desertion were: lack of information about the program, dissatisfaction with the profession, immaturity in choosing the program, little interaction with the program, and simultaneity of two programs. There are three distinct situations that surround the process of student desertion. The first is characterized by the abandonment of the Physical Education program in order to complete a second program the student has already started and the second is the abandonment of the program to start another, and in the third situation students simple abandon higher education. It was concluded that the main reason students of the group evaluated drop out of the program is the wrong and hurried choice they made.
Higher education; Attrition; Physical Education
